A Critical Assessment of “Higher Education and Economic Development: The Importance of Building Technological Capabilities”

Abstract

This chapter provides a critical assessment of an article on higher education and economic development, by analyzing the ways the authors reflect on the importance of building technological capabilities. The need to demonstrate the use of evolutionary economics and innovation systems approach in demonstrating higher education contribution to economic growth motivated the article. The critique begins by examining the dominant theories and reflective pieces used by scholars to explain higher education’s contribution to economic development, and then situate the evolutionary economics and innovation systems approach used in the article in this discourse. This critical assessment also delves into how the article approaches the subject matter of higher education; and, the methods used to gather evidence for the case of higher education in South Africa. The chapter then condenses popular views on the role of higher education in economic development and assesses whether “building technological capabilities” is one such view or it is an emerging role. In conclusion, the chapter synthesizes the various sections in the article and isolates the key issues that underpin each of the sections and how each issue is manifested in the higher education sector. The conclusion unloads the overall construction of the article to succinctly knit the bigger argument advanced by the article and provide reasons for the viewpoints supported by this assessment.

Citation

Ngware, M.W. (2016), "A Critical Assessment of “Higher Education and Economic Development: The Importance of Building Technological Capabilities”", Annual Review of Comparative and International Education 2016 (International Perspectives on Education and Society, Vol. 30), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 201-219. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-367920160000030015