The Role of Governments in Higher Education

The Brazilian government is providing 75,000 scholarships for students to study overseas in the next four years. In a similar manner China is subsidizing thousands of their students to study overseas. Qatar has spent millions of dollars on importing branch campuses from the United States ans other western nations. Nations around the world are looking beyond their borders to send their children to school. It seems that higher education is taking a more protagonist role in international relations. In a recent international education policy conference one common theme emerged among the 100 people from 17 nations in attendance: the economic impact of higher education is attracting significant attention from university systems and governments. The bottom line they believe is that higher education, once reserved only for the privileged in many nations around the world, is now becoming a necessity for all citizens to have.

Another important theme discussed is the role that different governments are playing in engaging in or inhibiting the internationalization of education. For example, it is each nations government, and not each university, that decides what students can enter a country. Also  governments are the ones that decide which students get the scholarships to study overseas as well. For the most part having international students is beneficial for most countries.

In 2010 alone the US generated more than $20-billion mostly from foreign student studying in the US. As can be seen, for developed countries such as the US and most European countries internationalization of education is highly beneficial. Developing countries are most likely to send their students to those nations. But, we are forgetting about the young people that are left behind. What happens to the student who are not lucky enough to win a scholarship to study overseas? And, should countries be sending their students to other countries rather than fixing their own educational systems first?

School Enrollment Ratios in Africa

This table shows the educational trend that that occurs in most African countries. It can be observed that less than than half of African children reach secondary school and almost none reach tertiary education. The school life expentancy in some African countries are as follows:

• Niger (2002): 2.9 years
• Democratic Republic of the Congo (1999): 4.4 years
• Mauritius (2002): 11.7 years
• South Africa (2001): 12.4 years

The primary reason why children and young adults leave school is to enter the workforce and help support their families. In other words, poverty. About a quarter of children ages 5-14 are working, and among children ages 10-14, 31% are estimated to be working. In some African countries, such as Burundi, this number reaches 50%. It seems that African youth follow two paths. They either enter the workforce immediately with little to no formal education or receive some formal schooling, up to secondary school, and then enter the workforce. There is clearly a step missing in african youth's progression from education to the workforce, what is missing is a college education or at least vocational school training. Without proper training young people are only able to obtain low-paying non-specialized jobs. This results in low job security as well. In the long run most African countries are finding themselves with a large non-specialized youth workforce with little to no education. Another trend that can be observed in this table is the gender disparity that exists in terms of education. School life expectancy is always higher for males than females.

Further into Higher Education in Africa

This figure shows tertiary or higher education gross enrollment ratio in various regions of the world. As can be observed, although higher education has risen considerably in all parts of the world Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest enrollment ratio in the world.

There are several factors that have contributed to the deteriorated state of the higher education system of Africa. One such factor is the relationship between higher education and law in many African countries. For example, the Ministry of Education in Madagascar appoints all faculty members, sets salaries, and determines working conditions. This forces faculty members to be closely linked to the political system. Rather than making teaching their number one priority they have to focus more on "running" for election to win or maintain a seat as a faculty member. A similar case occurs in Benin and Tanzania where the goverment appoints all senior University managers. Likewise, in Cameroon the Minster of Education hold supervisory authority over Universities.

It is important to note that this is not the case in all African countries. For instance, in Angola and Liberia universities are allowed full autonomy in decision making. The problem that arises here is that often the quality of education suffers do to lack of governmental regulation.

As can be seen, the higher educational system in Africa varies widely. There often seems to be a lack of balance of power beween the higher education institutions and the government.

Higher Education in Africa

Shanta Devarajan is the World Bank’s Chief Economist for Africa. One of the primary ways that he suggests overcoming poverty in Africa is through higher education. He feels that higher education has been neglected while more emphasis has been placed on primary education. Every year there are about 7-10 million young people in Africa searching for jobs. Devarajan in junction with the World Bank and an organization called Africa Gathering have banded to together in search of answers. One of their first moves is to get to the root of the problem. In order to do so they have organized three meeting across Africa: Friday, April 20 in Accra, Ghana; Tuesday, April 24 in Nairobi, Kenya; and Friday, April 27 in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. What is unique about these meetings is that they are reaching out to young people to attend and brainstorm with them on the issue. The World Bank is in search of answers and they hope to get them by asking the people who are most affected. With this real-time feedback the World Bank plans on creating a report on youth employment in Africa. One of the most discussed topics in these meetings will be higher education.

What's is it like to live in...?

For the second project of this semester I will be researching various cultures around the world. I have decided to narrow my search down to 3 or 4 cultures. While researching online I came across a web page on BBCnews.com that focuses on different cultures around the world. What caught my attention about this site is that it doesn't only provided factual information but, also provides selected comments of viewers. While visiting the African web page in the same site, I found very interesting that most of the comments were from Africans themselves. The variety in cultures from one country to the next became evident as I read each comment. This made me see that it would be easier if I chose just one country in each of the regions I will be writing about. For example, Africa is a very large continent and it would be very difficult to condense all of its varied cultures into one.

Another region in that I am interested in writing about is Latin America. I will most likely be writing about culture in El Salvador since I have personal experience in that area. My parents are from El Salvador and I have visited the country with them on various occasions. This will be the first time I actually go out and research about Salvadoran culture so am very intrigued in what I will find in my search.

The third world region that I will focus on is North America, more specifically the US. This is the culture that I am most familiar with since I have lived here all of my life. Still it will be interesting to find out what other people think of the US, not just its politics but about the people that live here.I am still debating if I will include a fourth region but, for know this is what I will focus on.