USA Africa Dialogue Series - Report on the Carnegie/AU Deliberations on Continental Forum on the role of the diaspora in higher education, research and innovation in Africa, No. 4

SESSION 2

Government-led Academic Diaspora Engagement Programs: Outcomes and Effective Practices

 

Professor Abdoulaye Gueye, University of Ottawa, Overview of comparative contexts and incentives of government-led academic diaspora initiatives in Europe, Asia, and Latin America

He was commissioned to do a research. How do countries win back its own people? There are debates about migrations and brain drain and how some countries can rob the world of their talents. He reviews different policies put in place to attract diaspora scholars.

Prof Wel Ha, Associate Dean Peking University

He writes about the experience and results of government programs in China

He provides charts that show that China is producing many graduates.

Chinese who study abroad can go back home, some stay abroad and establish partnership and networks. He talks about brain gain, brain circulation. He provides data on Chinese who go abroad and those who return. Rate of return fluctuates. Where China funds the education, ratio of return is high; where it is self-funded, return ratio is low.

Chinese policies are in two phases—you can be asked to return but not a permanent basis but to make specific contributions. The second is permanent. In the recent phase, they invite the scholars back permanently. They create the infrastructure to do this. In 2010, they create policies for those under the age of 40. The returnees assist to increase the number of publications.

 

Prof N. V. Varghese, Vice-Chancellor, National Institute of Education Planning and Administration

He traces the phases in migrations and points to the importance of remittances.

Calls for global competition and provides comparative data.

 

 

 

Questions

1. What is the impact of economic changes in India and China that make people return back home?
2. Examine the different levels of development and issues around relevance. How do we manage the different diasporas and evaluate their linkages?
3. Is there a condition of state espionage in China and India to steal ideas?
4. China and India have the capacities to attract the diaspora
5. About 11 million Mozambicans left after the war. What kind of juice can you offer to give for them to come back? The country cannot compete with what they earn abroad? Is it easy for African countries to open the door to those abroad?
6. Rote learning is the bane for African education. She is curious to know about the education in China and India, wondering how creativity is created in learning.
7. Some students don't want to return after sponsorship. Is this about the environment back home? In the case of Nigeria, those trained abroad complain about facilities.
8. From Zambia, he is curious from the Indian experience is that you cannot discuss the diaspora discourse without discussing the players. Who are the other key players outside the education system? What do the govt agencies do to create an enabling environment?

 

Answers:

India

The diaspora is at the higher level of education. India makes use of the diaspora to start new initiatives, a way of looking at research activities. They use the diaspora to lift the quality of research. It creates academic inequality. There is possibility of spying. India education also promotes rote learning. Diaspora is a middle-class phenomenon—this makes people not to come back.

China

Needs drive decision. You need security and order, economies for your diaspora to come back. But on individual needs, there is nothing the government can do. In China, you have to be first author before your publication counts.