How are universities in emerging economies responding to aid cuts?
- Dr Nelson Nkhoma, Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources
The withdrawal and restructuring of US development assistance in 2025 exposed intricated trajectories in the university research financing model. This presentation examines how universities in Malawi are navigating this changing development cooperation landscape. It considers the implications of aid cuts not simply as a reduction in available research funding, but as a disruption to an institutional model in which external development partners have significantly influenced research priorities, institutional capacity and the production of knowledge. The presentation explores efforts and emerging opportunities to respond to these shifts, including internally financed staff research grants, expanding commissioned research and consultancy, promoting university–industry partnerships, commercializing research innovations and diversifying international research collaborations. It also considers opportunities presented by digital technologies, open science, postgraduate education and South–South research cooperation.
Booking
There’s no need to register if attending in-person.
Event Notes
Please find the General Privacy Policy of UCL, one of our partner universities, here.
Share this event
Dr Nelson Nkhoma is an Instructional Designer at the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Open and Distance Learning Hub and E-campus Coordinator. Nkhoma holds a PhD in Organizational Leadership Policy and Development and Master of Arts in Higher Education and Development from the University of Minnesota, Twin-Cities, USA and Bachelor of Education from the University of Livingstonia. He was a Research fellow at the University of the Free State in the Center for Higher Education and Human Development and the Institute for Post School Studies at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Nkhoma publishes on higher education financing and knowledge systems across Eastern and Southern Africa. Specifically, his work applies an interdisciplinary lens and principally qualitative methods to examine how knowledge systems shape higher education and development outcomes, especially in emerging economies. Until March 2025, he served as Technical Lead on a Michigan State University’s USAID-funded THES project, where he supported ten universities to design, pilot, and scale innovative models to support marginalized students and university industry collaborations in Malawi.