The African Network for Internationalisation of Education (ANIE) participated in the 2026 European Association for International Education (EAIE) Conference in Glasgow, contributing an African perspective to discussions around Study and Research in Africa (SRiA) and the changing landscape of internationalisation in African higher education.
ANIE’s contribution advanced a central proposition: Africa’s challenge is no longer simply to become more visible within international higher education. Greater visibility must translate into greater African agency, stronger institutional capacity and more meaningful and sustainable connections.
Africa is already part of the internationalisation landscape
The discussion recognised the considerable momentum already underway across the continent. African universities are increasingly participating in international student and staff mobility, research partnerships, digital collaboration, graduate training and regional and global networks.
The SRiA initiative therefore enters an expanding ecosystem rather than an empty space. Contributions from continental and regional organisations demonstrated growing infrastructure around research, quality assurance, qualifications recognition, mobility and institutional collaboration.
Yet increased international activity does not automatically produce more equitable positioning for African institutions.
ANIE argued that initiatives such as SRiA can help address an important visibility and discoverability gap by making African institutions, academic programmes, research strengths and opportunities more accessible. But visibility by itself cannot address weak institutional data systems, limited internationalisation capacity, recognition barriers, uneven representation or fragile mechanisms for sustaining partnerships.
Five transformations for the next phase of internationalisation
Against this background, ANIE identified five transformations that should characterise the emerging phase of internationalisation in African higher education:
Africa as destination, not simply sender. African higher education should increasingly be recognised as a destination for study, research and knowledge creation rather than predominantly as a source of internationally mobile students and researchers.
From mobility to talent circulation. Mobility should generate enduring flows of knowledge, expertise, mentorship and institutional capability rather than being understood primarily as physical movement between countries.
From projects to knowledge ecosystems. Individual projects and externally funded initiatives should contribute to institutional structures, networks and capabilities that endure beyond particular funding cycles.
From participation to co-ownership. African institutions should participate not merely as project partners but as co-shapers of agendas, decisions, data and benefits.
From promotion to evidence infrastructure. Making African higher education visible internationally requires reliable, current and increasingly African-owned information systems through which the continent can represent its institutions, capabilities and opportunities.
Co-ownership must be designed into partnerships
A particularly important issue arising from the Glasgow discussions concerned the meaning of co-ownership.
For ANIE, co-ownership cannot be assumed simply because African and international institutions participate in the same programme or consortium. It must be deliberately incorporated into partnership architecture.
This requires asking difficult but necessary questions: Who sets the agenda? Who accesses and governs the information? Who participates in decision-making? Who benefits? And what capacities remain within African institutions after a partnership or funded project comes to an end?
Shared agendas, shared data and shared benefits are therefore not peripheral considerations. They are essential governance conditions for moving internationalisation from participation towards genuine reciprocity and sustainable institutional relationships.
Visibility creates an institutional responsibility
Greater international visibility also creates new demands on African universities.
When institutions and their programmes become more discoverable, they can expect increased enquiries, partnership requests, student and researcher mobility and interest in their academic and research capabilities. Institutions must therefore have the systems necessary to respond.
These include reliable programme and institutional data, effective admissions and mobility procedures, professional international offices, research partnership support, appropriate student and researcher services, and mechanisms that ensure institutional continuity when individuals or projects change.
Internationalisation therefore cannot be separated from the broader health and capability of African higher education institutions.
ANIE: Connecting continental ambition with institutional practice
This is the space in which ANIE continues to position its work, organised around four mutually reinforcing areas:
Evidence. Through research, ANIE strengthens the evidence base on how internationalisation is actually experienced and implemented within African institutions.
Professionalisation. ANIE supports the practitioners and offices responsible for managing international engagement on the ground.
Capacity building. ANIE works directly with institutions to strengthen their strategies, systems and partnership capabilities.
Convening. ANIE creates spaces in which universities, networks, policymakers and international partners can learn from one another and shape collective responses.
From Glasgow to Addis Ababa
The Glasgow conversation leads naturally to the ANIE Annual Conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 14–16 October 2026, under the theme: “Building Resilient Knowledge Ecosystems in Africa.”
Addis Ababa provides an opportunity to carry the conversation forward — from identifying the conditions necessary for meaningful African participation in international higher education towards considering what African institutions and their partners must collectively build to sustain it.
The measure of progress in African internationalisation should therefore not simply be more partnerships, more mobility or more visibility. It should increasingly be whether international engagement leaves African institutions more visible, more capable, more connected and better positioned to exercise agency within the global knowledge system.
The question ANIE leaves with the international higher education community is consequently both simple and demanding. What must we build so that greater African visibility produces greater African agency?