Development policy and universities in Africa: towards a coordinated policy architecture and engagement practice in South Africa

Abstract

What is the policy architecture for the community engagement function in African higher education? How has policy acted as lever of change to establish more socially responsible, transformative and developmental relationships between universities and external constituencies? The preceding chapters have presented rich perspectives and debate on conceptions of community engagement as well as concrete cases of engagement with external communities and stakeholders with the aim of enhancing understanding of the developmental contributions made by universities in secondary cities in Africa. Against this background, this chapter seeks to analyse the policy and regulatory frameworks for higher education's contribution to development in general, and community engagement in particular, at the continental, national and institutional levels. At the African level, it discusses the pronouncements of the African Union's (AU's) Agenda 2063 and the AU's Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) on higher education-related development goals and community engagement (AUC, 2015; 2016). The chapter then considers how a particular AU member state, South Africa, has sought to steer university community engagement by means of national policy. The chapter then discusses current conceptions of the community engagement function at South African universities drawing on a recent study of the annual reports produced by the country's 26 public universities.