Abstract:

This report was commissioned by the British Academy’s Africa Panel to examine the challenges facing African universities when undertaking collaborative research with UK and other international partners, particularly in the social sciences and humanities. It draws principally on a consultation undertaken by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) between February and March 2007, which invited African academics and staff development and research support managers to offer their views on North-South collaboration, and to explain the challenges, constraints and future priorities of such research partnerships. The consultation targeted particularly, but not exclusively, those involved in social science and humanities research. It did not set out to offer definitive conclusions, but rather to gather the thoughts of colleagues in African universities, to make some suggestions to UK and other funding agencies, and to serve as an agenda for further discussion. Findings are based on the responses of 90 academics and 62 members of university management and support staff in 72 African higher education institutions from 14 sub-Saharan countries. A follow-up to the report was published in 2009 as "The Nairobi Report".

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Harle, Jonathan (2007) Frameworks for Africa-UK Research Collaboration in the Social Sciences and Humanities. Report to The British Academy by The Association of Commonwealth Universities. pp.45.