Are African flagship universities preparing students for citizenship?

• Main Authors: Lucky Kgosithebe, Thierry M. Luescher
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Journal of Student Affairs in Africa 2015-10-01
• Series: Journal of Student Affairs in Africa
• Online Access: http://www.jsaa.ac.za/index.php/JSAA/article/view/92

This article investigates the contribution of higher education to democratisation in Africaby studying the political attitudes of undergraduate students at four African flagshipuniversities in Botswana, Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania. It analyses students’ attitudesagainst those of youths without higher education and mass publics in their respectivecountries. The study focuses on flagship universities because of their role as importantplayers in the development of the social, economic and political leadership of theirrespective countries. The surveys used stratified random samples of third-year studentsacross all faculties and years of enrolment, which resulted in a weighted sample of 400students from each of the participating institutions. Students’ attitudes are compared withthose of the same age percentiles of youths without higher education, and those of theentire population sample, from the nationwide public opinion surveys conducted byAfrobarometer. The analysis of the data uses the notions of commitment to democracy,critical citizenship and political engagement to show that students at the four flagshipinstitutions have significantly higher levels of political awareness and political participation,and higher levels of criticalness, than youths without higher education and the generalmass public. However, no consistently higher levels of commitment to democracy werefound among students. We therefore argue that the study provides evidence of the politicalhothouse conditions typical in many African universities. It also provides grounds for thecall that African higher education institutions should be more conscious of, and explicitin, the cultivation of the norms, values and practices conducive to democracy in orderfor higher education to contribute in enduring ways to citizenship development and thedeepening of democratisation in Africa.