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Africanizing HBCUs: Problems and Prospects of International Education in Historically Black Institutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

Olusoji Akomolafe
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Extract

Every projection indicates that minorities will represent a significant portion of the American labor force in the nearest future. Yet minority groups have historically represented segments of the population least capable of competing in the national and international marketplace. This is precisely why historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) need to rise to the challenge through an implicit mandate to internationalize their member institutions and the surrounding communities. This paper takes a critical look at how HBCUs ran the two most predominant components of international education, namely, the overseas and area studies programs. The main focus of the paper is Africa. It is indeed an attempt to assess the status of international education at HBCUs, particularly the problems they encounter as they struggle to internationalize. Although in the last few years, study abroad in Africa has become increasingly popular among HBCUs, the road ahead is still very long and sometimes tortuous. In the area of African studies, most of these institutions have a much bigger challenge to meet. The basic premise of my assumption is that despite all the good intentions of the government and private donor organizations, the fact remains that sustainable and qualitative international education in the area of African studies is in large part unaffordable and thus inaccessible to most HBCUs. Numerous factors are responsible for this phenomenon.

Type
Making Programs Work
Information
African Issues , Volume 28 , Issue 1-2 , 2000 , pp. 103 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2000 

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References

Notes

1. Lewis, Shelby, “Internationalizing Colleges and Universities” (paper presented at the International Education and Training Conference, Institute for International Public Policy, Washington, D.C., January 14, 2000)Google Scholar.

2. See in particular Ogundimu, Folu, “The News Media and Africa,” Issue 27, no. 1 (1994)Google Scholar.

3. Despite the African Studies Association’s having softened its position on its opposition to the NSEP program, HBCUs are still taking advantage of this program to create or improve on their efforts to internationalize their curricula.

4. National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, “Access to Educational Opportunity Data Related to Change,” working paper.

5. This is very evident from many studies that have established that ethnic politics plays a substantial role in the foreign policy process. See in particular Ogene, Chidozie F., Interest Groups and the Shaping of Foreign Policy: Four Case Studies of United States African Policy (New York, US: St. Martin’s Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

6. Challenor, Herschelle Sullivan, “The Influence of Black Americans on U.S. Foreign Policy toward Africa,” in Ethnicity and U.S. Foreign Policy, ed. Said, Abdul Aziz (New York, US: Praeger, 1977)Google Scholar. See also Morris, Milton D., “Black Americans and the Foreign Policy Process: The Case of Africa,” Western Political Quarterly 25, no. 3 (1972): 454-59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7. Olusoji A. Akomolafe, “Africa and Foreign Policy: The Role of HBCUs,” Black Issues in Higher Education, February 11, 1993, 72. For a detailed account of the NSSM 39 snafu, see El-Khawas, Mohamed and Cohen, Barry, The Kissinger Study of Southern Africa-NSSM 39 (Lawrence Hill, 1976)Google Scholar.

8. Peterson’s Guide to Four-Year Colleges, 1997 (Princeton, N.J.: Peterson’s Guide Inc.).

9. Johnetta B. Cole, “Black Students and Overseas Programs,” in Black Students in Overseas Programs (Council for International Education Exchange, 1991).

10. Holly M. Carter, “Minority Access to International Edu cation,” in Black Students in Overseas Programs.