Part 1

Africa still finds itself in a state of underdevelopment and dependence on industrialized countries for its survival, since independence. For many communities in Africa, development still remains an inaccessible mirage. In this article, development of any country is perceived as the sum total of the process whereby people engage in creating and acquiring a technological capability and applying it to solve their collective problems and to satisfy their basic needs and other necessities of life. The question is: what factors are responsible for the state of affairs where people are persistently unable to satisfy their basic needs or solve their collective socio-economic and technological problems, and how has the role played by educational institutions, especially universities, impacted on Africa's ability to realize true development as per the definition above?

The role assigned to universities so far by policy makers, including disuse of knowledge, skills and opportunities available at the universities, has negatively affected Africa's ability to solve its collective problems and satisfy the needs of its people.

Colonial logic in post-independence Africa

The pattern of socio-economic and technological policies in Africa is partly shaped by its colonial experience and this experience's overwhelming influence on the thinking and behaviour of the people and their policy makers in the post independence era. It is also explained by the circumstance in which both the people and the policy makers dread the pain and uncertainty of breaking with their past experience no matter how unjust and detrimental it may be on the continent's desire for development. 

In 1751, the British Board of Trade issued a directive to its Governor of the Cape Coast to stop cotton cultivation among the Fante, stating:

“Introduction of culture and industry among the Negroes is contrary to the known established policy of this country, there is no saying where it might stop, and it might extend to tobacco, sugar and every other commodity which we now take from our colonies, and thereby the Africans, who now support themselves by wars, would become planters and their slaves be employed in the culture of these articles in Africa.” 

Creation or acquisition of technological capability gives people a new comparative ability to produce the goods and services they need for survival as well as the global market. It gives a country comparative technological competence to relate equitably with societies that had the technological head-start that gave them control over resources and markets globally.

Since national-driven creation and acquisition of technological capability has been witnessed in Japan and Malaysia, it is clear that their experience can be replicated in Africa more easily given that the range and volume of resources in this continent are far in excess of what these two countries could muster when they acquired their technological capability and set on industrialization and modernization. However, this did not happen through evolutionary model. Instead, the Japanese Government in the 1870s and its counterpart in Malaysia a century later, carried massive mobilization and encouragement of their populations, including their universities and technical institutes, to acquire from industrial countries and customize ideas, methods, skills, processes, products and services for use in mass production at all fronts of the national life. 

In Kenya, political, social and educational policies of the colonial period were directed at ensuring that Africans remained technologically, and hence economically disabled, so as to continue serving as a source of primary commodities as well as a market for goods and services imported from the industrialized world. The question is: to what extent has the country utilized universities to enable the society acquire national technological capability without which the solution of collective problems and satisfaction of basic needs and other necessities of life becomes difficult to achieve? 

Core Functions and Social Obligations of the University 

Development is a process of social and economic transformation from a backward technological capability of a people to a more advanced technological capability to solve collective problems and satisfy collective basic needs (food, clothing, shelter, security and education) and other necessities of a modern life. To experience it, people must create from their own efforts or acquire from other peoples’ new or improved technological capability which they must use to solve their problems and satisfy their needs. 

The main process of creating and acquiring technological capability, as well as transferring it to the society for use, is a responsibility of the university. Creating technological capability internally means that universities must lead the people in discovery and innovation, which means they must carry out scientific research and teach others with a view of transferring their knowledge to the young and old alike.

Acquiring technology from other societies means that people, led by universities, must travel or establish contacts with societies whose technological capability is more advanced than their own with a view of borrowing, copying or modifying. This has been the driving force behind technological advances in the US, Japan, Malaysia, Sweden, and several other European countries. In fact, it has been the main reason why university educated people in Europe from the 16th century to date are expected to be adequately traveled. Their destinations have usually been the countries known for some advancement in literature, art, culture and technology. It was during their travels that Europeans and Americans observed, borrowed, copied, and pilfered the technology from other nationalities for use in the improvement of their technological capability back at home.

Other countries owe it to themselves to acquire as much information, knowledge and technology from wherever it may be found. This is the logic behind sending people abroad for studies, research, business, educational and social exchange. The assumption is that, in addition to their direct purposes for going abroad, students, professors, researchers, business people and other visitors abroad will observe, copy, memorize, photograph, and send back home as much information as possible about new or improved ideas, methods, skills, processes, tools, equipment, machinery, products and services for adoption and utilization in making similar or improved products and services. 

One can see why universities are organized to facilitate acquisition and transfer of technology for the benefit of their people. In acknowledgment of the role of the university in training members of the society in the already known information, knowledge and skills, and in recognition of the role of the university in creating, acquiring and improving technology, as well as transferring technology to the society, it follows that the most important building blocks of the university mandate are teaching, research, innovation and service to the community. These social responsibilities are key to the existence of universities all over the world. For public universities in Kenya these responsibilities are spelt out in respective Acts that legally established these institutions.

In spite of such statutory provisions, there has been a major misrepresentation of the role of the university in Kenya, with successive policy makers according universities a minimalist and peripheral role in national development. It is for this reason that a clear review of the functions of the university and expected contribution of the university to national development should be clearly analyzed for avoidance of doubt.

One of the core functions of a university is training, a term that refers to two main responsibilities, namely: creation and production of human resources through transmitting and inculcating of information, knowledge, skills, values and attitudes to both young and old people, with the aim of empowering them to become producers of goods and services for the consumers both in the domestic and international markets; and expansion and multiplication of knowledge and skills to produce goods and services that solve its problems.The other core function of a university is research, which refers to deliberate and continuous search for new or improved knowledge and skills. For a university, research involves continuous generation of knowledge, ideas and skills; communication and transfer of new or improved knowledge, ideas and skills to society for application in production of goods and services; and serving as a depository of knowledge for the nation. 

After discovery made within the context of research, a university must take the process of production and transmission of knowledge to its logical conclusion by way of the third core function known as innovation. This is required because the ultimate purpose of research is to help mankind find solutions to its problems or enhance its capacity to satisfy its needs. A university involved in innovation therefore strives to become a national center for creating and testing new and improved ideas, methods, processes and products in form of goods and services; an agency for quick acquisition through borrowing, copying and transfer of technology from the more advanced societies; and an agency for the transfer of technology (new or improved ideas, methods, processes and tools, equipment, machines and services) to primary, intermediate and end producers of consumer goods and services. 

The final core function of the university is community service within the specialized area or field of a university professor or research fellow. This function involves staff and students engaging, interacting and working with local members of the population and performing two main activities, namely, transferring technology, methods, and processes of doing things for faster solution of problems facing producers, business people, and consumers, in what is generally known as university-industry linkage; and receiving feedback from producers, business people, and consumers with a view of  taking back to the lecture rooms and laboratories in order to inform teaching, research and innovation.