Structural HE reforms required to balance knowledge, skills

If universities are to offer knowledge that is of actual use on a genuinely democratic basis, they must overhaul their processes of admission and assessment so that the learning capacity of all prospective students is recognised and fostered, according to Chris Bradford, co-founder of the African Leadership Academy and the African Leadership University (ALU), and of the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program. Instead, the notion of academic success, that is currently prized at most universities on the continent, favours students who have attended elite high schools and valorises individual characteristics that bear little relation to the kinds of skills that will be of value in the world beyond the campus gates, he says.