The article critically reviews global discourses in the academic writing oncomparative education dealing with the crises in African higher education. Severalanalyses explain how the struggling education systems can overcome obstacles andjoin the modern world in accordance with Western developmental models. One ofthe most common methodologies used to analyse comparative higher educationemploys the nation state as the main analytic unit. We might learn about howgovernment policies influence reform at tertiary institutions, or how the universitystructure of one country compares with another; but little about the problematicimpact of globalisation on the patterns observed at the national levels. Informed bywriting on postcolonialism, the article proposes alternatives to the current literature: it advocates the development of critical knowledge systems and independentinstitutions, rooted in local societies and social struggles.
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