There's something African universities need to stop doing: expecting research to come from the right strategic plan, the right policy and the right re-branding.
Research and education are fruits of an authentic interest in people and in addressing the problems they face. Genuine research and education are not things you set out to do. They emerge from what you do.
A university where leadership doesn't care for students, where faculty care more that they were called by the right title, where the governance is not open and accountable, such a varsity cannot produce meaningful research.
And yet, over the last decade or more, Kenyan unis, with help from @CUE_Kenya, have been squeezing authenticity out of the unis. Now the manufacturing term "quality assurance" has turned lecturers and students into robots who just meet regulation and targets.
Universities should be public spaces of democratic warmth, where character is strengthened and ideas ripen, people are excited to learn from one another and grow. And that contributes to a democratic society.
Instead, universities are fridges of dictatorship. They mistreat staff, disrespect students and knowledge is reduced to cold facts that do not inspire society in any way. Instead of fixing that, governments and varsity managements impose policies on publishing and grant funding
So varsity managements burden faculty with research workshops and demand a certain number of publications from both faculty and students. That drives people into vanity press, where people pay publishers to get a book or article out, but the material has no substance.
If we want vibrant research, we must respect academic freedom. Make university governance open to faculty and students. Support public lectures, guest speakers and open discussions. Support mentoring. Remove red tape from curriculum review. Get government out of accreditation.
