Mobility barriers hinder Africa-Europe research collaboration
Collaboration between African and European universities may be moving in the right direction – but barriers to mobility for African academics and students continue to hold back equal cooperation between the two continents in education and research, according to a higher education leader from Africa.
While partnerships between the European Union and Africa are evolving from a ‘donor-recipient’ model towards a strategic vision of ‘equal’ collaboration and a shared quality assurance framework, African higher education institutions face major obstacles to operational parity.
Among the biggest barriers are the “significant visa hurdles” frequently faced by African academics trying to visit their European counterparts – and the same is true of student exchanges, Professor Olusola Oyewole, the secretary-general of the Association of African Universities (AAU), told University World News.
AU-EU Summit
Oyewole made his remarks following the Seventh African Union-European Union (AU-EU) Summit held in Luanda, the capital of Angola, from 24-25 November 2025.
The summit produced a joint declaration, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of the AU-EU partnership inaugurated at a summit in Cairo in 2000.
The joint communique spoke about “resilience in the face of past and present geopolitical challenges” and reaffirmed “closer cooperation and collective action for the mutual benefit of the peoples of Africa and Europe” including in education, research, science, technology and skills development.
Visa hurdles
However, Oyewole said: “While European partners can often travel to Africa with relative ease, our academics frequently face significant visa hurdles to visit their European counterparts.
“True equality requires fluid intellectual exchange in both directions. Overcoming these barriers is essential for the partnership to reach its full potential.”
Nevertheless, Oyewole was one of a number of African and European university leaders stressing the “strategic value of the EU-Africa relationship” at a time of increasing uncertainty about scientific relations between the developing world and the United States under the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump has already closed down the United States’ Agency for International Development, merging USAID with the State Department, and cut its programme, as University World News reported in February 2025, under the headline, ‘Trump’s USAID shutdown impacts universities worldwide’.
Other Western countries, like the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands, have also scaled back their overseas development funding.
Strategic value of AU-EU relationship
“The recent global funding shifts have underscored the strategic value of the EU-Africa relationship,” said Oyewole, with EU framework programmes such as Horizon Europe and dedicated Africa initiatives providing “a crucial layer of stability”.
Oyewole told University World News: “This disruption hasn’t so much changed the relationship [between the AU and the EU] as highlighted its importance.”
He emphasised the Joint Africa-EU Strategy, the African-European Partnership, and the Joint Vision for 2030 among the programmes collectively shaping the mechanisms that enable African researchers and innovators to access funding.
“The challenge now is for the EU and Africa to jointly advocate for and ensure that the effective frameworks are adequately funded and made more accessible to African institutions.
“African universities are also encouraged to strengthen their internal funds-generation mechanism to reduce over-dependency on external sources of funds,” said Oyewole.
Research capacity
His comments were echoed by Professor John O Gyapong, the secretary-general of the African Research Universities Alliance, or ARUA, who told University World News: “We welcome the renewed AU-EU partnership and the shift towards more balanced collaborations, as seen in many joint initiatives like the AU-EU Innovation Agenda and the (EU’s) Global Gateway programme, which enhance Africa’s research capacity.
“With decreased funding from traditional partners such as the US, EU support through many flagship programmes has become increasingly vital.
“For ARUA, we believe that investing in education and research is crucial for peace and stability – a key theme of the AU-EU Summit – especially in meeting the needs of Africa’s growing youth population.
“This renewed partnership signifies a positive move towards equal, sustainable cooperation that promotes knowledge, innovation, and security across the continent.”
Filling the gap
From an institutional level, Dr Vincent Ogutu, the vice-chancellor of Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya, predicted that, as major funding to African higher education institutions from the US and some countries from the Global North declines, “an opportunity arises for other players to take up these projects”.
He told University World News: “At Strathmore, many of the cases we have been working on through USAID went through a very rigorous vetting process and have high-quality outcomes, and any new partner coming to fill the gap would be inheriting viable projects, with the teams on the ground already trained and ready to go.”
Ogutu foresaw an upsurge in collaboration between the Global North, via European universities and research institutions and their counterparts in Africa and the rest of the Global South “including by institutions in the very countries that have cut funding” at a national government level.
“Whenever an African higher education institution is seen to have successfully run North-South projects well in the past, it continues to attract partnerships from peer institutions, even from the very countries that might have cut funding.
“While governments may not see the big global picture and think they are doing the right thing by diverting resources to address domestic needs, collaboration with African higher education institutions could put those Global North countries back in the driving seat, allowing them to prepare good candidates to hire, while also lessening the need for people to emigrate, if their own countries [in the Global South] are developing as a result of these collaborative projects,” said Ogutu.
So, the withdrawal of funds is an invitation for other players, whether bilateral or institutional, to fill this gap and we would welcome partnerships for mutual benefit that are aligned to our values and vision for Africa,” he added.
Italian-African initiative
One European university showing the way that Western institutions can develop a mutually beneficial approach to cooperation with African countries is Milan’s Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, or Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, in Italy.
University World News reported earlier this year how African entrepreneurs were being supported by a pioneering Italian initiative – E4Impact partnership – involving about 30 universities across 26 African countries.
Following the AU-EU Summit in Luanda and the call to strengthen ties between Africa and Europe, Mario Molteni, a professor of corporate strategy at the Milan-based university, told University World News: “Our Global MBA in Impact Entrepreneurship and initiatives such as Circular Labour Migration are in line with the Africa-EU partnership vision and with [the] Italian government’s Mattei Plan to foster strategic cooperation and sustainable development with African countries ... We see our collaborations with African universities as a concrete model of genuine shared-growth and future cooperation.”
Progress since last summit
Before last month’s AU-EU Summit in Luanda, the AAU and the European University Association (EUA) issued a joint statement which outlined hopes and aspirations for taking forward cooperation and collaboration between African and European research and higher education.
This set out three priorities:
• Recognise the transversal importance of university cooperation and continue to invest in it;
• Enable interregional exchange and cooperation to develop higher education and research systems; and
• Focus on values-based partnerships.
It also highlighted the progress made since the last AU-EU summit held in Brussels in 2022, including Horizon Europe’s Africa Initiatives to help address health, the green transition, digital transformation, and science capacity-building, aligned with the joint AU-EU Innovation Agenda and the Youth Mobility for Africa Global Gateway Flagship initiative.
The AAU-EUA statement said there had also been more than 50,000 exchanges of students and staff between Europe and Africa, as well as 240 capacity-building projects involving higher education institutions through the Youth Mobility for Africa Flagship.
It welcomed the shift towards more equitable and balanced partnerships, with an enhanced role for African higher education institutions in co-designing and leading projects and initiatives, which helped to build trust and understanding and paved the way for mutual learning.
There has also been better mutual understanding and use of recognition and quality assurance instruments, based on the work of HAQAA III (Harmonisation, Accreditation and Quality Assurance in African Higher Education) and ACQF II (the African Continental Qualifications Framework).
These initiatives have contributed to making Africa a key dialogue partner for the Global Dimension of the Bologna Process, which is aimed at bringing about coherence in higher education systems in Europe.
The AAU-EUA statement recommended stronger Africa-centric measures in the EU’s next long-term budget (2028-34), including reinforcing Horizon Europe’s Africa Initiatives, Erasmus+ capacity building, international mobility, and the Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme.
It also called for support for new mutual partnerships such as the Study and Research in Africa Initiative, launched in 2025 to boost Africa’s attractiveness as a study and research destination while strengthening European-African academic careers on the continent.
View from Europe
Michael Gaebel, the director of Higher Education Policy at the EUA, told University World News: “The EUA has been working in collaboration with African colleagues for more than two decades, including on the first-ever Erasmus Mundus project between Europe and Africa, 15 years ago, with the AAU and other partners.
“African and European universities have evolved in their internationalisation and there is more funding provided through European, national and international initiatives, and also much policy attention.
“At European level, we now have the Global Gateway and the Youth Mobility flagship, enabling dialogue, cooperation and resource pooling among different actors and donors.
“We also all feel the impetus to continue and enhance this in view of the specific priorities of the AU-EU relationship, but also shared global challenges and achieving the SDGs [Sustainable Development Goals].
“What concerns us is that higher education and research is not yet fully acknowledged in the larger [AU-EU] collaboration frameworks and might just be seen as a tool to advance certain priorities in a rather technical and utilitarian fashion.”
Professor Jan Palmowski, the secretary-general of The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, told University World News that they welcomed the explicit commitment towards research, education, science, technology and skills in the joint declaration from the AU-EU Summit.
“I am delighted to see the commitment to existing schemes of exchange and important encouragement to the international dimension of Erasmus+ as the EU plans for the next Multiannual Financial Framework from 2028,” he said.
“Especially in the context of our initiative to develop Clusters of Research Excellence jointly with ARUA, the text also foresees the strengthening of partnerships between universities and research organisations.
“Finally, there is a clear commitment to investing in education and research to overcome brain drain, in the context of the AU-EU Innovation Agenda. That agenda has only just begun to be implemented, and it is important that the declaration recognised its work.
“Given that the declaration also mentioned many areas for which research collaboration is crucial – health, data and biodiversity/climate to name just a few – this declaration is an important affirmation of the importance of collaboration in research and education as an essential pillar of the AU-EU partnership,” said Palmowski.
• The Global Gateway is the €306 billion (about US$356 billion) European strategy launched in 2021 to boost smart, clean and secure links in digital, energy and transport sectors, while also strengthening health, education and research systems across the world.
It is fully aligned with the United Nations Agenda 2030 and its Sustainable Development Goals and a first milestone was the Africa-Europe Investment Package, with approximately €150 billion of investment dedicated to strengthening partnerships with Africa.
Nic Mitchell is a UK-based freelance journalist and PR consultant specialising in European and international higher education. He blogs at www.delacourcommunications.com.