1 - Enhancing the Digital Transformation of African Universities: Covid-19 as Accelerator

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has had negative effects on virtually every sector of the global economy and educational institutions have not been spared. This has inevitably led to the need for African think tanks to consider ways through which the continent’s unprecedented youth bulge could be the cog around which growth and competitiveness of the African economy could be achieved. The first section introduces the paper and highlights how Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have a key role to play towards ensuring the youth are adequately equipped with skills that are relevant to the twenty-first century’s digital transformation. The second section discusses the theories behind the mega trends of the twenty-first century by international agencies, consultancy firms, governments, academics, and pundits while the third section examines the digitalization of HEIs and cites various publications on higher education and its evolution in the digital era. The fourth section builds on the authors’ findings from previous sections to detail a twelve- point Digital Transformation Agenda for Africa. The fifth section highlights the technological infrastructure that is required to support Africa’s Digital Transformation Agenda and twenty-first century research and innovation before the authors draw conclusions.