Regional

Working Through Roadblocks to Educational Harmonization in East Africa

The East African region has a history of educational cooperation. Until the late 1960s, education in Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya was a driving force behind the unification of the three nations of the East African Community (EAC). Curricula and examinations were the same at almost all levels of education, as determined by the Examination Council of East Africa.

In 1970, after the collapse of the EAC, the regional University of East Africa was split into three national universities: Makerere, Dar es Salaam and Nairobi. Today, Uganda’s Independent newspaper argues that the revival of the EAC means there is a greater need for academic cooperation between the three universities. Already cooperation is occurring with regards to exchange programs. According to Aggrey Kibenge, a public relations officer at Uganda’s Ministry of Education and Sports, Rwanda and Uganda are cooperating in many areas, including exchanges of French and English teachers to reinforce the learning of these languages. Similar exchanges are taking place with Kiswahili teachers from Tanzania. Further, visa fees for students on exchange programs have been scrapped.

According to the Independent, the biggest challenge for the education ministries across the EAC is the creation of single curricula across all education levels, as well as a uniform academic calendar for all member states. On academic calendars alone, the challenges are significant. A student in Uganda spends seven years in primary education, four years in lower secondary, two years in advanced secondary and three to five years in university. In Kenya, students spend eight years in primary education, four years in secondary and four years in university. In Burundi and Rwanda, the last entrants into the EAC, primary school is six years, secondary school, divided into junior and senior, takes three years each and university lasts at least four years. Meanwhile, in Tanzania, primary school is seven years, lower secondary school takes four years, and university takes three to five years to complete at the undergraduate level.

Other convergence hurdles include language, which across the region includes Swahili, English and French; secondary school matriculation examinations; and tuition. Kibenge says that while harmonization is necessary, it is important to identify the right kind of harmonization. He revealed that experts from the EAC countries’ ministries of education are mapping out a way of interfacing the education systems by sharing information regarding curricula in all areas and determining qualification equivalencies.

The EAC assembly wants to persuade universities within the community to levy uniform fee structures for students from member countries. Some universities, especially those in Kenya, are said to be charging similar fees to East African nationals. But charges in Ugandan universities for non-Ugandans are in most cases lower than elsewhere in the region.

– The Independent
March 8, 2009

Algeria

University to Establish Digital Campus

The Algerian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research has signed an agreement with the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) for the creation of a French-language digital campus at the University of Oran. The deal will link the university to the network of francophone universities, develop information and communication technologies for higher education and research, and create educational programs in systems administration, digital structuring and science.

With its headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, the AUF promotes higher education and research in French-speaking universities. The French government pays most of the agency’s annual budget of more than EUR40 million (US$50 million), with further contributions from Canada-Quebec and the francophone communities of Belgium, Switzerland and Cameroon. It has 63 branches operating under nine regional offices worldwide, linking 693 institutions in 81 countries.

– University World News
March 8, 2009

Angola

Government to Reform Higher Education

The government of Angola has approved a plan to reorganize the nation’s system of higher education “for the strategic aims of economic, social, technological and community development”. The plan seeks to create seven academic regions that would be used to define university operations and expansion. Currently, the nation’s universities cannot come close to meeting the demand for student spaces.

The reorganization plan as it currently stands would see the creation of new public institutions of higher education. According to Adão do Nascimento, Secretary of State for Higher Education, by 2012 these would constitute a network extending throughout the country. Beginning this year, do Nascimento said, new institutions of higher education will be established in a number of provinces which had never had any.

At the University Agostinho Neto, the nation’s flagship university, the number of available seats for students this year has been increased from 52,000 to 60,000. The university is Angola’s biggest and although based in Luanda has campuses around the country. Still, in Luanda province, 11 students compete for every place at the university. Officials there say there is no more room for expansion. Nationally, 74,000 students competed for 10,000 new enrollment places at all Angolan institutions of higher education.

– Angola Press
February 27, 2009

Kenya

Polytechnics to Help Alleviate Overcrowding, Lack of Places at Universities

More and more students graduate from Kenyan high schools each year, a trend that is likely to grow at a faster rate, as students receiving free primary education and subsidized secondary schooling move through the system. Universities in Kenya have been struggling for years to meet this rapidly increasing demand, and many qualified applicants fail to find places each year. One of the government’s responses has been to upgrade some colleges, especially polytechnics, into universities in an effort to expand the number of university places offered to prospective students.

On average, 250,000 students annually have been graduating from Kenyan high schools over the last five years, a number that is expected to grow significantly in the coming years. In 2004, public universities had the capacity to accommodate just 10,000 students through the Joint Admissions Board. Part of the government’s solution has been to expand the number of places on offer at public universities through a private channel. Students not getting a subsidized place have the option to enroll in the same program, although run separately, if they pay full tuition fees.

The Joint Admissions Board decides which students qualify for particular subsidized programs, placing them in programs that they may or may not be interested in pursuing. As a result many students choose to enroll in polytechnics, technical institutions or private universities where they can pursue the training of their choice. More recently, some polytechnics have been upgraded to university college status, which allows them to award degrees if students take an additional two years of study after earning a diploma.

– University World News
March 8, 2009

Madagascar

Universities Stay Shut as Political Crisis Plays Out

A three-month political crisis in Madagascar has given rise to concerns that the current academic year might be lost. Currently there is no set date for the reopening of universities and thousands of students are still waiting to enroll.

Following a meeting on February 24 of teachers at the Faculty of Arts and Human Sciences at Antananarivo, Madagascar’s major university, the dean Solo Raharinanahary issued a statement saying that “the functioning of the university and enrollments are disrupted. We strongly fear a lost year if the situation is not resolved.”

The three-month political crisis has already caused over 100 deaths in violent clashes between supporters of President Marc Ravalomanana and Andry Rajoelena, now-deposed mayor of Antananarivo.

– University World News
March 8, 2009

Zimbabwe

Universities Backtrack on Dollar Fees

Starting in January, universities began charging tuition fees in U.S. dollars in a bid to avoid the effects of runaway inflation of the Zimbabwean dollar. However, they were forced to reduce fees of US$700 to US$1,500 per semester in March, after student demonstrations caused the closure of the nation’s flagship university, the University of Zimbabwe.

The Minister of Tertiary and Higher Education Stan Mudenge said the cabinet had arrived at a new fee structure, while also stating that no qualified student would be turned away due to a lack of funds. Those accepting government scholarships would be required to work for the state for the same number of years they spend in higher education, the minister added.

In addition to US dollars, students can also pay the equivalent in euros, British pounds or South African rands. Mudenge said payment in foreign currency was meant to revive institutions still reeling from a lecturer strike that lasted almost all of last year.

– University World News
March 8, 2009