The international partner universities of East African health professional programmes: why do they do it and what do they value?

Globalization and funding imperatives drive many universities to internationalize through global health programmes. University-based global health researchers, advocates and programmes often stress the importance of addressing health inequity through partnerships. However, empirical exploration of perspectives on why universities engage in these partnerships and the benefits of them is limited.

To analyse who in international partner universities initiated the partnerships with four East African universities, why the partnerships were initiated, and what the international partners value about the partnerships.

Fifty-nine key informants from 26 international universities partnering with four East African universities in medicine, nursing and/or public health participated in individual in-depth interviews. Transcripts were analysed thematically. We then applied Burton Clark’s framework of “entrepreneurial” universities characterized by an “academic heartland”, “expanded development periphery”, “managerial core” and “expanded funding base”, developed to examine how European universities respond to the forces of globalization, to interpret the data through a global health lens.

Partnerships that were of interest to universities’ “academic heartland” - research and education - were of greatest interest to many international partners, especially research intensive universities. Some universities established and placed coordination of their global health activities within units consistent with an expanded development periphery. These units were sometimes useful for helping to establish and support global health partnerships. Success in developing and sustaining the global health partnerships required some degree of support from a strengthened steering or managerial core. Diversified funding in the form of third-stream funding, was found to be essential to sustain partnerships. Social responsibility was also identified as a key ethos required to unite the multiple elements in some universities and sustain global health partnerships.

Universities are complex entities. Various elements determine why a specific university entered a specific international partnership and what benefits it accrues. Ultimately, integration of the various elements is required to grow and sustain partnerships potentially through embracing social responsibility as a common value.