Today’s universities increasingly need to look for external sources of funding. While a range of strategies and opportunities are available, funding provided by external competitive calls may be an effective way to support university activities and services and to foster the achievement of a university’s strategic goals, especially when it comes to internationalization.
Funding for and through internationalization: an overview
Today, higher education institutions across the world are facing major challenges, among which is a widespread need to diversify their income streams. This is due to various factors, including reductions in public spending but also institutions’ desire to strengthen their roles and services.
These trends have been analysed in depth in both Europe and Africa. In 2017, in an article published in University World News, journalist Munyaradzi Makoni explored the debate on the diversification of income streams in African universities that came up after a webinar organized by the Association for Development of Education in Africa through its Working Group on Higher Education.
An important component of diversification is universities’ capacity to be more successful at national and international level in obtaining competitive funding.
This exercise has two main elements. On one hand, it is related to the quality of the university’s academic and research staff and their ability to write effective proposals and develop international networks. On the other, it is clear that universities are more likely to succeed in external project-based calls if they use a management approach and implement an institutional strategic perspective. This aspect is even more crucial for universities that have a peripheral position in the global higher education context.
So, organization matters! Project writing and management are not only skills that academic staff should acquire, but they also need to become more embedded in strategic support services within the university organization. These services are usually integrated in the International Relations and Research units of the universities and/or at departmental level.
This is the reason why IMPALA has decided to identify ‘project writing and management’ as one of the four streams that require more advanced management and strategies for internationalization in South African partner universities. Internationalization and project-based funding are closely related. Of course, increasing funding is essential to promote internationalization policies within an institution, but internationalization and international connections are also prerequisites for obtaining financial resources through external project calls.
In fact, most calls now require a setup like international consortia based on consolidated partnerships, and this is why the capacity of a university to establish international linkages both at institutional and departmental level may be a key factor in participating in competitive calls for proposals.
Getting familiar with funding opportunities
But who are the main actors relevant to universities looking for external resources? The situation may be different for South African and EU universities. Both rely on important national competitive funds (the National Research Foundation for South Africa, for example). Generally speaking, universities in Europe are very much dependent on EU funds (Horizon, Erasmus plus, among others) that may also be relevant for South African universities, albeit to a lesser extent. There are also international donors that offer opportunities and grants for universities or associations, like the Association of Commonwealth Universities. South African universities may be assisted by bilateral cooperation programmes whose portfolios increasingly include support schemes for strengthening the higher education sector as a whole. Some major international foundations are also active in supporting research and universities in Africa.
External funding to do what?
Once the actors have been identified, it is important to find out which schemes/activities/initiatives can be financed. Many opportunities are linked to international mobility and to scholarships, fellowships and grants to participate to international conferences and symposia. These grants can be obtained by single individuals or as part of institutional schemes, as is the case with Erasmus Plus or the Intra-Africa academic mobility scheme.
But there are also opportunities to develop joint research projects, to reform and improve the services or administration of the university, to strengthen teaching and learning capacities, to design innovative content and set up advanced and/or international curricula. Finally, universities may receive funding to participate in projects associated with the third mission and outreach – those that respond to societal needs or contribute to local policies or advocacy campaigns, bringing to bear their expertise in teaching, science communication and problem-based research and feasibility studies.
Which types of costs?
Thanks to grants from competitive calls, a university can intervene in many different fields depending on its strategic goals. Not all actions may be linked directly to internationalization, but generally speaking, most require work in international partnerships. Competition-based grants allow universities to cover expenses related to the mobility of their students and staff or to attracting visiting staff from other institutions (travel and cost of stay, scholarships, registration fees for conferences). They may also help with covering staff costs and hiring new personnel (mainly temporarily), acquiring new equipment and consumable goods, renting facilities and buying books, electronic databases, subscriptions to scientific journals, property rights and so on.
In short
Organizing services to support project writing and management is a strategic decision that each university should take into consideration. It requires organizational choices and the development of specific skills and competences. Of course, increasing reliance on external funding through projects may raise issues that should not be underestimated. Does it help or hinder university autonomy? What are the practical implications of grants which do not cover the full costs of the activities for which they are intended? These two questions tell us more about the values and management of a given university. Their answers will largely depend on the level of institutional awareness and the desire to approach project writing and management policies strategically.