University education: the new World Bank darling

Jul 06, 2013

The tone of the World Bank towards higher education has changed of recent, signaling a major shift in policy.

By John Eremu

The tone of the World Bank towards higher education has changed of recent, signaling a major shift in policy that guided its support to the education sector in Africa in the late 1980s and 90s.

Since most African economies were struggling during that time, the World Bank and its sister agency – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – made wide-ranging recommendations that resulted into drastic cuts in public expenditure.

The higher education sub-sector was adversely affected as the Bretton Woods Institutions emphasized that investing in basic education had higher rate of returns than putting more resources in universities.

In Uganda, the IMF curtly said in their policy framework paper (1997-2000) that: “The government’s strategy for education will focus in the near term on increasing public spending on primary education….”

The government’s overall strategy, the Bretton Wood institution said, aimed at addressing basic weaknesses of the then education system which included unequal access to education services and high private costs of primary education among others.

As a result of shift in policy, stipend as well as book allowances to university students were abolished resulting into a series of strikes. The resource allocation to the higher education sub-sector in Uganda has since oscillated between 9 and 12% compared to over 60% of the education sector discretionary expenditure budget.

 Why the shift in policy?


At the recent higher education conference in the Gabonese capital Libreville, the World Bank officials said higher education hold the key to the transformation of the African continent.

Andreas Blom, the bank’s lead economist for Africa Education told the press at the conference organized by the Association of African Universities (AAU) that Africa was in a very dynamic phase of its development characterized by booming economic growth with many companies coming up as well as the discovery of mineral wealth including oil.

“So higher education has a greater role to play in supporting this dynamism,” Blom said.

In response to a question, Blom denied that the paradigm shift was an admission of the bank’s policy failure on basic education.

“There is no change in policy on basic education,” Blom said. “We have still continued supporting basic education. However, it is now time to start strategic investment in higher education. Africa of today is not Africa of the 1990s. There is now need in the labour market for higher education skills. For instance, the highest number of employees in the gas and extractive industries are expatriates but that should not be the case,” he argued.

In a video address, Makhtar Diop, the World Bank vice president for Africa said higher education was his priority because it holds the potential for Africa’s transformation.

“We are convinced that by transforming higher education in Africa, we will be able to compete easily with the rest of the world in areas where usually we are not seen as strong competitors,” Diop observed.

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A cross section of participants at the conference.

Need for science and technology

Diop told the over 400 delegates, that including donors and heads of universities across Africa that he was committed to putting resources into their portfolio to support higher education.

Through a competitive process, Diop said the multi-lateral lending agency was making resources available to universities which are articulating a convincing plan, which can mobilise not only internal resources but also resources from both the private and public sectors. The bank has set aside $130m to establish five centres of excellence on a pilot basis in West and Central Africa.

Diop stressed the need to emphasize the teaching of science and technology in higher education to enhance the transformation process.

“There is no part of the world which has been able to sustain a high level of growth, a high level of productivity, without increasing the access to science in society. Africa, unfortunately, has been lagging behind,” he lamented.

The four-day conference on the theme: “Transforming African Higher Education for Graduate Employability and Socio-economic Development,” was organized by AAU in conjunction with Omar Bongo University.

Hailing the World Bank for the policy shift, the conference participants suggested that the bank should find ways of supporting the Pan-African University project that already has centres of excellence across the continent instead of creating parallel centres.

The conference comes on the backdrop of growing concern over the nature of training that the universities have been offering in relation to the demands of the job market.

It was noted that though universities could play a crucial role in economic transformation, African universities still lagged behind in meeting the needs of the industries.

The other areas explored during the conference include the connection between university education and the private sector, the role of the organized private sector, socio-economic environment and employability and funding of higher education in Africa.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the conference, the heads of Africa universities reaffirmed education as the right of every citizen and as the key instrument of change and development in any society.

Observing the phenomenal growth of universities in Africa in recent times to expand access to higher education amidst growing graduate unemployment, the conference participants resolved to among others, evolve and engage every available means that could provide effective solutions to graduate employability and transformation of higher education in Africa.

As a panacea to graduate employment, they recommended that graduate employability should be a collaborative effort amongst universities, governments and the Organised Private Sector and that AAU should commence an aggressive capacity building and advocacy on database on employment opportunities through regional and sub-regional organizations as other continental associations and organisations.

“African Universities should pay serious and strategic attention to relevant curricula, teaching and research to guarantee graduate employability,” the communiqué read in part.

Using all the resources at their disposal, the communiqué said Africa universities must engage in socially responsive research-backed activities to make the need of our society the centre of activities by universities.

The communiqué also implored the African heads of Government to declare the next decade as one to address in a concerted effort and comprehensively deal with unemployment of graduates in Africa and that they should draw more from local researchers as Consultants who can plough back their local knowledge in the knowledge generation activities of universities to aid and enhance employability of graduates.

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