Private universities helping to meet student demand

ByReuben Kyama. Private universities play a critical role in advancing the higher education goals of Africa, as the world’s least developed continent grapples with a burgeoning youth population seeking quality, globally competitive skills, a pan-African forum held in Ethiopia agreed.
Senior government officials, academics and educationists attending the forum at the African Union headquarters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa from 8-10 August emphasised that public universities alone could not meet the rising demand for higher education in Africa. Organised by the African Union Commission in conjunction with the Association of African Universities, the conference, focusing on “The Role of Private Universities in Higher Education in Africa”, also assessed the impact of private higher education on development. Other partners included the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, and Covenant University and St Mary’s University College in Ethiopia.
“While private universities around the world are commended for their achievements and excellence, Africa is lagging behind. Whether the universities are public or private, no African university features in the top 200 of world university rankings,” the delegates said in a statement issued at the close of the meeting.
According to participants, the emergence of private universities in Africa could help boost efforts aimed at bridging gaps in the provision of quality higher education. Globally, the forum statement said, there were many examples of private universities that had contributed greatly to education and development, including Harvard, Chicago and Stanford universities. “In Japan, private universities account for about 75% of all universities.”
More state support needed
Officials urged their governments to recognise the contribution of private universities by providing them with an enabling environment in order to flourish. In the Addis Ababa Declaration, obtained by University World News, participants appealed to African governments to expand opportunities for scholarships and loans, to enable students to enrol in private universities. Delegates said there was also a need for governments to provide the sector with improved public services such as efficient road networks, reliable water and electricity supplies.
Private universities, they said, would also greatly benefit from fiscal incentives such as tax relief, which would allow them to reduce fees and thus improve access to higher education. They challenged governments to establish policy and legal incentives that would encourage investment in private universities. Ethiopian Education Minister Ato Demeke Mekonnen stressed the need to involve the private sector in the development of private universities in Africa. He pointed out that nearly 30% of universities globally were private and depended on tuition fees as their main source of revenue. Meanwhile, African governments only spent around 0.8% of gross domestic product and 20% of public expenditure on education.
Speakers at the meeting emphasised the need to explore innovative resource mobilisation schemes targeting public and private sector alike.
Need for regulation and quality assurance
There was also consensus among delegates on the need to regulate private universities and introduce thorough quality assurance systems. Vera Brenda Ngosi, director of human resources, science and technology at the African Union Commission, underscored the need for universities to be appropriately registered and accredited.
“The emergence of private universities in Africa has to be subjected to regulations. There is also a need to avoid multiplication of ‘briefcase’ universities delivering degrees with no real value, though costly,” she said.
Ngosi said the continent needed a system of evaluation and monitoring of universities, both public and private, to ensure that students received quality education. Analysts have long argued that higher education is critical to economic, social and political transformation in African countries. Scholars at the forum agreed that universities should be the bedrock of sustainable progress. But sceptics have pointed out that higher education in Africa is still grappling with numerous problems such as a biting shortage of lecturers, dilapidated infrastructure, declining funding, gender inequality and obsolete curricula. However, some argue that private universities could help to revive higher education by rolling out curricula that meet the demands of a rapidly globalising world.
“Private universities should engage in problem-solving scholarship and transformation, boost job creation and become pragmatic in their intellectual pursuits,” read the final resolution.
* Naftali Mwaura contributed to the reporting.