by P.D. Lesko and Ann Brucklacher

The over reliance on part-time faculty at colleges and universities is a truly global phenomenon. In North America, more than 60 percent of college faculty hold temporary appointments. In South America, the percentage, according to higher education researcher Dr. Philip Altbach, is also near 60 percent. In Africa, according to various studies funded by American foundations such as the Ford, Rockefeller and McArthur Foundations, between 40 to 60 percent of college faculty hold part-time, temporary teaching appointments. The reason behind the over reliance of African institutions on large numbers of part-time faculty has to do with financial pressures, of course.

However, one can trace the increase in the use of part-time faculty at colleges and universities throughout Africa to what one World Bank official calls the “push-pull factor,” as well as to investment strategies of the international money-lending industry. In short, African academics are pulled to opportunities in Europe, Britain, Canada and the U.S. These same academics are pushed to emigrate by repressive governments and crumbling economies. In addition, international lending institutions have, until only relatively recently, viewed investment in primary education as more attractive (as providing a better return) than investment in higher education.

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