African universities on a global ranking scale: Legitimation of knowledge hierarchies?
Abstract
In this theoretical paper, I argue that the interconnection between the excruciating superiority of the West to conflate its own prototype of society with the ideal state of being is manifested through the heirarchisation of knowledge in the name of the university global rankings. My case is that by accepting the centre–periphery disjunction within the knowledge–power dynamic through situating African universities within the global university rankings is only an entrenched fashion of endorsing the legitimation of the heirarchisation of knowledge. Ranking universities on the league table puts western scientific knowledge systems at the epitome against the local and African indigenous knowledges seating at the bottom of the global knowledge ladder. Arguing from a critical theory perspective, I submit that the elite universities domiciled in the world's wealthiest economies enjoy a disparate influence over the international standards for scholarship and knowledge processes while denigrating African ways and sources of knowing by placing them at the bottom of the knowledge pyramid. While acknowledging the need for excellence and competitiveness on a global scale, I advance and provide strong evidence that knowledge processes in African universities should not be measured against western –dominated processes due to the uniqueness of each. Conversely, I forward the case that each system of knowing is distinct and placing them on an equal pedestal is indefensible and therefore illegitimate. To that end, I make proposals for African universities to find alternatives to global university rankings that measure their own competitiveness.
References
Alcoff, L.M. . 2010. Epistemic Identities. Episteme: A Journal of Social Epistemology 7:128-137.
Altbach, P. G. 2012. The globalization of college and university rankings Change January/February:26–31.
Altbach, P., and J. Knight. 2006. The internationalisation of higher education: Motivation and realities. The NEA Almanac of Higher Education:2–11.
Altbach, P.G. . 2006. The Dilemmas of Ranking. International Higher Education 42 (Winter):2-3.
Altbach, P.G., L. Reisberg, and L.E. Rumbley. 2009. Trends in Global Higher Education: Tracking an Academic Revolution. Paris: United Nations Educational,Scientific and Cultural Organization( UNESCO).
Badat, S. 2010. Global Rankings of universities : A perverse and present burden In Whose Interests are we Serving? Global Inequalities and Higher Education, edited by E. Unterhalter and V. Carpentier. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Badat.S. 2010. The word-class university and the global South. In World Social Science Report:Knowledge Divides, edited by UNESCO. Paris UNESCO Publishing.
Baty, P. 2013. An evolving methodology: the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. In Rankings and Accountability in Higher Education: Uses and Misuses, edited by P. T. M. Marope, P. J. Wells and E. Hazelkorn. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
Bourdieu, P. 1993. The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature. Cambridge: Polity Press.
BRICS. 2014. Introduction to the BRICS Academic Forum. In BRICS and Africa:Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialisation. eThekwini, Durban, South Africa.
Castell, M. . 2011. A network theory of power. International Journal of Communication 5:773–787.
Castells, M. . 1994. The university system: Engine of development in the new world economy. In Revitalizing higher education, edited by J. Salmi and A. M. Vespoor. Oxford: Pergamon.
Cantwell, B., & Maldonado-Maldonado, A. (2009). Four stories: confronting contemporary ideas about globalisation and internationalisation in higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 7(3), 289-306.
Darder, A. 2012. Neoliberalism in the Academic Borderlands: An On-going Struggle for Equality and Human Rights. Educational Studies: A Journal of the American Educational Studies Association 48 (5):412-426.
de Sousa Santos, B. 2008. Introduction: Opening Up the Canon of Knowledge and Recognition of Difference. In Another knowledge is possible: beyond northern epistemologies, edited by B. de Sousa Santos. London: Verso.
———. 2014. Epistemologies of the South: Justice against Epistemicide. Boulder and London: Paradigm Publishers.
———, ed. 2008. Another Knowledge is Possible: Beyond Northern Epistemologies(Reinventing Social Emancipation: Towards New Manifestos). London Verso.
de Sousa Santos, B. 2006. The university in the 21st century: Toward a democratic and emancipatory university reform. In The university, state, and market, edited by R. A. Rhoads and C. A. Torres. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Education., Times Higher. Methodology: What the pick of the crop means for the rest of the world 2009. Available from http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=400069.
Foucault, M. . 1980. Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings , 1972-1977. New York: Pantheon.
Hazelkorn, E. . 2011. Rankings and the reshaping of higher education: The battle for world-class excellence. London: Palgrave MacMillan.
Held, D., A., A . McGrew, and D. Goldblatt. 1999. Global Transformations: Politics, Economics and Culture. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Hursh, D., and A.F. Wall. 2008. Re-politicizing Higher Education and Research within Neoliberal Globalization. In World University Forum. Davos, Switzerland.
Liu, N.C. 2009. The Story of Academic Ranking of World Universities. International Higher Education 54 (Winter):2-3.
———. 2013. The Academic Ranking of World Universities and its future direction. In Rankings and Accountability in Higher Education: Uses and Misuses, edited by P. T. M. Marope, P. J. Wells and E. Hazelkorn. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
Lopes, C. 2010. Fifty Years of African Independence – Continuities and Discontinuities. In Keynote Address, International Conference. University of Mainz, Germany.
Lowe, C. (1997). Unexamined Consequences of academic globalism in African Studies. Africa Today, 44(3 (July-Sept 1997)).
Lyotard, J-F. 1984. The Postmodern Condition:A Report on Knowledge. Edited by W. Godzich and J. Schulte-Sasse. Vol. 10, Theory and History of Literature. Manchester University Press.
Marginson, S. 1997. Markets in education. Melbourne: Allen & Unwin.
Marginson, S. . 2007. Global university rankings: implications in general and for Australia. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 29 (2):131–42.
———. 2009. University Rankings, Government and Social Order: Managing the Field of Higher Education according to the Logic of the Performative Present-as-Future. In Re-Reading Education Policies: a Handbook Studying the Policy Agenda of the 21st Century, edited by M. Simons, M. Olsen and M. Peters. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Marginson, S., and E. Sawir. 2005. Interrogating global flows in higher education. Globalisation, Societies and Education 3 (3):281–309.
Marginson, S., and M. van der Wende. 2007. The New Global Landscape of Nations and Institutions. In Higher Education to 2030:Globalisation. Paris: Ce n t re f o r Ed u c a t i o n a l Research and Innovation, OECD.
———. 2009. The New Global Landscape of Nations and Institutions. In Higher Education to 2030: Ce n t re f o r Ed u c a t i o n a l Research and Innovation OECD.
Marope, M., and P Wells. 2013. University Rankings: The Many Sides of the Debate. In Rankings and Accountability in Higher Education: Uses and Misuses, edited by P. T. M. Marope, P. J. Wells and E. Hazelkorn. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
Mignolo, W.D. 2009. Epistemic Disobedience, Independent Thought and De-Colonial Freedom. Theory, Culture and Society 26 (7-8):159-181.
Mudimbe, V.Y. 1988. The Invention of Africa:Gnosis,Philosophy and the order of Knowledge. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Ndlovu-Gatsheni, S.J. 2013. Coloniality of Power in Postcolonial Africa: Myths of Decolonization. Dakar: CODESRIA.
———. 2014. Global coloniality and the challenges of creating African futures. Strategic Review for Southern Africa 36 (2):181-202.
Nyamnjoh, F.B. 2013. From Quibbles to Substance: A Response to Responses. Africa Spectrum 2:127-139.
———. 2015. Incompleteness: Frontier Africa and the Currency of Conviviality. Journal of Asian and African Studies:1–18.
Obasi, I.N. 2008. World University Rankings in a Market-Driven Knowledge Society: Implications for African Universities. Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies 6 (1).
Olsson, B., and T. Mkandawire. 2009. Compelling Rationale for a UNESCO Forum on Knowledge Systems. In Higher Education, Research and Innovation: Changing Dynamics:Report on the UNESCO Forum on Higher Education, Research and Knowledge 2001-2009, edited by V. L. Meek, U. Teichler and M.-L. Kearney.
Kassel.: UNESCO International Centre for Higher Education Research.
Ordorika, I., and M. Lloyd. 2013. A decade of international university rankings: a critical perspective from Latin America. In Rankings and Accountability in Higher Education: Uses and Misuses, edited by P. T. M. Marope, P. J. Wells and E. Hazelkorn. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
Powell, W.W., and K. Snellman. 2004. The knowledge economy. Annual Review of Sociology 30:199–220.
Pusser, B., and S. Marginson. 2013. University Rankings in Critical Perspective. The Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 84, No. 4 84 (4):544-568.
Rostan, M., and M. Vaira, eds. 2011. Questioning Excellence in Higher Education Policies:Experiences and Challenges in National and Comparative Perspective. Edited by B. M. Kehm and C.Musselin. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Salmi, J. (2009). The Challenge of Establishing World-Class Universities. Washington DC: The World Bank.
Stensaker, B., and T & B.M. Kehm. 2009. Introduction. In University Rankings, Diversity, and the New Landscape of Higher Education, edited by B. Stensaker and T. B. M. Kehm. Rotterdam/Boston: Sense P u b l i s h e r s.
Weber, M. 1947. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. New York: The Free Press.
Weiler, H.N. 2011. Whose Knowledge Matters?Development and the Politics of Knowledge. In Keynote Address at the International Higher Education Congress “New Trends and Issues” Istanbul: Turkish Council of Higher Education
Yesufu, T.M. 1973. Creating the African University: Emerging issues of the 1970s. Ibadan: Oxford University Press.
Zeleza, P. T. (2012). Internationalisation in higher education: Opportunities and challenges for the knowledge project in the global South. In P. Kotecha (Ed.), Internationalisation in higher education: Perspectives fromthe global south: Perspectives from the Global South SARUA LEADERSHIP DIALOGUE SERIES (Vol. 4, pp. 4-27). Wits, Johannesburg: SARUA.
Copyright (c) 2017 Amasa Ndofirepi
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors, copyright holders, may use the publishers version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors' publishers version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: This is an electronic version of an article published in SAJHE, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX “XXX", DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/SAJHE) may be found.
Authors publishers version, affiliated with the Stellenbosch University will be automatically deposited in the University Institutional Repository SUNScholar.
Articles as a whole, may not be re-published with another journal.
The following license applies:
Attribution CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
