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PRISM Journal
PRISM Volume 4. Issue 1 (2022) https://doi.org/10.24377/prism.ljmu.0401211
https://doi.org/10.24377/prism.ljmu.0401211 4 © 2021 PRISM, ISSN: 2514-5347
The Idea of a Post-Colonial University
Rhody-Ann Thorpe
Université du Littoral et de la Côte d’Opale, Boulogne-Sur-Mer, France (rhody-ann.thorpe@univ-littoral.fr)
Received: 03/12/2020
Accepted for publication: 14/06/2021
Published: 04/09/2021
Abstract
Universities in the English-speaking world may trace their origins to England, where the
first universities of Oxford and Cambridge were established. These universities were, for
centuries, the models for universities to come both in terms of structure and philosophy;
and they also became a tool of British colonial policy. With the progression of British
expansionism, many English men penned their ideas of a university; some of which were
brought to fruition. In the 21st century, we have a multiplicity of independent nations
which were formerly under British rule. While in most societies there was a phasing out
of colonial institutions, many universities established during the colonial epoch seem to
have withstood the test of time. It would be interesting therefore to assess some of
these institutions and their evolutions in a broader endeavour to examine developments
in higher education in societies post-independence. What conversations were had prior
to independence regarding higher education? What ideas of a post-colonial university
prevailed and what ideas should have been put forth? Were there shifts away from what
constituted a colonial university? This paper is also an attempt to include universities in
the post-colonial discourse and to propose an ideals of the university from a post-
colonial perspective.
Keywords: University, Postcolonialism, Higher Education, British Model, Pan African University
1. Introduction
When Newman wrote about the The Idea of a
University, his use of the word ‘idea’ referred to the
Greek sense of the word which speaks to the perfect
form of something. Thus, it was his conception of a
university, in its perfect form, as it should be
(McCartney et al., 1990, p. 39). For him, it was a ‘place
of concourse whither students come from every
quarter for every kind of knowledge’ (Kerr, 1991, p.
346). Newman, who was a cardinal and founding
Rector of the Dublin Catholic University in 1851, was
perhaps influenced by Platonism in terms of his
philosophies of what is and what should be (Newman,
2020). In Newman’s idea of a university, theology
should be permitted a place in the university
curriculum, as then, theology was an integral part of
students’ general moral training and went with
clerical tutors, compulsory chapel attendance, and
subscription to the Articles of the Church (Dale, 1972,
p. 6). He thought it should have been included
because in its absence the pursuit of knowledge as a
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whole is “prejudiced”, as it contradicts the idea that
the University by its very name professes to teach
universal knowledge (Ker, 2011). He also conceived of
the organisational structure of universities, which
would be divided into departments such as (but not
limited to): a school of useful arts, an Observatory, an
archaeological department, and a school of medicine.
A university, according to Newman, should have an
established printing press to bring scholars into
correspondence with the centres of intellect
throughout Europe. He also had a preference for the
hiring of local professors to fill university positions
(with the exception of foreign language teachers);
and he recommended the hiring of tutors who would
work in tangent with the professor (McCartney et al.,
1990, p. 122).
1
Newman’s ideas surfaced at a time of worldwide
colonial expansion. By then, Britain, for example, had
already amassed a vast global empire and pursued
educational policies across the territories of its
empire; these policies included the establishment of
colonial universities.
2
Moreover, universities were
already instruments of the Spanish colonial empire,
with the first universities being established in Santo
Domingo (1538), Lima (1551), Mexico City (1551)
among other places (Brand, 1940). Today, universities
have grown in status, with many becoming
internationally acclaimed. Indeed, universities are
some of the few institutions which continue to exist
despite intact (in comparison to other historical
institutions), despite shifts at societal and global
levels; further consolidating Alexandre’s idea of the
university as being “eternal” (Alexander, 2019). One
of these shifts includes the transition from colonial
status to independent-country status.
1
Here, the word “local” meant Irish.
2
The term ‘colonial universities’ is used here as the origin
of these institutions may be found in Royal commissions
or through papal bulls at the time.
3
One contemporary example entails the #rhodesmustfall
movement which started in South Africa and has had
worldwide reverberations.
In most cases, if not all, universities are institutions
which have survived the transition to independent
status. In the present context where universities have
become targeted as part of the growing call for
decolonization, it is timely to turn the spotlight on to
them, and to scrutinse their post-colonial rhetoric.
3
A
post-colonial critical lens is used here in an effort to
understand and illustrate the repercussions of
colonialism. As such, drawing on historical accounts
and scholarly works on universities in former British
colonies in Africa and the Caribbean, this paper
proposes a synopsis of the development of higher
education within these societies, with the aim of
conceptualizing the idea of a post-colonial university.
It is hoped that this paper will be instructive for the
current discourses and policies related to the
decolonisation of higher education.
2. The development of colonial universities in
Africa and the Caribbean
Britain created universities across the different
countries within its empire, as part of a colonial
development scheme especially in the period
following the second world war. The Colonial Office
appointed two commissions to plan the new
institutions: the Asquith Commission and the Elliott
Commission.
4
The Asquith Commission published a
report in June 1945 recommending the establishment
of an inter-university council for higher education in
the colonies (Kolinsky, 1983, p. 40). This council was
formed in 1946 and its aim was to advise and assist in
the development of facilities for higher education in
colonial areas subjected to British administration
(Clarke, 1946). At that time, only four small
universities existed, and less than ten post-secondary
colleges were in all the territories covered by the
Colonial office (Kolinsky, 1983).
5
The Council’s
4
The Asquith Commission (established in August 1943)
was mandated to advise on policy over the whole range;
and the Elliott Commission (established in June 1943) was
tasked with advising on particular policies to be followed
in the special circumstances prevailing in West Africa.
5
The universities were Malta, Jerusalem, Ceylon and Hong
Kong; and the colleges were in the West Indies, Malaya,
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purpose was to promote the expansion of universities
in British Colonial territories as comprehensive
institutions offering both liberal education and
professional training (idem).
6
In terms of the design of a colonial university, we
can refer to the writings of Clarke (1946, p. 649), who
argued that
7
. these universities should be designed
according to the British model, but with some
adaptations: Clarke prescribed that social and cultural
idioms be taken into consideration. Furthermore, it
was the task of the Inter-University Council to assist
the nascent institutions in achieving intellectual
integrity and adequate intellectual standards. Special
consideration needed to be given to the staff
therefore, and as Clarke recommended ‘for some
time to come, staffs will have to be recruited very
largely from Britain’ (Clarke, 1946, p. 649). This
therefore formed one of the core tasks of the Council,
that was prescribed by the Asquith Commission: ‘to
provide a supply of British University Teachers to the
new and developing institutions in the colonies and to
aid in the training of local graduates of promise so
that academic staff could be recruited increasingly
from within the territories themselves’ (Kolinsky,
1983, p. 40).
In addition to staffing, colonial office planners also
ruled on the degree-granting powers of the local
institutions, as ‘the maintenance of standards by
external examination became a paramount concern’
(Hargreaves, 1973). This was perhaps in response to
the Nigerian context with regards to the Yaba Higher
College in Lagos which was founded by the colonial
government in 1934. This college would have allowed
the replacement of British colonial officials, who
received high wages and allowances, with Nigerians
who would be paid less (Livsey, 2016). However the
college was also criticized for having poor facilities
and that entry was severely restricted by the
availability of positions as assistants in the civil service
West Africa, East Africa and the Sudan. Indian affairs were
dealt with by the colonial office.
6
The Council later was incorporated as a company limited
by guarantee in October 1970.
7
Sir Fred Clarke (1880-1952) was director of the Institute
of Education, University of London (IOE) from 1936-1945
(Kolinsky, 1985). Furthermore, Yaba students
received a diploma tenable only in Nigeria, rather
than a university degree recognised across the empire
or internationally (Livsey, 2016). Colonial planners
thought that prestige and very high standards would
be achieved by issuing external degrees through the
University of London. Furthermore, the latter acted as
a guide, and assumed wide obligations in matters of
advice, assistance, adaptations of courses of study,
and provision for the participation of local staff in the
work of examination. It did so in close cooperation
with the Inter-University Council (Hargreaves 1973).
The Ibadan University College was then created in
1947 as an affiliate to the University of London and
Yaba Higher College was converted to the University
College (University of Ibadan, n.d.).
Furthermore, the recommended medium of
instruction was English, which would implicate the
responsibility of secondary schools to adequately
prepare university entrants. This would also require
teachers to have mastered the English Language and
to become competent in pedagogical practices
(Clarke, 1946). This was perhaps once more in
response to earlier challenges and criticisms
regarding the lack of proficient English-Language
speakers in the colonies.
With regards to the development of higher
education in the West Indies specifically, the Asquith
Commission put in place the Irvine Committee. It was
named after its Chairman Sir James Irvine, and
departed from precedent by including four West
Indians among its seven members (Springer, 1962).
Upon news of the appointment of the committees for
West Indian Higher education, Williams (1946)
formulated his own ideas as per what a British West
Indian university should be of which a few will be
highlighted.
8
For Williams, a colonial university should
be established with vast knowledge of the region it
intends to serve, it should address the challenges
and chairman of the Central Advisory Council for
Education in England.
8
Eric Williams was the first Prime Minister of the Republic
of Trinidad and Tobago.
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currently faced by the people therein and the
education that is intended to be imparted must
therefore be of relevance to the context. Williams
also put emphasis on the imperative to address the
question of curriculum which did ‘not sufficiently
prioritize science and which used textbooks foreign to
the student’s environment and experience’ (Williams,
1946, p.149). For Williams, the university should
serve as a powerful lever towards economic
readjustment as well as social and political change
(1946, p. 150). Moreover, for Williams, the university
should also pay keen attention to the other languages
of the Caribbean area, to deliberately promote
multilingualism in the Caribbean citizen. On the topic
of university affiliation and the young colonial
university having a “big brother” in the metropolitan
country, Williams thought that ‘the British West
Indian University should be an independent
university, subject to direction of indirection from no
other university, standing on its own feet, creating its
own traditions, shaping its own development’.
Furthermore, by initially equipping universities with
first class equipment, university standards would be
less of a concern (1946, p. 153).
Yet, we can refer to Priestly’s unpublished journal,
‘West Indian Journey’ wherein he documented
recommendations by the committee set up by the
Government of Jamaica which departs significantly
from William’s assertions and recommendations.
9
In
terms of the proposal to establish a special
relationship with the University of London, Priestly
notes: ‘We have decided that, in its earlier years, for
the sake of the prestige of any West Indian degree,
the new institution shall take rank as a University
College preparing its students primarily for the
Degrees of London University. It follows from this
that, so far as the first phase of its existence is
concerned, entrance tests will be those recognized by
London, and the curriculum for the Degree courses
9
Raymond Priestly was a member of the Committee on
Higher Education which visited the West Indies in 1944.
He, alongside four other members of his committee left
the UK for the Caribbean to start investigations pertaining
to the establishment of a university in the region. The last
entry is June 10, 1944 and may be viewed online at the
University of the West Indies’ website.
must also conform, except in so far as London can be
persuaded to approve modifications intended to
make the courses germane to West Indian conditions
and needs’ (Sherlock & Nettleford, 1990). Thus, the
British university would play a patriarchal role in
overseeing the development and quality assurance in
the nascent colonial university. In October 1946, the
University College of the West Indies was formally
established and Dr. T.W.J. Taylor, a chemist from
Oxford, was appointed Principal (D’Aeth, 1961, p.
104).
10
It was conceived as essentially a residential
university on the pattern of Oxford and Cambridge
(Braithwaite, 1965, p. 79). Moreover, teachers were
imported from Britain in the effort to ‘to achieve and
maintain an academic standard comparable with that
of a British university’ (1965, p. 81). This had a
significant impact on the cost of higher education
because salaries had to be paid at a somewhat higher
level than that in the United Kingdom; passages to
and from the UK had to be provided with adequate
leave packages, and housing had to be provided for
the substantial expatriate staff subsequently
recruited (idem).
3. Universities in the post-independence era
For former British colonies, universities are one of
the institutions that they inherited. In the Caribbean,
The University College of the West Indies gained
independent status in 1962, the year that Jamaica
obtained political independence.
11
However,
although Jamaica took charge of its own destiny, the
inherited structures and systems could not be
changed immediately (Nkrumah-Young et al., 2008, p.
217). In fact, by 1965, the University was still granting
London University degrees (Fergus, 1998, p. 70).
Furthermore, there could be no immediate radical
change as the University had become enveloped by a
matrix of mechanisms that linked the British colonies
10
The University College was established in Jamaica and it
was to provide for the higher education needs of the
British Caribbean.
11
It is now called the University of the West Indies.
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in the region. Indeed, up until the dissolution of the
West Indies Federation the university was being
funded by the British exchequer (Ganzert, 1953, p.
112).
12
Nonetheless, at the time of independence the
“west Indian feeling” had already grown
tremendously and this was reflected in the
composition of staff. Prior to independence, the
proportion of West Indians on the teaching staff
fluctuated between a quarter and one-third and yet
administrative posts were all held by West Indians
(Springer, 1962, p. 13). Following independence, this
situation had evolved as Stone (1983) notes: ‘the
Mona campus has evolved from being part of a
University College awarding London University
degrees and dominated by expatriates to becoming
part of an independent University with a majority of
West Indian Faculty’ (1983, p. 21). Furthermore, In a
part chronicle, part memoir of the difficulties,
problems and achievements of the university in the
1970 and 1980s, Rex Nettleford and Phillip Sherlock
noted that the university did indeed continue to have
an inward-looking stance in relation to composition;
this lead to the ‘demand that West Indians should
[become a] very high priority in the staffing of the
University’ (Cumper, 1993).
13
Moreover, efforts to “West Indianize” the
curriculum also intensified in the post-independence
period. As Goveia (1969) recalls, the History
Department of the University College of the West
Indies first came into existence in 1950; at the time,
on a regional scale, very little West Indian History was
being taught. It was through pursuing a degree in
History that most of the undergraduates came to
formally teach the hisrtory of the West Indies; this
meant that for some, what they learnt came as a
12
The West Indies Federation was a brief political
association of states in the Caribbean. The association was
endorsed by the British Colonial Office as it allowed for
better management strategies in the sense that the funds
would be allocated to one authority as opposed to several
governments in the Caribbean basin.
13
Phillip Sherlock was involved in the Irvine Commission,
developed the Mona and St. Augustine campuses and
ended as was Vice-Chancellor of the UWI. Rex Nettleford
revelation. Moreover, a decision by the University
Council to conduct a Survey Course in West Indian
History became ‘compulsory for the majority of
undergraduates attending any of the University
Campuses’. In 1969 this was incorporated into the
syllabus for the General Degree (1969, p. 61). Most
students who graduated from the U.W.I. could
therefore be expected to have a ‘general knowledge
of the historical development of the west indies’.
14
The university continued in its effort to sensitise
students to contemporary issues in Caribbean society,
by offering a compulsory module in Caribbean
civilisation to undergraduate students in the Faculties
of Social, Medical and Pure and Applied Sciences (The
University of the West Indies, n. d.).
According to Zeleza (2009), universities, at least in
the African context, went through what he refers to
as the “golden era”, following independence. During
this period, which lasted from the 1950s to the late
1970s, there was much excitement owing to the
establishment of new universities, and the expansion
of old ones; this operated to underpin a triumph of
African nationalism (2009, p. 112).
15
As Mamdani
(2019) acknowledges, the development of higher
education in Africa is basically a post-independence
phenomenon. With the exception of South and North
Africa, where the number of universities founded in
the colonial period could be counted on two hands
(2019, p. 23). For example, there was only the Ibadan
University in Nigeria at the end of the colonial period;
however by 2012, the country boasted 118
universities (Ejiogu & Sule, 2012, p. 259). Having a
national university was considered as much a
hallmark of national independence as having a flag,
an anthem, a central bank and a currency (Mamdani,
2019). We can therefore say that efforts were made
was an alumnus and Pro-Vice Chancellor at the Mona
Campus.
14
Books written by west Indian history teachers were
required course books such as The Making of the West
Indies and A Short History of the West Indies.
15
The Golden era started especially in the 1950s with the
independence of Ghana in 1951.
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to “massify” higher education and to increase access
for African students after independence.
For Paul Zeleza, there were also vigorous efforts to
‘decolonize the disciplines, to “strip” them of their
Eurocentric cognitive and civilizational conceits’
(Zeleza, 2009, p. 112). Following independence, Africa
sought to promote the dreams of African nationalism:
decolonisation and new developments emerged and
replaced the old regional universities, which were
dismantled and reconstituted as national universities.
It is interesting to note that the universities created
after independence were much larger in size than
their colonial predecessors, broader in their missions
and they expanded their disciplinary and curricula
offerings (2009, p. 116). The new universities were
designed as ‘engines of socio-economic
transformation and centres of epistemic
emancipation, as the African intelligentsia readily
rediscovered and rewrote their peoples histories and
humanity so cruelly seized and denied by Europe’
(2009, p. 116). There was a complicity between
governments and academics, which unabigously
endorsed this emancipatory mission; for example,
Ghana’s First President, Kwame Nkrumah, opened
the Institute of African Studies at the Universities of
Ghana in 1962 (Allman, 2013).
However, the euphoria of nationalism and
decolonisation was apparently challenged by what
Zeleza (2009) terms as the crisis era. The crisis era was
characterized by the erosion of the universities’
institutional and intellectual standing due in part to
pecuniary or political crises. For example, in
independent Nigeria, a civil war broke out in May
1967, after the declaration of an independent Biafra
(Arnold, 1999). In Nigeria, after the civil war had
ended, the universities still enjoyed visits and
communication with the inter-university council.
Kolinsky (1985) informs us that Nigerian vice-
chancellors wanted the continued advice of the
council on financial and administrative aspects of
university planning. Dr. Oluwasanmi even indicated
that help with the recruitment of members of staff
was important to Ahmadu Bella university and to his
own university. Hargreaves also notes that there was
pressure to maintain (what a Nigerian commission of
1960 called) the “intellectual gold standard”, which
colonial university teachers, African and expatriate,
treated as an over-riding priority (1979, p. 108).
In Ghana, the crisis era came about following the
rising tide of austerity – or neo-liberal economic
restructuring – and authoritarianism, which became
especially pronounced from the late 1970s through to
the late 1990s. To the overseers of the state, the
university had not only lost its mission but it was
becoming a potentially dangerous site populated by
volatile educated youths and devious academics who
revelled in purveying “foreign ideology” and
“irrelevant” theoretical research (2009, p. 116).
Zeleza noted that in the 80s, there was a rise in state-
sanctioned anti-intellectualism which found succour
in the “strange gospel from the World Bank, that
Africa needed primary schools rather universities”.
There was then the influx of expatriates and the
concomitant emigration of skilled labour, including
academics (idem). As Zeleza notes, the liberatory
mission of the post-colonial university gave way to
imperatives of survival, as middle-class comforts
slipped from the lives of academics in many countries.
Moreover, diminishing resources, combined with
mounting state tyranny, led to the deterioration of
research, teaching and physical infrastructures; the
demoralization of faculty and students; and a social
devaluation of the status of academics and the
scholarly enterprise. This ultimately led to a greater
brain drain; all challenges that post-colonial African
societies would have to contend with.
4. Idealizing the post-colonial university
In more recent times, efforts to develop higher
education in post-colonial Africa ensued when in
2008 the African Union Commission sanctioned the
creation of the pan-African university (PAU). This was
in response to the recurring question of ‘why’ African
universities existed; and, for example, should they be
seen as Western Universities in Africa (Ndlovu, 2014,
p. 138). The issue of the identity of an African
university was crucial as it had a bearing on the nature
of graduates that universities produced, and was of
utmost concern with regard to the ongoing
Eurocentrism in the majority of universities in Africa
(2014, p. 141). The PAU would therefore be a way for
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Africans to not be mere passive spectators in the
making of university education in Africa by
undertaking the quest for pan-African education. The
PAU came to be in five geographic sub-regions of
Africa, namely: Northern Africa, Western Africa,
Eastern Africa, Central Northern Africa and Southern
Africa. However, Ndlovu (2014) identifies a number of
drawbacks to the PAU, which serve to undermine the
idea of a postcolonial university. For example, Ndlovu
notes that PAU has institutes located in existing
universities in Africa; these have been characterised
by Patricia Collins as having a ‘Eurocentric,
masculinist, knowledge-validation process, whereby
certain types of knowledge, theories and
methodologies are validated, while others are
invalidated’.
16
Ndlovu suggests that these institutes
have inherited Eurocentric knowledge and validation
processes, which tend to marginalise African world
views and aspirations. Secondly, the PAU is also
criticised as the result of its prioritisation of particular
programmes of study. Ndlovu (2014) refers to the
Southern African mode of the university has a model
that has chosen to focus on “space sciences’, a
curricular attention which is thought to be misplaced
and out of context. Ndlovu recommends that focus
should be placed on programmes that could bridge
socio-economic inequalities or bring about a better
understanding of them. Thirdly, Ndlovu (2014) asserts
that by recieving external funding from Germany and
Sweden, the university does not generate educational
programmes that serve developmental needs,
interests, and aspirations of indigenous communities
in Africa. Furthermore, in not adopting an ideological
position that committed to the recruitment of
teaching and research staff with an interest in the
decolonisation of knowledge in Africa, the PAU
inadvertantly supported a Eurocentric model of the
university (Ndlovu, 2018, p. 105). In order for the PAU
to transform the heavily Eurocentric model of
education thorughout Africa, it is ‘not enough to
recruit Africans: it needs to consciously exalt the
African knowledge that has for so long been
subalternate through recruiting Afrocentric scholars,
16
As seen in (Small 2012:71)
17
The Caribbean region boasts many universities,
colleges, and institutes. The University of the West Indies
as well as opening up space for indigenous knowledge
in the curriculum’ (Ndlovu, 2014, p. 143).
In the Caribbean, the higher education landscape
has evolved to include a wide variety of providers.
17
Notwithstanding, a few elements have been
identified for further focus and improvement for
post-colonial Caribbean universities to consider. For
example, Peters (2001, p. 51), asserts that universities
in the Caribbean should be ‘cognizant of global and
international economic trends’, and these should be
instructive in terms of designing programmes that will
‘enable Caribbean students to develop the necessary
knowledge and skills that will make them worthy and
competitive players in the global market place’.
Moreover, Peters asserts that ‘the tertiary education
sector will need to be dynamic, reoriented and
restructured [for the] students who come through
our national and regional institutions’ (Peters, 2001,
p. 51). Furthermore, it would appear that post-
colonial universities in the Caribbean will need to
pave the way toward financial independence as
higher education systems are ‘adversely affected due
to insufficient funding and minimal resources’
(Browne & Shen, 2017, p. 176). For example, in the
Eastern Caribbean tuition cost is relatively too high
for the locals of the country in which the university is
located ranging from 20,000 USD to 180,000 USD
depending on the type and level of programme
(Browne & Shen, 2017, p. 176). This therefore
negatively impacts the number of students who can
easily access higher education and leave debt-free.
Moreover, it is also a challenge that Caribbean
universities have a heritage of importing foreign
academic staff. As Browne & Shen (2017, p. 176) note,
‘the countries have to import foreign professors and
auxiliary to work in the country, to meet the basic
requirements for these institutions and also the
private universities are furnished form abroad.
Persons from the countries are employed, but on a
very small scale, which means reduced spending
power for the local worker’. Moreover, universities in
the post-colonial Caribbean still have to contend with
now has campuses and offices throughout the region and
there are also other public universities including private
ones.
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new external influences coming from North America
and Europe as they develop in a globalized world.
18
This influence tends to also be indirect in the sense
that it is transmitted not predominantly from an
overarching colonial power like in the past but
through a more intangible and almost inconspicuous
manner. As De Wit and Escala (2019) inform us, ‘many
of the elite from each country in the region have been
trained in the higher education systems of these
colonial powers and one can still observe an outward
mobility trend to these colonial states and
dependence on their funding, teaching and learning,
structures and cultures and their quality assurance
processes’.
Based on the above positions, one can therefore
theorize that a post-colonial university should strive
to be three things: independent, relevant and
indigenous. The idea of an independent university has
already been put forth by Beloff (1974) but from
another perspective than that which is advanced in
this paper. Professor Max Beloff was giving the
Edmund Rich Memorial lecture in Britain and was
proposing the idea of the independent university – for
British universities. Then, Professor Beloff was
referring to the fact that higher education was still a
prerogative of the State which provided funding
through the university grant commission, as opposed
to in the United States where universities were being
privatized and thus could pursue their own funding
ventures (Beloff, 1974, p. 506). For the purposes of
this paper, the word “independent” here not only
means that the institution has acquired university
status with degree-conferring powers; but also in
terms of its capacity to fulfil its mandate without
relying on an overarching colonial structure. We can
recall that this was the case where colonial
universities were associates of British universities as
part of a quality-assurance rationale. Moreover,
during periods of political and financial crisis following
independence we also showed that universities in
Africa as well as in the Caribbean, there was still
reliance on assistance from the “motherland”. An
independent university would depend on its country
18
The development of short cycle programmes is an
example of that influence.
having a robust economic situation and also give high
priority to higher education in order to fulfil the needs
of its population with regards to tertiary education.
Post-colonial universities should also be relevant
where its programmes and curricula are concerned,
equipping the students to face the challenges of their
socio-economic realities. For example, in the
Caribbean the economic and social context has
changed from what it was several years ago; there has
been a shift from traditional agriculture to more
service-based economies among other industries
(Rhiney, 2016). The post-colonial university should
also consider the background, profiles, and realities of
the students that they serve. One can make the link
between this criterion of relevance with the ongoing
#liberatemydegree campaign. This campaign was
launched by the National Union of Students in
Scotland in 2016 and advocates for a more student-
led and student-centred approach to curriculum
design. It aims to combat ‘rigid curricula and
assessment methods that privilege certain groups
while systematically shutting out those most
marginalized from education: women, working class,
disables, LGBT+, black students and those with caring
responsibilities’ (NUS Connect, 2016).
Finally, a post-colonial university should also be an
indigenous one – both in terms of its staff
composition and the promotion locally produced
knowledge. From the African context, Wright (1992)
argues that one wrong that must be righted through
reform (following independence), is the neglect of
African writing in school and university syllabi. It is
imperative that indigenous works be brought to the
fore, so that local students can read and study the
literature of their own country and of Africa. For
Peter (2019), among other things, the postcolonial
university should seek to decolonise the university, its
curricula, and rehabilitate its traditional knowledge
base, to restore indigenous languages, histories and
knowledge systems (Peters 2019). We can also make
note of Rossouw (2018) who asserts that much more
should be done to enable university students in post-
PRISM (2022) Thorpe (2022)
PRISM 12 4(1)
colonial societies to study in their first languages
(2018, p. 73).
5. Conclusion
The aim of this paper was to identify some of the
ideals that universities in the post-independence era
could pursue in a context where much focus is being
turned the injustices of colonial heritage. It has done
so by establishing the antecedents to the
establishment of universities in the British colonies,
and looking at some of the reforms that have been
undertaken following independence. With the
example of PAU, it showed that even universities
(which, by definition, were not colonial universities),
can still be vulnerable to the vestiges and impacts of
the colonial experience as well as its lingering external
influence. Furthermore, after synthesising existing
knowledge of the higher education systems as well as
the social and economic situations of former British
colonies, the article posits that independence,
relevance and indigenisation are ideals that post-
colonial universities should either aspire to or embark
upon. It is hoped that this paper can be used a
theoretical template which could be used for further
research on other aspects which, although very much
deserving of further attention, were not addressed in
this paper.
6. Disclosure statement
The author declares no potential conflicts of
interest with respect to the research, authorship,
and/or publication of this article.
7. Open Access Policy
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PRISM (2022) Thorpe (2022)
PRISM 13 4(1)
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