IST-Africa Senior University Leadership Roundtable on ICT, Education, Research and Innovation

This Roundtable Panel took place on Thursday 30th May within IST-Africa 2013 Conference.

Moderated by Paul Cunningham (IST-Africa Coordinator), the panel consisted of representatives of Moi University (Dr. Edwin Ataro, Head of Electrical and Communication Engineering Department), Technical University of Kenya (Prof. Ogembo Kachieng'a, Deputy Vice Chancellor for Research), KCA University (Prof. Ddembe Williams, Dean, Faculty of ICT), University of Nairobi (Prof. William Okello-Odongo, Director, School of Computing and Informatics), Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (Dr. Waweru Mwangi, Director, Institute for Computer Science and IT) and Strathmore University (Prof. Izael Da'Silva, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs).

The panel started with a discussion of alignment of current research priorities of the Education and Research sector in Kenya with the goals of Vision 2030, and what needs to be done to better align curriculum development with the needs of public and private sector employment and self-employment.

There was general agreement between the panellists that there is currently misalignment between research priorities and Vision 2030, insufficient use of ICT in manufacturing, agriculture and agri-business and a need for collaboration and coordination with the public and private sector to ensure that graduates have the necessary skills required by employers. The idea of guest lecturing by public and private sector stakeholders was also proposed, as was supervision of research projects.

The panel then moved on to discuss institutional ICT research capacity, track record and research priorities going forward.

The use of the Triple Helix and potential complementarity of the roles of different stakeholder groups in a research context was discussed, as was the potential win-win cooperation opportunities that should be exploited between education and research stakeholders and the public and private sectors.

The potential role and value of open education resources, and the critical importance of community engagement, end-user involvement and multi-stakeholder partnerships in carrying out effective Action Research was also discussed at some length.

There were considerable contributions from the floor as well as panellists, which was very welcome. Critical contributions from the floor was to encourage greater engagement with students in relation to their educational requirements, the importance of achieving greater gender balance amongst senior university leadership and the need for a greater focus on exploitable research results, whether in Innovation Spaces, in education and research institutions or in the public and private sectors.

The importance of Action Research (where students and lecturers engage with local communities, engage with end-users, engage with the public and private funding sectors and they are carrying out research that is based on real-life challenges) was reiterated on a number of occasions by a number of participants.

A key challenge identified was access to low cost capital. Universities and the public sector potentially could play a role in this regard by facilitating guarantees for loans and access to equity for good projects. There is a need for greater practicality in education in Kenya and Africa in general. Getting a degree is no longer enough.

There was a rich and dynamic discussion with lots of practical insight. The IST-Africa 2013 Conference Report provides a full report on the discussions during the Roundtable.