Do African countries need tertiary education to succeed in sustainable capacity development

1
Do African countries need tertiary education to
succeed in sustainable capacity development?

• Talking Notes by DP on
• Subsidy at Tertiary Education is more beneficial
  to the tax payer than subsidy at lower levels of
  Education in Africa
• AFRICA LEADERSHIP INSTITUTER
• March 27, 2008

2
Overview

• Is Tertiary Education Important for Economic
  Development in Africa?
• Recent evidence
• Current Status Challenges
• Going Forward

3

• Is Tertiary Education Important for Economic
  Development?

4
Conceptual Framework
5
The Array of Higher Education Benefits
Public
Private

• Increased Tax Revenues
• Greater Productivity
• Increased Consumption
• Increased Workforce Flexibility
• Decreased Reliance on Government Financial Support

• Higher Salaries and Benefits
• Employment
• Higher Savings Levels
• Improved Working Conditions
• Personal/Professional Mobility

Economic

• Reduced Crime Rates
• Increased Charitable Giving/Community Service
• Increased Quality of Civic Life
• Social Cohesion/Appreciation of Diversity
• Improved Ability to Adapt to and Use Technology

• Improved Health/Life Expectancy
• Improved Quality of Life for Offspring
• Better Consumer Decision Making
• Increased Personal Status
• More Hobbies, Leisure Activities

Social
Source The Institute for Higher Education
Policy, Reaping the Benefits Defining the
Public and Private Value of Going to College,
March 1998.
6
Additional public benefits

• Produces well trained teachers for all levels of
  schooling
• Trains physicians and health workers
• Nurtures governance and leadership skills
• Of 38 heads of state in Africa in 2005 with
  recorded educational attainment levels, 23 had
  formal higher education.

7
Public benefits - evidence

• Bloom, Hartley, and Rosovsky (2004) showed
• High school graduates working in US states with
  higher proportions of college graduates earn more
  than otherwise comparable workers in states with
  lower proportions of college graduates.
• A positive correlation between higher education
  and entrepreneurship more-educated
  entrepreneurs created more jobs than
  less-educated entrepreneurs
• A positive correlation between higher education
  and good governance
• Moretti (2004)

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Recent Evidence
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Economic growth model
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Key results (Bloom Report 2006)

• Increasing overall education tends to increase
  the steady-state level of GDP.
• Increasing higher education tends to increase the
  rate of technological and income convergence.
• Capital and Labor have the largest effect.
  Pooling resources through regional collaboration
  for small economies has great potential.

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Summary estimates

• A 1-year increase in the stock of Africas
  tertiary education would boost the annual rate of
  economic growth by a sizable 0.63 percentage
  points.
• If the current stock of tertiary education in
  Africa increased to the level of Egypt (0.59
  years/person), the annual rate of GDP growth
  would increase by a modest/non-trivial 0.28
  percentage points.
• Poverty reduction effects

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Emerging Global Consensus

• Commission for Africa Report 2005
• NEPAD HD Strategy
• African Union 2nd Decade for Education
• World Bank AAP
• Still, many African countries do not have
  tertiary education as a priority in their
  development strategies

13
Commission for Africa (2005)

• Recognizes higher educations value for
  development
• Suggests 500 million/year over 10 years is
  needed to strengthen higher education institutions

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Current Status Challenges
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World Bank Higher Education Activities

• Higher education Projects
• Mauritania
• Mozambique
• Uganda Science Technology
• Projects with HE comp
• Burkina Faso
• Cameroon
• Ethiopia
• Gambia
• Ghana
• Lesotho
• Tanzania FY07
• DRC FY07
• Kenya FY07
• Namibia FY07
• Projects in Science Technology
• Uganda MSI
• Nigeria STEPB

• ESW and Regional
• Ethiopia, 2003
• Uganda S T, 2004
• HE Economic development 05
• Univ staff retention, 2005
• SADC policy dialogue, 05/06
• Francophone HE conf, 2006
• Nigeria S T, 2006
• HE Cost and Financing in Francophone Afr. 2006
• Innovation Funds for HE 06
• Quality Assurance, 07
• Agric Education Training, 07
• Tertiary Education Growth 07
• ICTs and Education 07

16
Trends

• Africa has the fastest increase in tertiary
  enrollment (grew at an average of 15.6 increase
  a year between 1991-2004)
• But coverage is still the lowest in the world
  (gross enrollment ratio 5)
• Gender parity has been improving (40 female
  students)
• Rising enrollment share in private sector (8
  on average and share exceeds 20 in 10 countries)
  
• Increasing diversification (28 of students in
  short technical programs)

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Financing

• Public spending on higher education declined on
  average (in real terms and as a share of
  education spending)
• Public spending per student has been falling
  sharply but remains high in relation to GDP(3
  times the GDP per capita)
• Low efficiency and high social spending
  (particularly in Francophone Africa)
• Financial sustainability is a concern

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Efficiency and Relevance

• Low efficiency (particularly in Francophone
  countries)
• Mismatch between output of graduates and labor
  market demand (many unemployed tertiary
  graduates)
• Research and Development is nascent (approx. 48
  researchers/million inhabitants, RD spending
  approx. 0.3 of GDP)
• Aging faculty, difficulty in staff retention
• Weak governance
• poor alignment of incentives to quality Limited
  ICT capacity and connectivity

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Going Forward
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Improve Quality Relevance

• Adopt an integrated post-basic education strategy
  
• Strengthen Teaching Learning (staff,
  facilities, pedagogy, e-learning)
• Emphasis on Science, Technology and Innovation
• Forge stronger link to productive sectors (refer
  to on-going study)
• Strengthen institutional and national QA systems
  (See Hannusheks Paper)

21
Strengthen Research Capacity

• Better Equip Research Labs
• Encourage Collaborative Research Networks
• Research management Training
• Capacity to move from lab results to products and
  services
• Incentives

22
Stronger Partnerships and Regional Collaboration

• In Select Areas e.g. PG Training Research
• Problem of sustainability How can partnerships
  and regional cooperation be reformed to become
  strategic tools for development?
• Is there a role for international development
  partners?

23
Increase Enrollment
Source UNESCO and World Bank
24
Create a favorable Climate for Retention of
Skilled Personnel

• Improve Working environment incentive system
• Local Postgraduate Training through partnerships
  are there promising practices to learn from?
• Address issue of remuneration merit-based
  tenure system at Universities?

25
Skilled Migrants/Total Migrants
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TE Students Abroad/Home country Students
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Engage the African Diaspora

• Paradigm shift View Diaspora as resource, not a
  loss
• Learn from Others (e.g. Asia)
• Deliberate strategies to engage Diaspora
• What strategies could be applied to engage the
  African Diaspora? Are there promising practices
  we could learn from?

28
Improve ability to respond quickly to change

• Reforms
• Policy Governance Autonomy vs Accountability
  in public tertiary institutions.
• Financing Demand-driven, link to performance,
  accountability mechanisms
• Diversification encourage private providers,
  non-university tertiary
• Curriculum Pedagogy

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Advocacy for Tertiary education in development
policy dialogue

• Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs)
• Very few mention higher education as a means to
  reduce poverty, and most see it as less important
  than primary and secondary education.
• In 2005, only 3 of 31 countries see higher
  education as a poverty reduction tool. Number is
  increasing
• In SADC out of 5 IDA countries in 2005 with
  PRSPs, two did not mention higher education and
  two called for reduction of public spending on
  higher education.