This book makes a compelling case for reimagining higher education in the global south through a human development lens—one that goes beyond economic metrics to foreground the expansion of individual freedoms, agency, and well-being. It engages critically with the dominant policy shift towards innovation and industrialisation in higher education, particularly as exemplified by Zimbabwe’s Education 5.0 policy. Building on, but moving beyond, the foundational work of Boni and Walker (2016) and Mukwambo (2019), this book expands the scope of analysis to interrogate how higher education policies aimed at economic development intersect with, constrain, or advance broader human development outcomes for students and staff. While Boni and Walker argue for a human development-focused university in relation to global equity and sustainable development goals, and Mukwambo shows the multi-dimensional benefits of quality teaching and learning, neither fully explores how current innovation and industrialisation policies are implemented in teaching and learning or their implications for human flourishing.

Judith Sikala is a Zimbabwean scholar and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre for Development Support Studies, within the Higher Education and Human Development Research Programme at the University of the Free State, South Africa. She completed her PhD in 2025, having commenced her doctoral studies in 2022, and began her postdoctoral fellowship in June 2025 under the same department. Her research interests include higher education, human development, educational leadership, and development studies.