Productive Learning Cultures : An African-Norwegian Collaboration Balancing Academic Quality with Substantial Support

The aim of this article is to describe and critically reflect on a research and development program called Productive Learning Cultures, which has the following aims. Firstly to strengthen research and supervisory capacity at doctoral level and secondly to develop research based knowledge in the areas of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Information Communication Technologies and learning. The program involves an inter-country education collaboration between one developed country (Norway) and five countries, developing or in transition, in sub-Saharan Africa. All the universities involved in the project are facing similar challenges when it comes to meeting international expectations of academic standards of excellence. Sharing knowledge through networking across the borders is one way of dealing with global changes. The discussion will pay special attention to the driving values such as trust, partnership equality, academic quality and accountability that shaped the conceptualisation, implementation and program outcomes. The paper will end by reflecting on how two design elements, namely substantial support and competence building for all involved affected the long term sustainability of the cooperation.