Arndt Graf and Alexandra Samokhvalova:
The subproject "Afrasian Higher Education Cooperation between Nation Branding and University Marketing" by Arndt Graf and Alexandra Samokhvalova explores the interplay between economics, education policies and migration between Africa and Asia. As it has been discovered in the first phase of AFRASO, commodification of higher education and national higher education branding play a central role in this cooperation. In case of Malaysia, competitive pressure from traditional and new entrants to the higher education arena, combined with the ever increasing reliance on higher education revenues, leads the country to intensify its recruitment strategies in new target regions, such as Africa, and develop a national brand for higher education. The current research for AFRASO II will look at Malaysia’s strategic intent and actions to promote its higher education both internationally and specifically in Africa and identify the key components, which are used in branding higher education as a national system. Besides, Malaysia’s “branching out” to open campuses in several African countries such as Botswana and Lesotho will be explored to analyse the role this campuses play in higher education promotion and assess potential benefits and risks they pose in Africa. In this context, in the next two years the subproject will have the aim of extending conceptually and empirically the perspectives on higher education branding and today’s international higher education engagements between Asia and Africa.
Sophia Thubauville:
South-South Cooperation in Higher Education: Migration of Indian University Lecturers to Ethiopia
Since the turn of the millennium Ethiopia has brought forward a substantial expansion of its higher education institutions. Most of the today more than 30 universities have been constructed from close to scratch or through upgrading of former colleges. From this emphasis on the expansion of higher education Ethiopia expects a general development impulse and the creation of a larger middle-class. However, the explosion of higher education institutions and the brain drain leave a vacuum of expertise at Ethiopian universities for the moment. Only with the help of foreign lecturers and a decrease of the qualification of much of the local university staff a minimal curriculum can be offered. Most of the lecturers from overseas, who are in the country today, are from India. As of the high demand for Indian academics several agencies have specialized themselves on the recruitment of new lecturers for Ethiopia.
By research at Ethiopian universities, Indian recruitment agencies, and in the archives of the Ethiopian Ministry of Education, the project wants to analyze the history as well as the current trend of the migration of Indian academics to Ethiopia and by that way contribute to the research on highly skilled migration within the global south.
