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Paper short abstract

This study investigates African-led global collaborations that promote knowledge sharing while avoiding Western dominance, focusing on digital innovation, joint research, and strategies to decolonize higher education and ensure African scholarship shapes global academic systems.

Paper long abstract

This paper explores how global academic partnerships can support African scholarship while avoiding the reproduction of unequal power dynamics that have historically shaped international collaborations. As African scholars advance efforts to decolonize knowledge and reshape higher education, global partnerships offer new opportunities for resource sharing, methodological innovation, and digital connectivity. Yet they also carry risks: without intentional design, partnerships may reinforce dependency, marginalize African epistemologies, or privilege Western institutions as the default centers of authority. The presentation critically examines different models of transnational academic collaboration, highlighting examples of initiatives that foster equity, reciprocity, and African-led intellectual agendas. It analyses how digital technologies, joint degree programs, collaborative research networks, and inter-university mobility schemes can be structured to support epistemic justice rather than perpetuate extractive patterns of knowledge production. Drawing on examples from African universities engaged in partnerships across Europe, North America, Asia, and the African continent, the presentation identifies both promising practices and persistent challenges. It argues that genuine collaboration requires shared governance, transparency in resource allocation, recognition of diverse epistemologies, and mechanisms that ensure African scholars shape the intellectual direction of joint work. Ultimately, the presentation proposes a framework for “collaboration without domination,” outlining principles and practical guidelines that institutions and scholars can adopt to build partnerships that amplify African contributions to global knowledge. The goal is to envision a future in which African universities participate in and influence global academic systems on equitable terms.