Immediate Past German Director of the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) at the University of Ghana, Dr. Susan Baller, has called for stronger research and education-related collaboration between countries in the Global North and Global South to achieve better outcomes that contribute positively to global development.
She made this call during the 2025 Global UBIAS Directors’ Conference, co-hosted by MIASA in partnership with the University of Ghana — the first time the event has been held on the African continent.
Delivering the keynote address, Dr. Baller emphasized the need for deliberate measures to address the power imbalance in global knowledge production by strengthening Institutes for Advanced Studies in less-resourced regions such as Africa and the Americas.
“Per the records, the data suggests that in the global knowledge production ecosystem, there are more Institutes for Advanced Studies set up in countries in the Global North as opposed to those in less endowed continents like the Americas, Asia, and Africa. We need to be pushing for more North–South research collaborations across the various Institutes for Advanced Studies across continents, to build more capacity among researchers across the board and achieve better outcomes in policy spaces across the globe.”
Dr. Baller also noted that political and social contexts significantly influence the long-term planning and funding of Institutes for Advanced Studies worldwide. These factors, she explained, often inhibit institutions in the underdeveloped Global South from growing into centres of excellence capable of matching the output of similar institutions in the Global North.
“Globally, political and geopolitical interests, more often than not, are the contributing factors to the sustainability and funding of Institutes of Advanced Studies across multiple locations, due to competing variables regarding what contexts such institutions are required by donors to venture into.”
Dr. Baller’s presentation was delivered on the theme: “Rethinking UBIAS from the South: South–North, North–South Collaboration.”
The event, held for the first time in Africa, gathered regional heads of the Global Network for University-Based Institutes for Advanced Studies (UBIAS) from across the five continents—Europe, America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania—to deliberate on dynamic strategies that such institutions can adopt to gain greater recognition and achieve sustainable impact not only within their local environments but also in influencing global policymaking.
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Story by Sika Togoh | univers.ug.edu.gh
Edited by Gabriel Tecco Mensah
