Abstract:
In 2008, higher education in the countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) stands at a critically important threshold of challenge and change. The research commissioned by the Southern African Regional Universities Association (SARUA) and published in this volume presents a sobering picture of Southern African higher education. The data point to a profusion of areas of weakness, deterioration, neglect and even identify a vacuum within the higher education systems of the SADC countries. In comparison with higher education systems in the developed world, in the rest of the developing world and in other parts of Africa (e.g. North Africa) there are few areas of strength. Yet this assessment of higher education in Southern Africa cannot stop here. It provides a foundation for a fresh appraisal of how higher education can play its appropriate role in the development of the SADC region and surfaces the data required by SADC governments and higher education institutions to revitalise the planning and funding of this critical sector.

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Piyushi Kotecha (2008). Revitalising Higher Education in the SADC Region.