Intellectuals have a special contribution to make to the development of a nation, and to Africa. And I am asking that their knowledge, and the greater understanding that they should possess, should be used for the benefit of the society of which we are all members.
Julius Kambarage Nyerere, first president of Tanzania, from his book Uhuru Na Maendeleo (Freedom and Development), 1973.
The East African Community (EAC) is one of the fastest-growing regional economic blocs in the world. It has a vision to deliver a “Common Higher Education Area,” bringing together sovereign states to develop compatible, coherent and harmonized systems of higher education. In the last 10 years, research output and influence have increased significantly in East Africa. For example, Uganda delivers one of the region’s most-cited papers drawing solely on “home-grown” research by authors based within the country. For further research highlights like this, we turn to the Clarivate Analytics Web of Science platform in a new report, “East Africa snapshot: Prolific institutions and active fields between 2007–2017.” In the report we examine a selection of East African nations, featuring Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Somalia. Also, for comparison and benchmarking, we look at one of the continent’s largest growing economies, a nation that made a similar commitment to strengthen its education system and has seen significant success: Egypt.
Egypt has shown steady signs of research impact growth over the last decade, and we assess how the research output and impact of 6 East African countries compares to Egypt – and the growth trajectory that the EAC’s commitment to education may deliver.
