Graduate education and research are closely intertwined. In higher education institutions, graduate education is seen as a preparatory phase to a research career in higher education, or even in the corporate world. A quality graduate education is usually a proxy for a quality research environment, and the consequent quality and relevance of knowledge produced. In the context of the knowledge economies, countries are increasing investments in graduate level training, especially in science and technology to produce the skilled workforce and new knowledge needed to drive innovations. In Africa, graduate education has developed and evolved with the growth of the university, manifesting all the contestations and contradictions that institutionalization of university education has entailed. Recently, in the context of the knowledge economies, the political leadership and university strategies across the continent have set targets for the number of doctoral graduates to be produced if Africa has to be competitive. These targets have however not been accompanied by an articulation of how capacity, relevance, funding, and quality have to be addressed. Countries and universities in Africa are still struggling to establish robust graduate level training and the attendant infrastructures to support knowledge production and dissemination by graduate students. However, graduate education is foremost seen in terms of its contribution to producing the teaching workforce, while relegating research, innovation, knowledge production, and dissemination to second place. Besides, public funding for graduate level research and training across the continent remains negligible. Despite these limitations, new interventions are emerging across the continent to support graduate students, beyond completing their studies, to include support for producing and disseminating new knowledge. This chapter, using political economy reflections, discusses what the status of graduate education in Africa and the emerging new trends and support systems for knowledge production and dissemination, and what this means in the evolution of graduate education in Africa into the future. While masters’ and doctoral level education constitute graduate level education, the discussions in this chapter will focus on doctoral and post-doctoral level capacities and opportunities.