/pdf/endogenous-higher-education-in-africa-a-sustainable-model-ybzc8voour.pdf

Endogenous Higher Education in Africa: A Sustainable Model

The basic premise of this study is that the collective engagement of the citizens
 in a disaster-prone city helps transform their city to become resilient. Many urban
 managers encourage citizen participation by providing a venue for citizens to engage
 in public issues, including those of city planning and management. Citizen participation
 is important in building a cohesive community, empowering its citizens, and enhancing
 their sense of ownership of their community and city as a whole. The research underscores
 that collective engagement and action have an influence in the transformation of a
 city. The study will use the concept of resilience in the socio-ecological systems
 context to build a conceptual framework on the transformation process. Cities are
 ecological systems with both natural- and built-environment characteristics. Cities
 are complex multidimensional systems with both the social (human) and the ecological
 (natural and built environments) tied together. The changing landscape and continuous
 exposure to disturbances put pressure on the social and ecological systems of a city.
 The paper discusses collective engagement as a systemic process for how a disaster-prone
 city transforms itself to become disaster resilient. Using the concept of panarchy
 as a process of adaptation and transformation, the paper will build a conceptual framework
 that highlights collectiveness as a way to become resilient. The paper underscores
 that collective engagement and action have an influence in the transformation of a
 city.

/pdf/building-resilience-through-collective-engagement-tb5gfevimg.pdf

Building Resilience through Collective Engagement

This chapter explains the imperative of linking with micro small medium enterprises (MSMEs) as vital contributors to the process of commercialization of new knowledge discovered in the higher education sector. Higher education in management has the greatest challenge to equalize graduates’ knowledge and skills with existing employment opportunities. MSMEs are job creators in the economy and contributors to sustainable development. If the education system of higher education in management does not withstand future needs, this will impair the social, economic, and environmental conditions of the country. To sustain the balance in these three pillars of sustainability, management graduates who will be future managers should be educated well with the needed skills and knowledge through a sustainable curriculum, which can be enriched with the linkage with the MSMEs during study, a milestone for business startup, employment opportunities, and industry intakes.

Linkages with Micro Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) for Sustainable Higher Education in Management

For generations, higher education in much of Sub-Saharan Africa has been disengaged from the problems of local communities largely due to the design of colonial education and the later thinking of industrial models of education where knowledge was received from experts at the top of the knowledge ladder. But new knowledge economics, the possibility of building collective learning frameworks and the need to solve globally linked problems that involve local communities is changing this thinking. Globally linked problems such as disease, environment, social and political stability and globalisation manifest locally and create challenges locally in various ways. This chapter explores the leadership of Zambia’s flagship university in serving the needs of local communities’ sustainable development with research and service resources of its graduate education system and its network. Understanding that knowledge is now formed both by collectives of people at the community level that is linked through major networks, it is particularly important that universities take a leadership role in building linkages to local communities. Specifically, leadership in the following community linkage areas are examined: community service schemes, consultancy services, research and project partnerships, community field tours and capacity development.

M'zizi Samson Kantini

Papers

Universities as leaders in community development: The case of the university of zambia