Regional
Foundation to Donate $500 Million Over 10 Years for African Scholarships
The MasterCard Foundation announced [1] in September that it will be providing US$500 million over 10 years to help poor students from Africa gain access to secondary and higher education. A majority of the money—65 to 70 percent—will pay for university scholarships for more than 1,000 students, mostly undergraduates.
Several top American universities are participating, including Arizona State [2], Duke [3], and Michigan State [4] Universities. Michigan State, for example, is receiving $45 million to educate 185 students [5] over the next 10 years. Non-U.S. universities are also involved in the project. For example, the American University of Beirut [6] and Ashesi University [7], in Ghana are participating. Some recipients of the scholarships are already enrolled, with about 145 African students on American campuses.
– MasterCard Foundation [8]
September 26, 2012
Developing Nations Advance Doctoral Education
A report on trends in doctoral education by the European Universities Association [9] has found that developing nations are working hard to expand access to Ph.D. programs, but may be struggling to keep up with the demand.
The study is based on a comprehensive survey of trends in doctoral education across East Asia, Latin America and Southern Africa. According to the study, countries are instituting similar national policies towards doctoral education both in those regions and within Europe. As a result, not only has the number of doctorates awarded grown significantly, but also countries and institutions across the world are driven by the same motivations: to develop society.
The study, Cooperation on Doctoral Education between Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europ [10]e, found that since 2004, there has been a 40 percent increase in doctoral awards in Europe, Latin America and the U.S. The numbers in Africa and Asia are similar, but the report’s authors warned that it might be difficult to retain doctorate holders in universities as academics “if on top of that you want the knowledge transfer of Ph.D.s in industry and in government.”
However, institutions in developing regions still need to increase overall research investment to meet Ph.D. demand, they added. “In some countries we saw they had high numbers of admissions without a corresponding increase in graduation. So you have plummeting completion rates and we don’t really know why that is. What we can say is you just can’t invest in this as if it were undergraduate education.”
– Times Higher Education [11]
October 4, 2012
Pan-African University Selects First Student Cohort
The African Union-backed Pan-African University [12] has selected its first intake of master’s students for three of its institutes, in Cameroon, Kenya and Nigeria. The 193 pioneer students from across the continent are to start later this year.
After the completion of the initial goals for PAU, there will be five institutes in existing universities in Africa’s five regions. The North African institute will be located in Algeria, while Southern Africa has yet to settle on a host. Each regional institute will eventually be linked to 10 PAU centers under the same research theme, located in different countries across the continent, to create a network of programs that comprise the Pan-African University.
– University World News [13]
October 21, 2012
South Sudan
China-Backed, Multi-Billion Dollar Plan to Upgrade All Public Universities
South Sudan plans to upgrade its five public universities to new, modern campuses, with US$2.5 billion worth of Chinese loans backed by oil. The initiative is aimed at improving education in a country where just over a quarter of adults can read.
After decades of civil war, the African nation seceded from Sudan last year, emerging as one of the world’s least developed countries, despite earning billions of dollars in oil revenues between 2005 and 2011. The country is now planning to move its five operational public universities to new, modern campuses, Higher Education, Science and Technology Minister Peter Adwok Nyaba said in September.
The project was due to start this year and was scheduled to finish in 2017, but has been delayed since South Sudan closed off its oil output in January in a dispute with Sudan over how much it should pay to export crude through pipelines in Sudanese territory. The South depended on oil for 98 percent of state revenues.
In addition to Juba University in the capital, South Sudan has universities in Upper Nile state, Western Bahr al-Ghazal, Jonglei and Lakes state.
Critics of the plan, including faculty, say there has been little or no consulting with the universities involved, both in terms of what is being constructed (by Chinese construction firms) and where future academic plans are heading. In addition to the five universities being upgraded, there are three new universities currently being established in South Sudan. Critics worry that the three new universities will be shorted funds as a result of the upgrade to existing universities.
– Reuters [14]
September 13, 2012
Uganda
Uganda As A Regional Education Hub
University World News reports that “Uganda is emerging as the regional powerhouse for higher education in East Africa, with its universities aggressively pursuing students and establishing collaborations with colleges in Kenya, Tanzania and South Sudan.”
The country’s universities have reportedly been recruiting aggressively over the last four years both for enrollment in domestic programs and also for transnational programs being run collaboratively with Ugandan universities abroad. The main draw according to UWN is low tuition fees. Programs are mainly being offered in the humanities, the arts and ICT.
Ugandan institutions such as Makerere University [15], Kampala International University [16], Busoga University [17] and Kampala University [18] are collaborating with colleges across the East African region to offer their programs transnationally. Many of the top Ugandan institutions maintain recruitment offices in major East African cities.
Kenyan students have been a particular target for Ugandan institutions as domestic supply cannot meet skyrocketing demand for university places. Critics complain that issues related to program quality and job-market relevance are not being addressed by Ugandan institutions and their partner colleges in Kenya, which are concerned mainly with enrollment numbers.
Regional experts suggest that South Sudan will soon be an attractive recruiting destination for Ugandan institutions, due to a lack of facilities in the newly independent nation.
– University World News [19]
September 30, 2012
Zimbabwe
New Military University
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has opened the country’s first military university, built with a US$98 million Chinese loan secured by mortgaging diamonds. The National Defence College in Harare will become a full-ledged university in 2015.
The college is open to servicemen from the rank of colonel or group captain and above. Construction of the college started in 2010 and was completed earlier than the scheduled 2013. Mugabe, who has been in power for 32 years, said the institution would be vital to thwart what he termed a Western-sponsored regime change agenda.
– University World News [20]
September 30, 2012