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African leaders recognise that development of the continent depends on higher education and research. To that effect, the Africa Union (AU) and New Economic Partnership for Africa Development (NEPAD) have recommended that 1per cent of GDP by each African state should be spent on Research and Experimental Development (R&D) in order to support peace, stability, better governance and economic growth. However, higher education provision in Africa is mainly for undergraduate students. Postgraduate provision, research and knowledge transfer remain largely under. In the case of Rwanda, Higher Education Policy is very clear that development of the higher education institutions forms the foundation for applying scientific and technology for development. Already in 2010 Rwanda higher education institutions have nearly 1,200 teaching staff with Masters degrees needing PhD training urgently. Training aboard is very costly and just a few can be trained over a long period and contributes to brain drain. Also the enrolment expansion at undergraduate level is imminent requiring massive increases in lecturers with PhD and Masters level qualifications. The National University of Rwanda plans to set‐up large scale PhD programs in 6 disciplines and 3 multidisciplinary themes. The aim is to train in an intensified, diversified and streamlined fashion, future lecturers and researchers who would contribute to filling the skills gaps in Rwanda HE Sector and R&D Institutions. By 2023, it is envisaged that 4,300 Masters, 1,500 PhD and 300 Post Doctoral students will be enrolled at NUR. It is planned that PhD student supervision will be done jointly between NUR staff and the most experienced staff from the external universities. PhD and Post‐doctoral students, local and external supervisors will write joint publications over 60 per cent focusing on solving Rwanda development problems. It is recommended that the government should invest in PhD training and Research from public expenditure and Rwanda Private sector.

This paper aims to assess the use of electronic journal resource at the University of Dar es Salaam. The study involved the postgraduate students in the School of Education at the University of Dar es Salaam.

A combination of questionnaires for postgraduate students and interview for the reference librarians was used, whereby 100 postgraduate students and six reference librarians were involved in the study. SPSS and content analysis were used to analyse the data.

Major findings of the study reveal that majority of the students reported using electronic journal resources for various purposes including working on the assignments, research proposal writing, literature review, research report writing, current awareness, leisure and for extra exploration of ongoing scientific debates through peer-reviewed papers. The challenges encountered in the use of electronic journal resources include power outage, inadequate bandwidth, slow download speed, inability to access the resources from home, lack of training, lack of awareness, limited access to computers and difficulty in searching. Finally, the recommendations for improving the use of electronic journal resources are provided.

This is the first time an effort has been made to assess the use of electronic journal resources by postgraduate students in the School of Education at the University of Dar es Salaam. The study could be used to assess the postgraduate students’ need for electronic resources at the University of Dar es Salaam and other users in higher learning institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study report of the development of data networks and initial connectivity in the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) region and how that development evolved into the formation of research and education (R & E) networks that enable new collaborations and curriculum potential.

This case study is presented through the past 20 year’s operations and field activities of the Network Startup Resource Center (NSRC) at the University of Oregon, who in partnership with the National Science Foundation has worked together to significantly train network engineers in Africa on how to develop regional R & E networks that can link together the various research universities in SSA.

The author shows how the development of these networks have fostered improved collaboration between African and US scientists, particularly around issues that relate to climate change. This paper contains testimonials from both scientists and on-the-ground key directors in Africa about the value of these improved networks. The expansion of regional R & E networks has allowed the Association of African Universities (AAU) to launch sustainable development as one of its new core programs over the period 2013-2017. Within this new core AAU program are four sub-themes: agriculture and food security, water resources management, climate change and energy. All of these themes will benefit directly from these new, network-enabled, data-sharing abilities.

The current state of network-driven curriculum and curriculum exchange between African universities is assessed and compared that to that in the early days of academic network penetration (1990-2000) in the USA to find similar rates of evolution. Since 2015, SSA has sufficient network access and connectivity to now enable a wide variety of new collaborative research and collaborative academic programs.

The experience and operational competence of the NSRC at the University of Oregon needs to be detailed and espoused. No other American university has had such an impact on Africa in terms of improving its overall network infrastructure enabling new kinds of collaborative research on real-world problems, such as climate change and resource depletion in Africa.

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting the motivation of graduate students of information science in scientific and research activities and science production. This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive in terms of type and method.

The study's statistical population includes all postgraduate information science students studying in public universities. The random sampling method was simple. The data collection tool was a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and one-sample t-test, independent t-test, and ANOVA were used to analyze the collected data by SPSS software.

Findings showed that all the main variables (internal motivations, external motivations, self-empowerment, and intellectual and specialized interactions) affect the participation of postgraduate students in research and scientific activities. Among the identified components, the creation of opportunities, research facilities, innovation, and formal relations between students and professors, has the most significant impact on students' motivation to participate in scientific and research activities and science production. There was no significant difference between education and age. From the results obtained from the present study, it can be said that the above variables, which were divided into four categories, with the intensity of the participation of graduate students of universities that in the present study examined the field of librarianship and information, with power and Or weakness are influential. This means that the students at the beginning of the research path, in other words, will be future researchers, should be constantly monitored as a source in the production of science.

This research is one of the few types of research that examines the influential variables in increasing the motivation to participate in the study, considering the population of postgraduate students of universities and scientific institutions as drivers of science production.

After studying this case, students should be able to: explain how strategic management relates to the areas of innovation, operations, technology, entrepreneurship and emerging markets; analyse strategy implementation and execution at the operational level, in contrast to strategy formulation at the strategic mission, values and vision level; discuss innovation, entrepreneurship and new technologies in emerging markets; and assess the impact of technology-driven entrepreneurship on significant socio-economic change that is on transformational entrepreneurship, in emerging markets.

This case outlines key global challenges facing higher education in the African context. It discusses the African Leadership University (ALU) as an innovative higher education institution, including its origins, establishment, strategy and purpose, curriculum, technology and operations, student support network and funding. It also describes ALU’s ongoing challenges and future prospects. ALU was launched in 2015 by Fred Swaniker, founder and chief executive officer and Khurram Masood, co-founder and chief operating officer. ALU’s vision was to transform Africa by developing and connecting three million high-calibre, ethical and entrepreneurial leaders by 2035. In August 2019, Swaniker and Masood considered how to ensure ALU’s sustainability and its vision. They had already changed ALU’s operational strategy by establishing micro-campuses instead of universities to scale rapidly and avoid regulatory barriers. However, would that be enough to uphold ALU’s vision for 2035?

This case is appropriate for postgraduate-level academic programmes and executive education programmes in management.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The evolving COVID-19 pandemic has made multidimensional impacts on tertiary education, research, and skills development. Yet, no area of academic activity has been more disrupted than the international dimension. These effects are even more pronounced in Africa considering pre-existing challenges, dependence on Northern expertise and resource asymmetries. The scale of the pandemic demands global action, further highlighting the importance of internationalization and “third mission” activities to advance training, research, and innovation to address major STEM challenges. This chapter focuses on the internationalization experiences of the Skills for Employability program, a five-year (2016–2021), $8.5 million project supported by Global Affairs Canada and Mastercard Foundation to advance STEM education and skills development across Francophone Africa. By using the SFE program as a case study, the authors apply an international and comparative lens to critically examine the programmatic shifts which have taken place since the closure of in-person academic activities and suspension of international travel. A key element of this inquiry will be to unpack the institutional shifts which took place as a result of the network-wide lockdown, specific responses and strategies employed, as well as adaptive internationalization measures taken in response to COVID-19.

After completion of the case study, students will be able to evaluate the journey of launching a business in an emerging market context and judge how opportunities and challenges can be navigated to build sustainable enterprises; assess the relevance of individual attributes and process skills that are necessary for entrepreneurial agency to transform social structures through entrepreneurial action; formulate an argument highlighting the role of the entrepreneurial ecosystem in growing a competitive business in an emerging market context; make an informed decision and critique how accelerators and incubators affect the development of ideas and access to finance in South Africa; and propose various strategic options available for technology entrepreneurs, considering the challenges they face in emerging economies.

In April 2023, Queen Ndlovu, CEO and founder of QP Drone Tech, a provider of drone business solutions, was considering options to fulfil her original dream of manufacturing drones in South Africa. She had encountered obstacles to achieving the same in 2019, and had decided to focus on providing commercial drone consulting services. However, her dream had not extinguished, and in 2022, she decided to restart her efforts. She found practical support from The Innovation Hub, an incubator that was supporting her business, which enabled her to enhance the prototype of her drone. She then had to think about how she would manufacture drones locally by ensuring she had access to production infrastructure, funding, partners and customers. Would she be able to gain a competitive advantage that would differentiate her from competitors? Or should she reconsider whether she should be manufacturing in the first place, as there are risks and benefits for smaller businesses in this regard.

This case is intended for discussion in postgraduate diploma in business and Master of Business Administration courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 3: Entrepreneurship.

This study aims to investigate how social entrepreneurial role models influence social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social entrepreneurial intent and social entrepreneurial action, with moral obligation as a moderator.

A cross-sectional survey of 261 pupils in the South African province of the Eastern Cape was used in the research study. Structural equation modeling was used to test hypotheses.

The research revealed that having social entrepreneurial role models has a positive impact on both social entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social entrepreneurial intent. In addition, a connection was found between social entrepreneurial intent and entrepreneurial action. The influence of moral obligation was found to be a positive and a significant moderator. Moreover, the association between social entrepreneurial role models and social entrepreneurial intent was mediated by social entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

The findings are not generalizable to nonstudent samples because students constituted the sample for gathering data. Future study therefore requires considering nonstudents to generalize the outcomes. This research should be replicated in other South African provinces and other developing countries for comparative outcomes.

Since social entrepreneurial role models have been practically linked to social entrepreneurship intent and entrepreneurial efficacy, understanding the factors that influence student’s decision to start a social enterprise is critical in South Africa to develop targeted interventions aimed at encouraging young people to start new businesses. Policymakers, society and entrepreneurial education will all benefit from the findings.

This study contributes to bridging the knowledge gap as it investigates how social entrepreneurial role models influence social entrepreneurial self-efficacy, social entrepreneurial intent and social entrepreneurial action, with moral obligation as a moderator. Encouraging social entrepreneurship among South African youth would also help address societal issues. This is a pioneering study in the context of an emerging economy such as South Africa, where social entrepreneurship is so integral.

This study aims to examine how couplepreneurs foster an entrepreneurial mindset in their kids.

A qualitative research approach with semi-structured interviews was used as the data collection technique. Narrative analysis was conducted on a sample of 20 couplepreneurs in Mthatha, South Africa.

Narratives of how couplepreneurs foster an entrepreneurial mindset in their kids included purchasing toys and games for kids that encourage entrepreneurship; competition and team activities among kids that are related to entrepreneurship; the piggy bank; encouraging kids to read entrepreneurial books; and kid entrepreneur showcases.

Sample size challenges are a notable limitation, including research being conducted in only one province of South Africa. Caution is advised when attempting to generalise the results to other contexts.

Understanding the strategies used by couplepreneurs to instil an entrepreneurial mindset in children can help parents to influence and encourage their children's entrepreneurial growth, resulting in more creative and innovative people who make a positive contribution to society, economy and the community.

While there is a body of literature on couple entrepreneurship, there are shortcomings in studies examining how coupleprenuers in African countries instil an entrepreneurial mindset in their children. As a result, this study aims to complement the current corpus of African literature on entrepreneurship, particularly in the context of South Africa.