Country Profiles
CHAPTER 2.1 In an increasingly interdependent and globalized world, countries that are able to compete and effectively partic- ipate in the global economy are those with large and Reforming Higher Education: rapidly expanding stocks of human capital. The impor- tance of education, especially higher education, for Access, Equity, and Financing Africa’s economic growth has been highlighted by the recent World Bank publication Accelerating Catch Up: in Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, 1 Tertiary Education for Growth in Africa. Unfortunately, 2.1: Reforming Higher Education South Africa, and Tunisia very little work has been done to study Africa’s tertiary education sector—including elements such as enrollment trends, relevance, efficiency, adequacy, management, and KWABENA GYIMAH-BREMPONG, University of Southern Florida financing. PETER ONDIEGE, African Development Bank The objective of this chapter is to analyze systems of higher education in Africa using five African countries— Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, and Tunisia— as case studies. Other countries that were originally meant to be included—Mauritius, Senegal, Ghana, and Nigeria—were excluded because of inadequate coverage in the initial stages. Specifically, the chapter analyzes current enrollment trends, accessibility and equity, governance, quality and relevance, financing, university-industry linkages (UILs), and entrepreneurship education in tertiary education curricula. The idea is to look at what works well and what does not, to consider what challenges need to be confronted, and to discuss lessons learned and the way forward for reforming tertiary education in Africa. 39 Although African countries have generally spent relatively large proportions of their national resources on the production of education, the stock of human capital with tertiary education in Africa continues to be very low compared with other regions of the world.
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