• Antecedents - before 1900; colonialism and higher education; decolonization and higher education 1945-60; the politics of independence and higher education 1960-70; the association of African universities; higher education and African development 1970s and 1980s; issues and problems of the 1990s; towards the 21st century; the mission of the university reviewed; new expectations and reorientations; the outreach.

The universities are in a state of crisis. Those teachers who can, flee abroad, while students crowd into slum-like institutions that can no longer teach them adequately. It is a crisis the authors foresee lasting into the next century. But they still feel there are strategies of reconstruction that can save the universities, notably by persuading their governments that they can be agents for national development, offering particularly the communications and managerial skills still in short supply in Africa. But they insist that academic freedom and university autonomy must be restored.