Several countries have linked higher education to economic development with great success, including Finland and South Korea. Africa, where an upcoming study of university systems across eight countries has unearthed contradictory notions of the role of the university, could draw on international best practice to encourage more flexible, differentiated, networked and development-focused higher education systems better placed to support economic growth.

Preliminary findings from ongoing research into African higher education were presented at a seminar held at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and attended by leading international scholar Professor Manuel Castells. He was impressed, he said, by the rigour and relevance of the research and the "audacity" of many of its proposals.

The researchers said they found little evidence of national 'pacts' around higher education and development in African countries, limited coordination between "weak" government departments on funding university projects, too many projects undertaken by academics for "individual advancement" rather than academic worth, and vice-chancellors struggling to juggle competing notions of the role of universities, among other things.

The "Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa" study is part of the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (HERANA), coordinated by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET) in Cape Town and comprising research and communication projects, including the University World News Africa Edition.

The study is being led by Dr Pundy Pillay, an academic economist, Professor Peter Maassen of the University of Oslo, and CHET director Dr Nico Cloete. There are also three researchers, two research trainees and facilitators in eight African universities.

The research includes a literature review, case studies of systems in Finland, Korea and North Carolina, and macro and micro studies of higher education in eight African countries - Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.

"The literature has moved dramatically in recent years in accepting that higher education has a significant impact on economic growth through a range of factors. It supported the need for strong higher education systems in countries at all stages of development, not only when they reach a certain level of development", said Pillay. "The literature also revealed that higher education is a necessary but not sufficient factor for economic development."