Teferra, Damtew. (2003). Scientific Communication in African Universities: External Assistance and National Needs. Reviewed by Marc Cutright, Ohio University

	Teferra, Damtew. (2003). Scientific Communication in African Universities: External Assistance and National Needs. New York: RoutledgeFalmer. Pp. 170 $69.95 (Cloth)     ISBN 0-415-94530-5 Reviewed by Marc Cutright Ohio University November 3, 2004 It is difficult for those of us with Western mindsets and assumptions about institutionalized higher education to imagine the dire history, challenges, and resource deficiencies of tertiary education on the majority of the African continent. A thousand facts, figures, and anecdotes could be mentioned to illustrate, but a small selection of them suffices: The colonizers who departed much of Africa in the 1950s and ‘60s left little in the way higher education infrastructure or tradition. Congo gained independence without the residency of a single native-born engineer, lawyer, or doctor. The University of East Africa, serving three nations primarily and a population of 23 million, graduated only 99 students in 1961. (World Bank, 1991). Scarce resources available for investment in education have been concentrated in the primary and secondary sectors, to the disadvantage and deterioration of the tertiary sector. Ghana, considered among the more advanced of sub-Saharan African countries in terms of its interests and progress in improving tertiary education, appropriated less than US$19 million in 2000 for five universities and eight polytechnics, or less than $5 per capita for the nation (Effah, 2003). War, famine, and disease are larger facts of life in Africa than in any other large region of the planet, and higher education is hardly immune from their effects. The AIDS epidemic, for example, has struck higher education along with all of society. In some nations, HIV infection among tertiary undergraduates is 30% or more. Comparable rates of infection and mortality effect faculty and staff in some nations (World Bank, 2002). It is in this broad context of African higher education starting behind, and being hobbled in efforts to catch up, that Damtew Teferra has published his dissertation research in book form, Scientific Communication in African Universities: External Assistance and National Needs. Teferra, of Boston College and an Ethiopian, sought to address several questions in his research, but they are in summary: how do scientists in Africa communicate; how do they overcome the challenges to communication; and how can governments, institutions, foundations, and individuals improve scientific communication within the continent and with the rest of the scientific world? Africa as a whole has not been a major factor in world scientific production. The continent accounts for less than a half of a percent of the globe’s R&D expenditures, mainstream published research, or research-trained personnel. (p. 27, citing Gaillard & Waast, 1993). But the confluence of contemporary research and opinion (e.g., World Bank, 2000, 2002; Altbach & Peterson, 1999) holds that substantially strengthening tertiary education in the developing world, and scientific and technology education in particular, is essential to long-term global economic and social development. Teferra’s methodology has limitations that he readily and extensively acknowledges. His survey (included as an appendix) of African scientists was composed almost in its entirety of open-ended questions, a request of respondents almost certain to depress return rates. But “return rates” and “sample” are loosely applied terms, too, given that there is no authoritative directory or count of scientists in Africa; Teferra assembled those surveyed through trolling institutional websites—notoriously unreliable, low bandwith, undependable, and outdated in African universities—secondary referral, and other catch-as-catch-can means. The survey was administered largely by e-mail, given that personal contact, conventional mail, and telephone conversations were obviously impractical; e-mail itself is no panacea, given that many academics and scientists continue to work without reliable, confidential, and convenient Web access. The work can be discounted on these factors alone—except for the fact that Teferra’s work is simply the best that has ever been done on the subject, and so establishes an important base for further inquiry. The work is worthy of consideration on that fact, and as a reflection of the realities and opinions of the nearly 100 scientists who completed and returned the survey. Another important limitation is that Teferra’s work is confined almost completely to Anglophone African universities. While a smattering of surveys was returned from scholars at a single Lusophone university; scholars at Francophone universities completed not a single survey. But there is nothing in the literature, scant as it may be, to suggest that the challenges discussed in Teferra are any better in non-Anglophone universities than they are among the institutions analyzed. What emerges from this scholarship is largely a confirmation of and expansion upon circumstances that have been described in other works. For example, journal subscriptions are scarce, Africa-originated journals often suffer from the “volume-one-issue-one” syndrome (p. 57) of non-sustainability; and even electronic journal subscriptions lag due to limited technology and lack of knowledge of their availability. Genuine collaboration and mutual support are limited within universities, too often, by corruption, nepotism, authoritarianism, and tribalism (Mwiria, 2003); scholars often do not learn of international opportunities or fund availabilities because they are diverted from the top. Heavy teaching loads are common, and a detriment to research; this circumstance may ironically get worse as the expanding private university sector, with no research mission, compete for university faculty. Such external funding as is available means that research is “donor driven,” and sometimes does little to build sustainable capacity within universities. While circumstances as described are relatively bleak, respondents and Teferra present some feasible suggestions for improvement. Improvement of Internet capacity and democratic access, while nearly inevitable to some degree, should be undertaken with more priority; and by this means, access to electronic journals and the world databases of knowledge and research can become more ordinary. Government taxation, trade, and travel policies should be relaxed so as to free the flow of scholars and scholarly materials. The African Diaspora—the brain drain—should be tapped as an asset, utilizing nationals who have gone abroad to link universities and researchers with the larger world. Donor agencies should more carefully consider and fund those projects with direct benefit to local societies and universities. And scientists themselves should …exert more effort to publish their research. They have to pay more attention to process the huge mass of gray literature in their private possession into the “white” literature of mass distribution. They have to be fully informed that publishing their articles not only entitles them to promotion at home but also gives them an advantage and edge in the highly competitive world of funds for scientific research… (p. 142). Teferra’s book and research on this topic is summarized in a brief chapter in African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook (Teferra & Altbach, 2003). Those readers with more cursory interest in higher education in Africa and the developing world will likely be satisfied with that summary. But in actually addressing challenges, as in so many other situations, the devil is in the details, and Scientific Communication in African Universities is an excellent resource for those seeking to understand, or help remedy, these challenges at more involved levels. The Damtew Teferra and Philip G. Altbach work noted above, although not the direct subject of this review, is an absolutely fundamental work for anyone with a scholarly or practical interest in African higher education. Thirteen “theme” chapters, by Teferra, Altbach, and nine other authors, are followed by 65 chapters on the tertiary education circumstances of as many African nations, for the most part authored by Africans. An extensive bibliography, and a separate cataloging of dissertations on African higher education, strengthen the utility of the book. References Altbach, P.G. & Peterson, P.M. (1999). Higher education in the 21st century: Global challenge and national response. Annapolis Junction, MD: Institute of International Education. Effah, P. (2003). Ghana. In D. Teferra & P.G. Altbach (Eds.), African higher Education: An international reference handbook (pp. 338-349). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Gaillard, J., & Waast. R. (1993). The uphill emergence of scientific communities in Africa. In A. Ahmad (Ed.), Science and technology policy for economic development in Africa (pp. 41-67). New York: E.J. Brill. Mwiria, K. (2003). University governance and university-state relations. In D. Teferra & P.G. Altbach (Eds.), African higher Education: An international reference handbook (pp. 32-43). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. Teferra, D., & Altbach, P.G. (2003). African higher education: An international reference handbook. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. World Bank. (1991). The African capacity building initiative: Toward improved policy analysis and development management. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. World Bank. (2000). Higher education in developing countries: Peril and promise. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. World Bank. (2002). Constructing knowledge societies: New challenges for tertiary education. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. About the Reviewer Marc Cutright is an assistant professor of higher education at Ohio University, and a research fellow of the Policy Center on the First Year of College.