Strategy-Making in African Higher Education: Challenges and Opportunities, Discursive Practices, and Faculty Engagement in Ethiopian Universities
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Date
2025-09-02
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AAU
Abstract
Strategy-making perspective is a vital management tool for interpreting external and internal environments and aligning organizational activities with long-term goals. The main objective of this dissertation is to examine strategy-making in higher education institutions (HEIs) by raising an important question: what are the external and internal factors that influence the strategy-making process in higher education institutions? Based on the African context, it intends to provide empirical evidence on both external and internal factors that influence participation in strategy-making and its effectiveness. The dissertation employed a mixed-methods approach: a systematic literature review to synthesize existing literature on African higher education, and both qualitative and quantitative methods for the empirical investigation in the Ethiopian higher education context. Across African higher education, strategy-making is shaped by socio-cultural and political factors, while economic, technological, legal, and environmental dimensions remain underexplored, highlighting the need to strengthen governance, diversify revenue, enhance university–industry partnerships, manage talent, and decolonize curricula. In the Ethiopian context, strategy participation is influenced by discursive practices, where top management mystifies strategic concepts, middle management bureaucratizes them, and academic and administrative staff challenge these through their professional and organizational identities. Moreover, faculty engagement with industry positively affects their participation in strategy-making by providing practical knowledge, skills, and insights that align individual contributions with institutional goals. This dissertation advances our understanding of strategy-making in non-business and non-Western contexts by broadening the concept of strategic subjectivity to include lower management and employees, highlighting the role of communicative and participatory practices. It also provides Africa- and Ethiopia-specific insights into higher education strategy, showing how academic engagement with industry and the interplay of policy, industry demands, and academic values shape strategy-making. Practically, it offers guidance for higher education managers and policymakers by emphasizing participation, understanding power dynamics, and leveraging faculty–industry engagement to produce actionable strategic decisions.
Keywords: Higher education institutions, Strategy-making, Participation, Strategy discourses, Academic engagement