Mapping the field of research on African higher education: a review of 6483 publications from 1980 to 2019
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Mapping the field of research on African higher education: a review of 6483 publications from 1980 to 2019 Nelson Casimiro Zavale1,2 · Christian Schneijderberg2 Accepted: 21 October 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Following a global trend, higher education (HE) in Africa has also become a complex enterprise, potentially demanding specific expertise in higher education research. However, despite this, there is a dearth of analysis into the state of research on African HE. This paper seeks to fill this gap by mapping and analysing African HE research. We undertake a systematic review of 6483 articles and books focusing on African HE published from 1980 to 2019 in indexed and non-indexed journals and book-publishers. We particularly examine the evolution of publications, the journals and book publishers, the authors’ affiliations, the researched countries, the publications’ thematic classification, the most prolific authors, and the most influential publications. Based on this analysis, we draw four main conclusions. First, research on African HE is a rather recent phenomenon or has witnessed a recent rise or renewal. Second, a few selected journals and book-publishers, particularly those with a strong regional or international reputation, dominate the field. Third, four communities of researchers are more represented: the community researching teaching and learning issues, the community focusing on structural transformation of HE, the community focusing on the internal organisation of HE and the community focusing on societal engagement of HE. Four, South Africa dominates the field both as home to most of the authors (including the most prolific) and the empirical field of most publications (including the most influential). If South Africa is excluded, African HE research is weak, but some communities are emerging, particularly in West, East and Southern Africa. Keywords Africa · Higher education research · Systematic review · Mapping the field
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s1073 4-020-00649-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Nelson Casimiro Zavale [email protected]; [email protected]‑kassel.de Christian Schneijderberg [email protected]‑kassel.de 1
Eduardo Mondlane University, Av. Julius Nyerere 3453, Maputo, Mozambique
2
International Centre for Higher Education Research (INCHER), University of Kassel, Mönchebergstr. 17, 34109 Kassel, Germany
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Higher Education
Introduction Following a global trend of massification, higher education (HE) in Africa has expanded considerably. Higher education institutions (HEIs) have diversified in typologies and increased in number: from about 30 HEIs at independence in the 1960s to over 600 HEIs by the 2000s (Zeleza 2016). Student enrollments have also increased, from less than 200 thousand in the 1970s to over 5 million in the 2000s (Mohamedbhai 2014). Borrowing Altbach’s (2014, 2002) terms, HE in Afric
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