Regional
Alternative Sources of Funding Sought
Radical solutions are being sought for the crisis in African universities, including new sources of funding to supplement government efforts. Representatives of sub-Saharan African countries, who met recently in Ghana (see WENR Sept/Oct [1] issue), said state funding no longer responds to Africa’s needs to train professionals, especially in science and technical subjects. The Association of African Universities [2] (AAU) believes the pressure to admit more students to elite universities seriously affects the quality of teaching and research in the face of budget shortfalls.
Only 3.5 percent of young people attend sub-Saharan Africa’s institutions of higher education, which, according to Ghanaian Minister of Higher Education Elizabeth Ohene, is not explained by a dearth of candidates. Attendees of the conference in Ghana pointed out the African universities were originally created to serve only a small elite and not to churn out graduates, and as a result, Africa’s funding sources have dried up. To keep their heads above water, African universities are urged to look to the private sector and offer income-generating services, or to place students at companies that will pay for their labor. One success story is Rwanda’s Institute of Science and Technology [3], which was built after the 1994 genocide. Forty-five percent of the school’s budget – US$3 million – was raised this year by students working mostly for electric and water companies.
Also within the framework of reform, a number of African countries are considering loans for students, but the AAU acknowledges there have been problems with repayment. Only South Africa has succeeded in creating an effective payback system.
— Mail and Guardian Online [4]
Oct. 21, 2003
Angola
Nation Ravaged by War Turns to Education
The nation is just resurfacing from a 27-year civil war that is estimated to have killed 1.5 million people, displaced millions more and separated approximately 100,000 children from their parents. But now the Angolan government, 18 months after the end of the civil war, has committed US$40 million to the country’s future by launching a program to get 1 million children under the age of 11 back to school within a year.
UNICEF is training 29,000 teachers in three national workshops, the first of which opened in late October. The aim is to cut the number of under-11s who have no basic primary education from 44 percent to just 4 percent. Part of the challenge has been to persuade people at all levels of society of the importance of investing in schools. In the last four years of war, the country spent just 4.7 percent of its GDP on education; in 2002, it spent 7 percent, and the plan was to increase that to 10 percent this year. In a society where 70 percent of the population is under 24 and more than half are children, the program’s success would be deeply felt.
— The Guardian [5]
Oct. 28, 2003
Guinea-Bissau
Nation’s First Public University Opens
Nearly 30 years after gaining independence from Portugal, Guinea-Bissau in West Africa has formally opened its first public university. The autonomously managed university, created by government decree in 1999, will admit its first students in January to a one-year, pre-degree course.
Until now, students had relied on scholarships to attend foreign universities, especially in Portugal, Cuba and Eastern Europe. Noting that 80 percent of all Guineans educated abroad stay abroad, the rector of the new Amilcar Cabral University, Tcherno Djalo, said the previous policy has proved a failure.
The new school will offer degree courses in education, law, medicine, veterinary medicine, engineering, agronomy economics, social sociology, modern languages and journalism. Students will be required to pay fees of US$26 a month – the equivalent of Guinea-Bissau’s minimum wage. A small, privately run university, the Private University of Colinas de Boe, opened in Bissau in September.
— UN Integrated Regional Information Networks [6]
Nov. 14, 2003
Kenya
Strike Shuts Public Universities
All six Kenyan state universities were closed indefinitely in early November, and approximately 60,000 students were ordered to leave their campuses. The government made the decision after 3,000 lecturers went on strike, demanding their promised salary raises. If the government meets their demands, the lecturers would become the highest-paid public workers in the country.
A Dec.10 report from The Nation newspaper indicates that the six universities have started preparing for a January reopening despite the continuing lecturers’ strike
— East African Standard [7]
Nov. 10, 2003
Medical College Gains Degree-Awarding Powers
The Kenya Medical Training College will soon offer degrees, it was announced recently. Currently, the college offers certificate and diploma courses in 13 medical disciplines. Before the institution can offer degrees, legislation governing the institution’s right to award qualifications will be amended.
The Japanese government donated US$650,000 in recent years for the construction of a library and resource center at the college. Minister of Education Charity Ngilu said she would support plans to convert the college to a university.
— The Nation [8]
Oct. 14, 2003
Nigeria
NUC Enters Exchange Program with 118 U.S. Universities
The National Universities Commission [9] (NUC) announced in October it has signed an agreement with 118 historically black colleges and universities in the United States for academic and cultural exchanges between the two countries. The agreement signed between NUC and the National Association for Equality in Education encourages exchanges in the areas of democracy and good governance, agriculture, health, education, law, science and technology.
According to Executive Secretary of NUC Peter Okebukola, all Nigerian universities will participate, although 12 universities have been chosen as pilot sites to receive and send faculty.
— Daily Trust [10]
Oct. 14, 2003
South Africa
South Africa Shuns GATS
Education Minister Kader Asmal recently stood firm against a request from Norway to open up South Africa’s higher education sector to foreign education providers in accordance with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). Dr. Asmal has been at the forefront of the developing world’s resistance to GATS as a “commodification” of education.
His refusal, addressing the Norwegian Council for Higher Education [11] in October, signaled that South Africa is unlikely to bow to international pressure soon, even from the WTO, and allow unlimited access to foreign providers. Norway, the United States, Kenya and New Zealand earlier this year requested, through the WTO, that South Africa provide unlimited access to its providers wishing to operate in the country. Asmal maintained that treating education as a trade service would compromise quality at South Africa’s public institutions and derail the country’s complex tertiary education reform process. He also reiterated his opposition to GATS in education, saying the internationalization of higher education would be better addressed using conventions and agreements outside of a trade policy regime.
— Business Day [12]
Oct. 7, 2003
Ministry Cracks Down on Private Providers
Twelve education providers, including Promat College of Education in Pretoria and the International Hotel School, have been issued cancellation notices by the Ministry of Education. They have been given specific time frames in which to inform students they will cease to operate.
Mediatrek Training Institute and Pinnacle Business College are among six providers whose registrations have been cancelled, effective Dec. 31, for contravening the Higher Education Act. Eight institutions, including the Academy of Learning and Cedar College of Education, have already been deregistered. Among 12 providers granted provisional reaccreditation are Bantori Business College, Birnam Business College and CIDA City Campus. A Council on Higher Education [13] probe into 58 private providers (which have a 65 percent market share) this year lifted the lid on the institutions’ “gross ineptitude and opportunism.”
— Business Day [12]
Nov. 3, 2003
Quality Assurance Guidelines Get Tougher
The Council on Higher Education [13] has recently issued new regulations on quality assurance standards and registration requirements for private institutions of higher education and training to legally operate in the country.
It seems the drive to curb a proliferation of private providers in South Africa by imposing tough quality assurance standards has resulted in many institutions, operating under international benchmarks, not making the grade. Institutions either have to raise their standards in line with South Africa’s regulations or face losing their registration with the Education Department to legally operate as a quality-assured provider. The council’s system builds on self-evaluation reports and external activities, including audits. Institutions are required to submit an application for registration in full at least 18 months before the start of operations. The rules also provide for criminal prosecution of those misrepresenting information in their applications. In addition, a registered or provisionally accredited provider must submit a sworn declaration it will comply with an evaluation every three years from the date on which the certificate of registration is signed.
The new measures come on the heels of new regulations requiring the accreditation or re-accreditation of all MBA programs in the country to safeguard against poor quality providers (see WENR May/June [14]).
— Business Day [12]
Nov. 6, 2003