The joint university experiment, by pooling resources within the same sub-region and drawing on the different strengths of the three member colleges and their respective host countries, represents an early and instructive model of South-South cooperation. 

Gone – maybe forever – are the days when thirst for knowledge to improve oneself and to contribute to a better society drove young people to seek higher education. These days university students and products of related institutions would only be able to perfectly reel off the names of rappers, footballers and DJs as well as post countless meaningless material on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and the like – with little understanding or interest in the realities of their society.

The project of genuinely decolonizing the university must be part of an inclusive task to transform the wider society of which the academy is an integral part. It is a long term undertaking which surely starts with the audacity to name the elephant in the room: white supremacy.

If the controversial government program sounds too good to be true, it is. Given the inadequate research and planning, the partnership plan will have no impact on quality, little impact on innovation and it will do little to improve Liberia’s education system.

In January, Liberia's education Minister George Werner announced that the entire pre-primary and primary education system would be outsourced to Bridge International Academies to manage. The deal will see the government of Liberia direct public funding for education to support services subcontracted to the controversial private, for-profit, US-based company.