Protesters fear privatisation plan for African universities (G8)

[struggle4progress]

PROTESTERS are to lobby delegates from Commonwealth universities today amid fears that African educational institutions are to be privatised.

Last month, The Herald revealed that a £4.3bn plan to reform Africa's universities was to be drawn up in Scotland before next week's G8 summit.

About 40 vice-chancellors of British and African universities are in Dundee for talks with senior officials from across the Commonwealth, and politicians, including Thabo Mbeki, the South African president.

Experts believe the five-day conference could change the face of African higher education for years to come. But G8 Alternatives, the left-wing protest group, is concerned that the direction being taken by education in Africa is increasingly influenced by the needs of the west and the private sector, rather than those of Africa and Africans.
A spokesman said: "It is essential that funding on offer to African universities is not tied to strings, and that the universities, their staff and research activities are not reduced to passive tools of powerful private interests. <snip>

http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/42140.html

[applegrove]

1. They can't let people think for themselves. Yeah they need people

to understand finance in Africa just like they have them in the USA. But people also need history. So they can look at something like Nationalism of oil industry to see if it is a better way to spread the wealth - while the wealth exists in some states.

[david_vincent]

2. From physical slavery to intellectual slavery?