Regional

US Government Expands Program to Develop African Higher Education

The US federal government and leading college groups in September announced the strengthening of a program aimed at increasing American higher education’s role in helping African universities address roadblocks to economic development on their continent.

The U.S. Agency for International Development and the nonprofit group Higher Education for Development awarded grants of as much as $1.1 million to 11 pairs of American and African universities, each of which will team up to focus on issues in Africa, including the environment, education and energy. The partnership concept was developed by the Africa-U.S. Higher Education Initiative, a collaboration between African and U.S. institutions of higher education, agricultural organizations and other advocacy groups. Overseen by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, the initiative was founded in 2007.

Original planning grants of $50,000 were awarded to more than 30 pairs of institutions in 2009. The new grants were awarded to 11 of the pairs of institutions based on five-year strategic plans that lay out 10-year visions in which each American institution will provide technical and other support to help its partner African university develop expertise to address self-identified problems.

The university pairs, and their projects, are as follows:

• The International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering in Burkina Faso and Tuskegee University, water and environmental science and technology
• Addis Ababa University and University of Connecticut, Sustainable Water Resources Development and Management,
• University of Ghana’s College of Health Sciences and Brown University, Higher Education Initiative for HIV/AIDS,
• Kenya’s Kenyatta University and Syracuse University, Building Capacity through Quality Teacher Preparation.
• The University of Nairobi, in Kenya, and Colorado State University, Sustainability of Drylands.
• The University of Liberia and Indiana University at Bloomington, Life Sciences Planning Initiative.
• The University of Malawi’s Bunda College of Agriculture and Michigan State University’s Chancellor College, Ecosystems Services: Linking Science to Action in Malawi and the Region,
• Université Gaston-Berger and The Ohio State University, Development of a West African e-Education Agro-ecology Program for Sustainable Food Production.
• University of Cape Town, in South Africa, and University of Cincinnati, Solar Energy Devices for Africa.
• Catholic University of Sudan and Virginia Tech, Rebuilding Higher Education in Agriculture to Support Food Security, Economic Growth, and Peace Efforts in Post-Conflict Southern Sudan.
• Makerere University, in Uganda, and North Dakota State University, Capacity Building in Integrated Management of Zoonoses and Vector-borne Diseases in Eastern and Central Africa.

– Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities
September 9, 2010

Cameroon

Government Cracks Down on Fraudulent Diplomas from Chad

Alarmed at the number of fraudulent diplomas being received by the commission in Cameroon responsible for assessing higher education qualifications issued abroad, the prime minister has reportedly instructed the public and private sectors to require job applicants to submit an official document of equivalence for diplomas obtained overseas.

A total of 308 diplomas out of 911 submitted to the commission for evaluation in recent months were found to be forged, according to a report in QuotidienMutations.info of Yaoundé. The vast majority of these forged qualifications – 291 of the 308 – were for the Chad baccalauréat. An official at the Ministry of Higher Education’s department of academic equivalence told the newspaper that the number was “enormous and without precedent.”

– QuotidienMutations.info
August 2, 2010

Ethiopia

The Challenges of Maintaining Quality in a Rapidly Expanding Education System

Ethiopia is in the midst of a massive expansion of its higher education sector, with growth from two public universities just over a decade ago to 22 today and another 10 due to open soon. The number of students in the system has doubled over the same time period. Much of the future growth will come from new regional public universities and new private ones, reports Kate Ashcroft for University World News.

However, the expansion plans will not be easy for a country that is one of the world’s poorest, so the initiative can be viewed as a considerable risk, both financially and politically, especially if quality standards at private institutions prove to be poor. Other challenges facing the system include teaching quality, funding, the need for more professionalized leadership, staff shortages and institutional structure and mission.

With regards to staff shortages, it is estimated that 70 percent of faculty at the country’s new universities have at most a bachelor degree. The government is trying to overcome the chronic shortage of qualified academic staff by establishing a large-scale graduate training program, supported by the more established universities in the country in addition to foreign universities.

In a bid to keep tabs on quality standards, the Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) was established by law in 2003, which has been aided by low-cost loans from the World Bank and substantial advice from professionals in more developed economies. The agency has adopted institutional audit criteria derived through consultation with sector stakeholders and assessed through peer review. The system now includes transparent quality assurance, with monitoring for accreditation purposes (especially important in regulating the expanding private sector) and institutional audit.

HERQA has been careful to respect institutional autonomy by devolving to the higher education institution responsibility for designing good quality processes and outcomes, rather than HERQA prescribing a set of inputs, while the institution’s mission and objectives are the starting point for assessment. HERQA has also defined its role as not to control, but to recognize and disseminate good practices, while the system relies on skills of self-assessment that generally require some training supplied regularly by HERQA.

Professor Ashcroft concludes that, “higher education in Ethiopia has been in a fairly constant state of change and development since the early 1990s and there is no guarantee that HERQA’s quasi-independence and mode of operation can be maintained.”

Ashcroft goes on to say that “Ethiopia’s government has taken a brave political gamble in going for such rapid higher education expansion and again in setting up HERQA. It has made a commitment to placing quality assurance firmly at the forefront of its expansion of higher education which was especially brave as it is clear that expansion when it is as fast as that in Ethiopia, must challenge quality and HERQA can comment on but cannot prevent this.”

– University World News
August 22, 2010
– University World News
September 5, 2010

Distance Learning Banned as Government Tries to Limit Private Providers

The Ethiopian Ministry of Education has banned distance learning as part of a controversial set of measures that appear to be aimed mainly at private higher-education providers, reports Addis Fortune, an Ethiopian business publication.

In an effort to curb the growth of private providers in the country, the distance education ban is being applied to both public and private universities. The ministry said the steps were intended to improve the quality of teaching and learning in the country, and the country did not need distance learning to meet its education needs.

University leaders, however, objected to the new rules. “Our association sternly objects to this,” said Mihreteab Workineh, vice chairman of the Ethiopian Private Higher Education Institutions Association, which represents approximately 50 institutions. In addition to the distance-learning ban, the ministry has also said that private universities can no longer teach law or train teachers.

– Addis Fortune
August 29, 2010

Kenya

Authorities Warn Against 5 Dubious Foreign Colleges

Kenya’s Commission for Higher Education has cautioned students against enrolling in five institutions based overseas, but offering degrees to students in Kenya.

The five institutions are Bircham International University, Nations University US, Dorcas International Theological College, and Dublin Metropolitan University and America World University. None of the five are authorized to offer programs in Kenya.

– The Standard
July 23, 2010

Clearing Decades-Long Backlog of University Students

For decades, students in Kenya have been plagued by an admissions crisis that has forced qualified students to wait for up to two years after graduating high school to enter university. This year, universities will admit an extra 4,000 publicly funded students to help ease the backlog.

The Joint Admissions Board (JAB) recently announced that new enrollments would be capped at 24,300, up from a last year’s ceiling of 20,000. In selecting students for Kenya’s seven public universities, JAB dropped the minimum grade in last year’s Form Four exam to a grade B of 63 points from 65 points the previous year.

However, access issues still persist, with 57,000 of 82,000 students who scored the minimum C+ grade required for admission to universities missing out on places in ‘regular’ government-funded programs at state universities. The decision to admit extra students is said to be the beginning of a plan to reduce a backlog of at least 40,000 students waiting for university places, and to allow qualified students to enter higher education straight from high school.

Earlier this year it appeared that universities might be forced to admit a double intake of students to clear the backlog. But officials warned that universities would not be able to absorb the increase without a commensurate rise in funding to meet infrastructure and faculty needs.

– University World News
August 29, 2010

Morocco

First Public University Strives for International Excellence

In September, a new university with a mission to become the first global research university in Morocco, welcomed its first 200 students. The International University of Rabat seeks to offer opportunities to talented students from Morocco and the region who might otherwise travel abroad to attend an internationally oriented, research-driven university.

The university is a public-private partnership. Mohammed VI, the Moroccan king, donated the 20 hectares—about 50 acres—in a new technology park on the outskirts of the city. Classes, commencing this fall in temporary offices, will move there next year, and the campus is scheduled for a 2015 completion date. The university plans to have 280 faculty members and 5,000 students by 2020.

The curriculum will be constructed to complement government development plans and with emerging sectors in the Moroccan economy in mind. With construction and alternative energy occupying current government priorities, the university will offer programs in renewable energy; railway, naval, automobile, and aerospace engineering (several airplane manufacturers have set up facilities in Morocco recently); and architecture and design; in addition to high-demand fields such as business, political science, and information technology.

University faculty has largely been drawn from the Moroccan and North African diaspora and many of the faculty recruited from abroad have helped structure partnerships between Rabat and their own colleges, and have brought corporate research sponsors to the new university. Most of the university’s international partnerships are with major French universities, although it also seeks to offer dual degrees with foreign academic partners from across the French- and English-speaking worlds. Students will be required to spend two semesters abroad, and instruction is to be in both French and English.

– The Chronicle of Higher Education
August 16, 2010

Mozambique

New Regulations Established for the Operation of Institutions of Higher Education

The government of Mozambique in August approved new regulations governing the licensing and operation of institutions of higher education in the country. There are currently 70,000 students at 38 tertiary institutions across the country. The regulations were approved by the Council of Ministers and they establish objective criteria on the composition, function and supervision of these institutes, such as minimum faculty requirements, the appointment of rectors or directors and a mission statement for each institution.

Earlier this year, the government decided to place a temporary suspension on the licensing of new higher education institutions so that it could approve new legal instruments to guarantee quality and service. According to Deputy Minister of Justice Alberto Nkutumula, some problems have arisen due to the lack of distinction between universities, polytechnics and other higher education institutes.

– AIM News
August 26, 2010

Nigeria

Regulations Governing Cross-Border Education Issued

The National Universities Commission (NUC) has released Guidelines for Cross-Border Provision of University Education in Nigeria. It provides a definition of cross-border university education, a framework for quality provision of cross-border education, and a scheme of application, registration, accreditation, and evaluation.

While the document is designed to establish a regulatory framework for cross-border provision and quality assurance, it also encourages qualified overseas universities to explore opportunities, especially those wishing to establish branch campuses.

– National University Commission
2010

South Africa

Top Universities Raise Admissions Standards

Concerned that high failure rates are damaging global competitiveness, several universities in South Africa have raised admission requirements for 2011. According to a survey of 12 universities by The Sunday Times newspaper, eight are considering tighter admission requirements for next year under the assumption that poor student pass rates are in part attributable to lax selection procedures.

Generally, universities have increased the number of points school-leavers must achieve in the matriculation exams, with points awarded to student applicants according to the number of subjects passed and the score achieved per subject, among other things. According to The Sunday Times, admission criteria will not be adjusted at the universities of KwaZulu-Natal, Walter Sisulu and Limpopo.

Higher Education South Africa (HESA), representing the leaders of all the country’s 23 public universities, reported two years ago that the student dropout rate had grown alarmingly and had hit 35 percent at some universities, with a majority of dropouts occurring in the freshman year.

The Young Communist League of South Africa said recently that the points system did not take into consideration that students from privileged schools often studied more subjects than those from schools in disadvantaged areas. So a student who took only six subjects had to meet the same points requirement as a person who had taken considerably more subjects.

– Sunday Times
August 1, 2010