November 18, 2025

Network advocates for continental internationalisation plan

The African Network for Internationalisation of Education (ANIE) is proposing a continental internationalisation strategy and a fund for African higher education institutions to support their efforts as they set out to build cross-border collaborations.

These were part of a package of resolutions or recommendations accepted at an ANIE conference from 8-10 October in Kampala, Uganda, themed, ‘Internationalisation in Challenging Times: Sustaining Impact, Driving Change; Towards New Futures for Africa’.

In May, experts participating in a webinar of the Association of African Universities called for a coherent and coordinated continental internationalisation plan. The ANIE conference appeared to have moved stakeholders further in this direction.

ANIE’s next step is to submit a comprehensive policy brief capturing these resolutions to the Human Resource, Education and Science Directorate of the African Union Commission (AUC), for consideration and alignment with its continental frameworks, including the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (2026-35) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063.

Professor Goski Alabi, the chair of the ANIE board, said Africa had to rethink internationalisation practices in the light of geopolitical and technological shifts. As borders tighten and global inequalities persist, for instance, the task is not merely to internationalise in the traditional sense, but to Africanise internationalisation through embedding African values, priorities and realities into global engagement.

“Our new future must be one where African universities are co-creators of global solutions, not peripheral participants,” she added.

Against this background, the conference also resolved that African higher education institutions must integrate sustainability frameworks into their internationalisation strategies financially, institutionally and environmentally, so that partnerships endure beyond project cycles and donor funding.

In addition, ANIE decided to focus on data-driven policy and research, as well as to develop common tools for monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment of internationalisation efforts, while its member institutions must commit to expanding and deepening intra-African academic collaborations, including joint research, dual degrees and staff-student exchanges, to strengthen continental cooperation and reduce dependency on extra-regional partners.

Member institutions should also adopt digital, hybrid, and blended models for virtual exchanges and virtual internships to sustain engagement, enhance access, and reduce costs in teaching, learning, research, and partnership activities. This would require an investment in digital infrastructure and capacity-building, according to part of the resolutions which were shared with University World News.

A further resolution is that a continental data repository on internationalisation be established under ANIE’s coordination.

Network for early-career researchers

During the conference, an African network of early-career researchers known as the Network of Early-Career Researchers on Digitalisation and Internationalisation (NECREDI) was also established.

The network was established as part of the European Commission’s funded Internationalisation and Digitisation of Graduate Education and Research in Africa (DigiGrad) programme, which is meant to enhance the training of African graduate students and young researchers for the attainment of global development goals.

ANIE is responsible for the coordination and sustainability of the DigiGrad programme, a three-year initiative launched in 2023 to help strengthen African research capacity focused on the sustainable development of the continent.

In its work, ANIE is supported by OBREAL Global, a non-profit association that promotes interregional cooperation and dialogue in the higher education sector.

Jaume Fortuny, a senior project manager at OBREAL who attended the ANIE conference, told University World News that NECREDI is aimed at masters and PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and academics who obtained their PhD less than seven years ago with special attention to women and young people with disabilities affiliated with African institutions.

“The Network of Early-Career Researchers on Digitalisation and Internationalisation is an initiative created within the framework of the European DigiGrad project (2023-26) with the aim of strengthening Africa’s role in global research by creating a community of young researchers committed to internationalisation and digital innovation,” he said.

“DigiGrad has a series of activities being funded by the European Commission. These include training resources, researcher networks such as NECREDI and web portals with useful and updatable materials. All these project results will be maintained in the future, thanks to ANIE’s support for their sustainability. Not only that, but the resources, materials and networks resulting from the project have been designed to be expanded during and after the project’s funding period, as ANIE wants to establish itself as a true centre of excellence in education in Africa.”

Fortuny said DigiGrad’s main achievements to date include the consolidation of a pan-African university cooperation network, integrating eight African and several European universities into a stable framework for exchange and joint training; institutional and human capacity-building, with multiple workshops on internationalisation management, digital tools and participation in global research networks; and production of digital resources and reference frameworks for integrating technology into postgraduate education, including online guides and training materials.

He said the creation of the NECREDI network to bring together young African researchers in the fields of digitisation and internationalisation, offering mentoring, workshops and mobility opportunities, is another achievement.

“The ANIE conference placed emphasis on creating resilient partnerships that bring long-term benefits to African higher-education institutions, highlighting the need to develop inclusive and equitable policy frameworks for international education. To improve Africa’s position in international education, leadership strategies for the global participation of African universities were discussed,” said Fortuny.

“The influence of geopolitics on the financing of mobility and research has become increasingly evident. Shifting global power relations are reshaping cooperation priorities, often leaving African higher education systems to navigate competing interests and conditionalities. These dynamics expose the fragility of current funding models for research, innovation and cooperation which, despite European support, remain insufficient to ensure genuine autonomy and long-term sustainability for African institutions.”

The conference also explored the issue of new funding models and, as part of its resolutions, said institutions and ANIE must collectively develop diversified funding strategies, engaging governments, the private sector, alumni, and development partners to support internationalisation.

Internationalisation in Africa

ANIE chair Alabi, providing historical context, talked of how internationalisation has evolved on the continent. She said that, when the organisation held its first conference 15 years ago, internationalisation of education in Africa was still an emerging conversation, but that it has become central to how institutions imagine their futures.

Going forward, she said: “Internationalisation should not only ensure that our students and scholars are mobile, but also empowered, that our partnerships are equitable, and that our knowledge systems are recognised as contributors – not just consumers of global knowledge.

“Internationalisation has a key role to play in transforming Africa’s higher education and research if it is focused on Africa’s priority needs," she said.

According to Alabi Africa has been internationalising in all areas of higher education, ranging from transnational education and digital credentialing to epistemic plurality and grooming global citizens who shape Africa’s dwarfed voice in the scholarship of the world.