Universities & Industrial Development

Suleman H. Okech writing in African Loft:

...To increase the Universities’ contribution to develop and transfer technologies in an effective way that would stimulate industrial development, Kenyan [and other African] universities need to transform themselves into developmental universities. To achieve this, other participants, such as industry and government must be prepared to take on new responsibilities that would challenge Universities to open up for the necessary linkage with industry, Small and Medium Entrepreneurs (SMEs) and the government. Well crafted dialogue within and outside universities must be initiated.
In Africa, Universities have the highest concentration of highly trained human resource capacity that should spearhead research, innovate, develop and transfer technologies. This potential has not been adequately exploited due to a number of factors: To begin with, industrial investment in the country is spearheaded by international companies who are dependent on their parent companies’ research in the developed countries. Secondly, universities in Africa tend to work in isolation. Thirdly, there is lack of proper policies that encourage local research and participation of the universities in national development. Finally, low funding. High-level research is costly, and governments are reluctant to funds research.