403 



2 



Introduction 



The I95O3 and 1960s witnessed a period of large scale building of 

 institutions of higher learning and research in Africa when there was 

 great optimism about the opportunities of Africa for broad and deep 

 economic development. The universities, it was thought, gradually would 

 produce the scientists and administrators needed for the rapid economic 

 and social development of the continent. Primarily composed of expatriate 

 staff and administration, the universities were indigenized only slowly in 

 this era due to the movement into government of many educators and the 

 lack of Ph.D. -trained faculty. 



Largely continuing the tradition of the metropolitan universities, 

 the African institutions did not place highest priority on the production 

 of scientific research for pressing human problems. As a result, research 

 and extension activities for development were largely left by the univer- 

 sities to government ministries and research institutes. The first insti- 

 tution of higher education in Africa modelled on the American "land-grant 

 university" with primacy given to academic excellence in the service of 

 basic human needs through applied research and extension was developed in 

 Eastern Nigeria and, unfortuantely, was subsequently decimated by the 

 civil war in the late 1960s. In the early 1960s so dominant were the 

 "humane letters" in much of Africa that the largest academic department in 

 West Africa's premier university was the Department of Classics. Academic 

 work on many campuses did not reflect a sense of urgency. Frequently, it 

 had little or only indirect relevance to the diverse institutional needs 

 of agriculture, public health, medical services, urban planning, and 



