The Relationship Between External Aid And African Higher Education: From The Perspective Of Dependency Theory

Dependency Theory arose as a reaction to development theory which focused on reason, influence and countermeasure of underdevelopment of the third world. Because of revealing the dependencies of the third world in every field, the corresponding views of the Dependency Theory have been applied to education studies, and it also became an important analysis tool of third world’s education. The major viewpoints of Dependency Theory in comparative education include four parts. Firstly, education is an important mean to colonize for metropolitan state. Secondly, education is an important mean for developed countries to pursue culture hegemony. Thirdly, education strengthens the psychological dependency of the developing countries. Lastly, education is the key tool for developing country to get rid of dependency.Africa is still trapped in struggles with colonial legacy, social instability, spreading of diseases and many other problems. As the least developed region, African higher education also faces many plights. With arrival of missionary, original mode of local education had been changed. The thorniest problem is the African higher education had to depend on developed countries. This dependence relationship presents historic feature obviously, containing four phases:Penetration of western philosophy, Obsessive dependency, Spontaneous dependency and awakening of independent sense. In different period, African higher education presents different relationship with external world.Considering of teaching level, education quality, management ability and other educational standards, Africa higher education still falls behind the world average. There is no doubt that some nations in Africa can not solve these problems all by themselves. How to make advances even in the dependent relationship, in other words, how to make "dependent development" and get independent eventually, African should promote strength and extent of indigenous education and seek new partnership with other donors.