Higher Education in Africa. Crises, Reforms and Transformation

Chapter Three - Tre Crisis, Its Consequences, and the Call for Change

Chapter Three The Crisis, Its Consequences, and the Call for Change This chapter discusses the general economic crisis and the educational crisis with a particular significance for higher education, especially the universities in Africa. It is argued that the loss and absence of the economic power of African states and their reliance on loans from the international financial institutions to fund their national programmes led to further loss of sovereignty. They de facto surrendered their ability and rights to make autonomous decisions to these international institutions. The latter were positioned to make African domestic policies. However the solutions they prescribed and which targeted higher education for drastic budget cuts exacerbated the crisis. Several studies on the crisis were undertaken. Some of the key recommendations of these studies are presented in this chapter. Profile of the Current Situation There has always been high enrolment in primary education, but the number of students progressing further to secondary education is far less. Egypt, Mauritius , and Tunisia maintained high enrolment ratios from 1965 to the present. World Bank records indicate that in South Africa secondary enrolment increased from 58.1 percent in 1986 to 94 percent in 1994. The secondary education enrolment ratio has a positive correlation to higher education enrolment. Egypt, Mauritius and Tunisia had the highest higher education enrolment ratio in Africa in early post-colonial era. In the 1990s Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and South Africa had the highest higher education enrolment, and correspondingly they had high secondary enrolment during this period. Botswana, Mauritius, Namibia, Republic of Congo, and Swaziland have the highest secondary enrolment, but this is not yet reflected in higher enrolment. Higher Education in Africa: Crises, Reforms, and Transformation 60 Table 1: Gross Enrolment Ratio as Percent of Total Eligible for Primary, Secondary and Higher Education Primary Secondary Higher Education 1965 53.4 6.3 0.8 1970 58.2 9.0 1.0 1975 69.93 12.9 1.7 1980 80.99 19.7 2.4 1985 79.0 22.5 2.9 1990 79.8 26.5 3.8 1995 83.9 31.2 4.8 1996 81.3 39.1 3.8 1997 92.0 35.1 2.3 Source: Africa Database. World Bank, 2002 Overall, higher education enrolment has increased from 1965 to 1995 by only three percent of total enrolment. In 1965, higher education enrolment constituted only one percent of total enrolment in Africa, and four percent in 1995. Table 2: Public Expenditure on Education as a Percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 1966 2.5 1971 2.8 1976 3.4 1981 4.0 1986 3.6 1991 3.7 1997 3.7 Source: Africa Database. World Bank, 2002 Government expenditure on education as percent of GDP slightly increased from the 1960s to the 1990s, when it stood at about 3.7 percent compared to 2.5 percent in 1966. Higher education is more expensive and capital-demanding than primary and secondary education. The expenditure per student in higher education as a percent of GNI per capita indicates that higher education demands up to ten times more investment than secondary education. The expenditure per student in higher education as a percent of GNI per capita has drastically fallen, from 1490.8 percent in 1965, to 820.8 percent in 1980, to just 107.2 percent in 1997. This is another indication that government investment in higher The Crisis, Its Consequences, and the Call for Change 61 education is on the decline. Currently, the governments of Malawi and Comoros have the highest expenditure per student in higher education as a percent of GNI per capita. Table 3: Expenditure per Student in Primary, Secondary, and Higher Education as Percent of Gross National Investment per Capita Expenditure per student (% of GNI per capita) Primary Secondary Higher Education 1965 18.4 130.8 1490.8 1970 15.6 90.5 901.2 1975 16.7 72.5 793.5 1980 16.0 51.8 820.8 1985 15.3 74.3 469.1 1990 14.3 51.1 352.8 1995 14.9 34.7 513.2 1997 20.2 35.2 107.2 Source: Africa Database. World Bank, 2002. Africa has been able to increase the number of universities from a very small number before 1960 to 250 in 2000. There were over four million students enrolled in higher education in 1996, representing some five percent of such students in the world. This...