Regional
Universal Education Goals Unlikely to be Met
The United Nations’ goal of universal primary education by 2015 is unlikely to be reached, a new report concludes. More children are going to school, but many are dropping out before finishing primary education, according to UNESCO.
The agency’s “2005 Education For All” report [1] also reveals a continuing gender inequality in education. Two-thirds of children who do not attend school are girls. Two-thirds of the 800 million illiterate people around the world are women. According to the report, which monitors the progress of 160 countries toward achieving universal education, school attendance is increasing, but not fast enough. Around the world, more than 100 million children do not go to school.
Moreover, mainly in developing countries, an improvement in school attendance has not been matched by an increase in teachers or education funding, according to the report. UNESCO’s Ingeborg Breines said getting children into the classroom is only part of the task. “For many years, the developing countries have thought that the main bottleneck was to get the children to school.
“Little by little, they have experienced that if the quality is not satisfactory and the content of what is being taught is not relevant to the learners, they will drop out,” Breines added.
The report is a followup to the 2000 World Education Forum held in Dakar, Senegal, where 160 countries pledged to achieve six goals by 2015. These goals include wider access to early childhood care and education, universal primary education, improved youth and adult learning opportunities, a 50 percent improvement in adult literacy rates, gender equality and an improvement in all aspects of the quality of education.
— BBC [2]
Nov. 9, 2004
Ghana
WAEC Introduces Online Result Service
The West African Examination Council [3] (WAEC) has recently introduced a new online system, WAEC-Direct [4], to verify or check results for the Senior Secondary School Certificate, General Business Certificate, Advanced Business Certificate and Basic Education Certificate examinations. The verification service is similar to the result-checker system recently established for Nigerian WAEC Senior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (see March/April 2003 issue of WENR [5]). Results from 1993 to present are accessible on the Ghanaian database, access to which requires a serial number and PIN available with the purchase of a WAEC Access Card.
Liberia
Commission: St. Regis Not Sanctioned
The Liberian National Commission on Higher Education has released a disclaimer regarding the illegal establishment and recognition of higher education institutions in the Republic of Liberia. Specifically, the commission cites two institutions, St. Regis University and St. Luke Medical College, as having never been granted documentation classifying them as officially chartered, degree-granting institutions.
“The National Commission on Higher Education, Republic of Liberia, hereby declares null and void whatever documents St. Regis University may claim to possess emanating from the commission until at such time when authorities of the institution can go through the proper procedures for accreditation,” the official release states. “As regards to St. Luke Medical College, evidence also shows that no such college exists in Liberia; therefore, it cannot claim to have obtained accreditation from the commission.”
— Embassy of Liberia, Washington, D.C., news release [6]
Nigeria
Thousands of Degrees Revoked
The University of Port Harcourt [7] has revoked the degrees of 7,254 of its graduates in a major offensive against academic corruption. The vice chancellor of the university, Nimi Dimpka Briggs, said in October that those who had their degrees deregistered had either cheated on examinations or falsified their academic records. He said the fraud dated back to the class that entered in 1996.
Briggs said higher education in Nigeria is rife with corruption, with many students admitted into universities with falsified secondary-school certificates. Speaking before the National Universities Commission [8], which registers new colleges in Nigeria, he said the quality of degrees and diplomas awarded by Nigerian universities has been eroded by academic fraud and corruption. To maintain the legitimacy of Nigerian credentials internationally, Briggs said Nigerian universities must have “zero tolerance in malpractice.”
— P.M. News
Oct. 25, 2004
Committee to Develop Standards for Online Education
The federal government has inaugurated the national Open and Distance Education Committee. The committee has four main objectives: establish a code of practice for overseas and local providers of open and distance learning, determine benchmarks for quality assurance mechanisms, develop guidelines to check the proliferation of fraudulent institutions and certificates, and promote partnerships and efforts to support distance education in Nigeria.
— This Day [9]
Nov. 1, 2004
AU to Help Provide U.S.-Style Education
ABTI-American University of Nigeria, which gained a license to operate as a private university from the Nigerian University Commission in 2003 (see May/June 2003 issue WENR [10]), will be working with Washington, D.C.-based American University [11] (AU) to provide U.S.-style education.
Based on a five-year management and consultancy agreement signed on Jan. 1 with ABTI Group of Schools, AU is providing advice and assistance in recruiting a senior management team (David Huwiler, former president of the American University of Central Asia, was recently appointed founding president) in building the physical facilities and in curriculum development, among other tasks. ABTI operates a number of primary and secondary schools in Yola Town, the capital of the northern Adamawa state. Classes at the new university are scheduled to begin in September 2005 in three faculties: arts and sciences, entrepreneurial studies and business management, and information technology and communication.
American University’s role in the ABTI project is similar to its responsibilities in the establishment of the American University in Sharjah [12] in the United Arab Emirates. The Sharjah campus recently was awarded regional accreditation from the Commission on Higher Education of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools [13] (see July/August 2004 issue WENR [14]).
— Daily Champion [15]
Nov. 14, 2004
South Africa
3 MBA Programs Accredited
The Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) [16] in September granted accreditation to the master’s in business administration (MBA) programs at three higher education institutions. Those institutions were among 12 that managed only conditional accreditation in 2003 after HEQC evaluated the country’s MBA programs to weed out substandard qualifications (see May/June 2004 WENR [17]).
The MBA programs at North West University’s Potchefstroom [18] campus, Tshwane University of Technology’s Pretoria [19] campus and Port Elizabeth Technikon [20] joined six other business schools in the country that have been granted full accreditation. Site visits for the other nine institutions with conditional accreditation are planned, but HEQC has stated that these business schools would have to wait another year before they could reapply for their MBA programs to be fully accredited. Ten programs failed to gain accreditation in 2003. The Council of Higher Education [16] released a report in November following the accreditation procedure that, in part, stressed postgraduate business degrees in South Africa need to focus more on training managers to understand the challenges of the country and the continent.
In related news, Cida Business School [21] of Cida City Campus was awarded full accreditation for its bachelor of business administration degree.
— Business Day [22]
Sept. 23, 2004
International Enrollment Increases
The big Anglophone education export markets are most publicized, but often overlooked is South Africa. A recent study by the South African Council of Higher Education [16] reveals some interesting figures. The council estimates there are 47,000 international students studying in South Africa. They come mostly from other African states, but also from Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America.
The number of foreign students enrolling at South African institutions has increased steadily from 34,770 in 1999 to 47,000 in 2003. The country’s main markets are Botswana, Lesotho and Namibia. These three countries account for 58 percent of all foreign students. Apart from proximity, the council cites two main reasons for this: Botswana provides its students with funding that covers their tuition, textbooks, accommodation and living expenses if they work for the government upon completion of their studies; and the South African government has agreed to charge students from Southern Africa the same fees as local students.
Roshen Kishun, director of higher education policy and development support at the Department of Education, said 50 percent of international students registered in South Africa have chosen distance education courses offered by the University of South Africa [23] (Unisa), according to the Johannesburg Sunday Times . Other institutions popular with foreign students are the universities of Cape Town [24], Port Elizabeth [25], Wits [26] and Rhodes [27]. South African tertiary institutions are positioning themselves to increase their share of international-student enrollments. Many have set up international offices to market, lobby and promote their institutions internationally. In addition, they are actively assisting foreign students with the paperwork necessary to meet legal requirements. Another inducement for foreign students is an introductory or “foundation” course in English language, which is particularly popular among Asian students. At the end of the foundation course, foreign students register for one of the mainstream degree courses.
— The Sunday Times [28]
Aug. 29, 2004
Cape’s First Tuition-Free Business School Launched
Cape Town’s first free higher education institution, Tertiary School in Business Administration, was launched in October and will begin classes in January.
The institution is modeled after the successful Cida City Campus [21] for historically disadvantaged students in Johannesburg, and will initially offer Cida’s foundation certificate in business administration. The recently accredited bachelor of administration degree (see above) will be offered in 2006.
— Business Day [22]
Oct. 22, 2004
Professional Bodies to Merge
The Committee of Technikon Principals [29] and the South African Universities Vice Chancellors Association [30] will merge to form Higher Education South Africa (HESA), which will be launched in March.
Education Minister Naledi Pandor said the merger will enable the ministry to engage the higher-education sector while “speaking with one voice.”
— BuaNews [31]
Oct. 29, 2004
Uganda
4 Teachers Colleges to Close
The Ministry of Education [32] announced in June that it will cut the number of national teachers colleges from 10 to six. The ministry has said the decision stems from the declining demand for grade V teachers in secondary schools. The four affected colleges—Nkozi, Kakoba, Ngetta and Masindi—will not admit government-sponsored students beginning next year.
— New Vision [33]
July 21, 2004