Uganda boasts 29 universities serving about 200,000 students, with 30,000 graduating annually. Makerere University issues 30% of those annual qualifications and is ranked by  among the top five universities in Africa. Much of the Ugandan higher education market is driven by foreign students, and the schools themselves have adopted more internationalised curricula in recent years.

There are about 16,000 foreign students enrolled in Ugandan universities. Most choose Kampala International University, followed by Makerere University and Bugema University. The bulk are from Kenya, though Uganda has become a hub for students from all of East Africa. The main attraction for these students are the low fees for foreigners, a relatively safe environment, and the wide-ranging subjects available for study. For Kenyans, an extra enticement is the similarity of the education system to their home country in terms of standards and quality.

As we noted in an earlier report, interregional cooperation within the East African Community (EAC) has boosted access to education and mobility between the five member states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. A 2012 bill signed by the Inter University Council for East Africa () furthered the trend. However, competition still exists, and Ugandan universities have been among the most aggressive recruiters in the region, another factor boosting inbound mobility.

In terms of outbound mobility, the latest UNESCO statistics indicate that roughly 5,200 Ugandan students are currently enrolled overseas. The total has been rising steadily since 2006, and has doubled over the past decade. Students prefer the UK and US, choosing those two destinations in almost equal numbers, with South Africa the third most popular option. In general, English-speaking destinations fare well, but countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Italy have also proven to be popular among Ugandan students.

黑料官网 Monitor recently spoke about the Uganda education market with Robert Wagubi of . In the video excerpts that follow, Mr Wagubi offers his considerable insights on trends in Uganda and East Africa.

In our first interview segment below, he discusses Uganda鈥檚 investment in education, local demand for education, and points towards improved economies in the East African region as drivers for bringing internationally educated Ugandans back home after their studies.

Uganda is one of the youngest countries in the world, with a median age of 15.6. Like other African countries, there is a skills gap that often results in university graduates remaining unemployed, but this is an especially pressing issue in a country whose youth are a higher percentage of the total population than anywhere else in the world. Estimates of youth unemployment range from 62% to 83%, the highest in Africa.

Even so, state expenditures on higher education have been low. Spending is slated to increase in 2016/17, driven in part by a boost in teacher salaries. Even more funding may be needed, however. A recent study showed that Ugandan universities, on the whole, operate on a below-cost-per-student basis, a loss that makes improving education outcomes difficult. In a related development,  showed that 63% of Ugandan graduates were not properly prepared for the employment market.

However, during President Yoweri Museveni鈥檚 long rule, Uganda has made progress in some areas. The World Bank鈥檚 Uganda Poverty Assessment 2016 says the country cut poverty by nearly two thirds between 2006 and 2013. This shift is one of the highest in all of sub-Saharan Africa during that time period. How much of this is a result of policy is in debate, however the government has invested in infrastructure and the report credits government trade policies with making a difference.

Rising income levels mean more Ugandans are earning tertiary degrees. But with many of these coming from private universities that arose to fill the country鈥檚 large capacity gap, academic standards and quality controls remain areas of concern. For example, in 2007 Kampala International University (KIU) began awarding PhDs in humanities but didn鈥檛 have permission to do so from the Uganda National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) until two years later. In 2013 NCHE declared all of the 66 doctorates KIU had awarded the previous two years invalid link to. And in 2014, five universities, including Makerere University, were reprimanded for teaching courses without applying for full accreditation from the NCHE.

These problems have been addressed by the government, and tertiary degrees remain respected by Ugandan employers. Demand for them is soaring. Business owners prefer tertiary graduates for all jobs, and degree holders are routinely hired for positions that could be filled by vocational and technical graduates. Ugandan youth are well aware of this fierce competition for the best positions, and the idea of attaining a tertiary degree is now normalised among not only them, but among their parents and in the wider culture as well.

Students who take the extra step of completing an international qualification have an advantage in this competitive job market. In our second interview segment below, Mr Wagubi talks about effective international education marketing strategies for Uganda, focusing on Canada鈥檚 recruiting success there. He makes the point that Canada, which is a top ten destination for Ugandan students, may have created a blueprint for marketing in the region.

The Ugandan government has implemented programmes designed to funnel students toward areas needed by labour market. In 2008, it passed the Business Technical Vocational Education and Training Act, and has since increased investment and sharpened focus on skills training via its BTVET Strategic Plan 2011-2020. Today, 90 districts have at least one BTVET facility equipped to provide training, and enrolment has topped 150,000 students. The government intends to shortly have BTVET schools in all 112 districts of the country.

The government also created the Higher Education Student鈥檚 Financing Board (HESFB) in 2014 to increase access to higher education for the rising number of needy students earning the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) awarded to secondary school graduates. The programme is aimed at students who don鈥檛 receive state scholarships and can鈥檛 raise cash for self-sponsorship. It also aims to address the problem of tertiary participation rates that hover around 6%.

How the state budget is applied to higher education moving forward will likely be affected by the most significant event in Uganda in recent years: the discovery of major oil deposits in 2010. While the announcement generated excitement, the example of Nigeria looms large over discussions about how to manage this potential source of wealth. Nigeria鈥檚 oil has brought prosperity but challenges as well, particularly in the form of damage to traditional industries such as fishing and farming.

Uganda vows not to make the same mistakes. President Museveni has asserted that no revenue will be spent on consumables, but rather on areas that boost national growth. The country of Norway – one of international oil鈥檚 biggest success stories – is assisting Uganda in various areas. The Ugandan government plans to funnel oil profits into a national fund similar to Norway鈥檚, and President Museveni speaks of the oil industry supplementing rather than dominating the economy. According to some assessments, Ugandan oil could double the state budget if successfully managed.

In our third and final interview segment below, Mr Wagubi notes that Uganda鈥檚 burgeoning oil and gas industry is where jobs for engineering graduates are opening up, and points to other in-demand degrees in Uganda and in East Africa as a whole. He also offers useful tips for educators working in the Ugandan market.

For additional background on East Africa, please see:

• “New study highlights shifting patterns of African student mobility“
• “The employability challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa“
• “Demand for job skills heating up in Africa“

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A survey exploring the foreign investment potential and attractiveness of the overall African market for investors, EY鈥檚 attractiveness survey Africa 2015 – Making choices, found that Africa holds the #4 spot in the world in terms of perceived attractiveness as an investment destination, behind Oceania, North America, and Asia – but ahead of Europe, Latin America, Central America, and the Middle East.

Survey respondents who are already investing in Africa were far more likely to find Africa attractive than those who are not. Among that first group, Africa emerges as the single most attractive market to invest in, ahead of all other regions. But even that group, as bullish as it is about Africa, considers Africa home to highly challenging labour force deficiencies. One of the most significant issues they face on a daily basis is a skills and education shortage among local African populations.

Many workers, but not many with the right skills

PwC estimates that by 2040, , ahead of even India and China. But as of today, it is a labour force with some serious skills and education challenges.

For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) the secondary school enrolment rate is only 40%, and only 7% of students continue to tertiary education. UNESCO predicts as well that Africa will be home to half of the world’s illiterate people in the years ahead. Experts see these factors as important roadblocks to further skills development that will hinder the continent’s economic and social development going forward.

Perhaps it comes as no surprise then that the EY survey also found employers are having trouble recruiting workers with the right skills today. Seven in ten African firms surveyed by EY are recruiting to support planned growth yet “vacancies are taking longer to fill and employee turnover is high.” The report concludes in part that:

“African governments need to reshape curricula at secondary and tertiary institutions to ensure they meet the needs of the labour market. More technical and vocational training programmes are required to equip African workers with high-quality skills that business needs.”

Some of the most in-demand skills are in the technical and professional categories. Over a third of companies said their need for technical and professional skills was likely to grow over the next 12 months.

Education, yes, but also company-led training

The sheer scale and breadth of current education requirements, coupled with the dramatic growth projections for many African economies in the years ahead, suggests a wide range of student recruitment and offshore delivery opportunities in selected African markets.

Another EY survey, Sub-Saharan Africa talent trends and practices, found that local employees with relevant skills training are increasingly mobile, since there is so much competition in the market that it makes it easy to move from job to job. In addition, it found that companies are having trouble filling vacant positions quickly enough. The result is that they are becoming increasingly reliant on expatriate workers, who constitute a ready supply of skills for specialist positions.

Ideally, the number of local workers with suitable skills would increase to the point where the demand for expatriate workers would decline, with the effect of also bolstering spending (and stability) in local economies.

EY鈥檚 Attractiveness Survey Africa 2015 advises:

“To reduce overdependence on expatriate workers, companies must foster skills transfer from expatriates to local staff.”

And to have local staff remain in their jobs, the survey鈥檚 authors emphasise the need for appropriate human resource strategies:

“There is a rising war for talent in Sub-Saharan Africa. As companies gear up for growth, the demand for skills needed to support such ambitions has increased, and is being matched by greater mobility in the labour market…Clearly, organisations need to become more deliberate in how they plan for, attract and retain staff. To secure the talent they seek, they will need to make training and career development part of their brand, developing processes to monitor and reward employee performance and ensure management continuity.”

Local knowledge is key, both for students and companies

To operate successfully in any international market, foreign entrants need deep local knowledge and involvement, not only for commercial reasons but also for sustainability (e.g., acceptance by populations and governments). Foreign companies are increasingly considering this concept, also known as “shared value,” but some argue that higher education in Africa is actually becoming less “local,” with possibly troubling repercussions.

At the 14th General Assembly of CODESRIA (the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa), Dr Ramola Ramtohul, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, . She said:

“Whereas the internationalisation of higher education in Africa is widening access to tertiary education and is often seen as a tool towards political stability, democracy, peace and development, it also carries risks of brain drain, which has increased mobility of professional and skilled workers leaving African universities.”

Professor Ibrahim Oanda Ogachi of Kenyatta University, Kenya, added that this internationalisation “鈥� had stunted the ability of African universities to take off and effectively tackle the developmental needs of African society.”

The discussion also touched on the one-way mobility characterising internationalisation in Africa, with African students going abroad to pursue higher degrees and very few foreign students coming to Africa “largely because of the perceived low quality of academic programmes, and poor institutional infrastructure and facilities.”

There was a sense at the conference that the current state of higher education internationalisation in Africa is a colonial legacy, one that may even be impeding African countries in joining the global knowledge economy. This, plus the aforementioned tendency of companies to hire expatriates to fill specialised jobs, may not be a sustainable direction for a continent poised for enduring growth.

Yet for now, families in Africa that can afford international and/or private education are rushing to it, eager to keep their children out of state schools that some say “have left millions with skills suitable only for manual labour.”

Reuters notes that this recognition is also driving demand for better education at home:

“Rising incomes among the continent’s vast population have created a pool of customers willing to pay for better schooling for their children. That in turn is driving an explosion in education businesses that means Africa could soon rival Asian countries like India as the next big hit with school investors.”

As we have reported previously, this demand is leading to a rapid expansion of private education, including school openings by international providers or joint ventures with local partners. Private schools account for 10鈥�40% of K-12 education in Africa, with key markets such as Kenya and Nigeria at the upper end of that range. Observers expect this demand to strengthen in the years ahead as further economic growth takes hold across the continent and as the middle class continues to expand.

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These are some of the findings of the Pew Research Center鈥檚 . The study updates a similar effort from 2013, which highlighted the strong levels of web usage and engagement for social and mobile users. The findings for the 2014 edition are drawn from in-person interviews with 36,619 people across 32 emerging and developing countries conducted from March 17 to June 5, 2014. The results for those 32 countries – including significant education markets such as China, India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, and Mexico – have been benchmarked against a related Pew Center telephone survey of 1,002 Americans, also conducted in 2014.

The study鈥檚 high-level findings provide a compact overview of Internet access in developing and emerging economies, along with important insights as to how people access and use the Internet in each country.

For example, the following graphic illustrates the percentage of the population in each country who access the Internet at least occasionally or own a smartphone (as smartphone users, practically speaking, are also Internet users).

Those who access the Internet at least occasionally or own a smartphone within the 32 countries in the 2014 Global Attitudes study. Source: Pew Research Center

Do some of those numbers look lower than you would expect? If so, it is probably because you spend a lot of time talking to students. The Pew study points out that Internet usage is highly concentrated within younger demographics in developing and emerging economies, particularly among those with a high school education or higher and particularly among those who can speak or read English.

The following table summarises the variances in Internet usage for these factors, and, as you will see, they are quite striking in some cases. (Please note that some table cells are left empty for some countries due to insufficient sample size for the characteristic in question.)

Internet usage by age, education, and English ability among the 32 countries in the 2014 Global Attitudes study. Source: Pew Research Center

These findings make intuitive sense in that the 18-to-34-year-old demographic came of age during a period of dramatic technological change, including the emergence of the Internet and the widespread adoption of mobile devices. In addition to these factors, and, as was the case in last year鈥檚 global survey, the 2014 study also finds a close correlation between Internet usage and income. Simply put, 鈥淩icher countries in terms of gross domestic product per capita have more Internet users among the adult population compared with poorer nations.鈥�

Also echoing last year鈥檚 study, Pew finds that Internet users in developing and emerging economies are highly engaged socially. Staying in touch with friends and family and engagement with social media remain the leading ways in which they like to use the Internet.

This point reinforces an important aspect of communicating with secondary school and college-age Internet users: they are highly engaged socially and those social channels in turn are an important source of information and product or service recommendations. A recent post from NewBrand Analytics makes the point concisely:

鈥淎 study of millennials [that is, those born between 1980 and 2000] states that 95% of respondents say friends are their most credible source for information when making a purchase. Additionally, 98% are more likely to engage with posts by friends about a brand versus a post by the brand itself. Therefore, an effective method to get millennials loyal to your brand is to get other millennials talking online.鈥�

Following on from the importance of this highly socialised exchange, Pew also finds that searching for more practical news and information is the next major category of Internet usage in developing and emerging economies. 鈥淔or Internet users in emerging and developing nations, social relationships are a fundamental aspect of their interaction with the virtual world,鈥� says the study. 鈥淕etting various types of information, such as political news, health information and government services, is the next tier of Internet use.鈥�

What鈥檚 in your pocket?

The Pew report also has some important observations in terms of how users in developing and emerging economies access the Internet. It tracks usage and ownership of desktop computers from country to country but also smartphone and cell phone penetration as well.

The report notes, 鈥淥verall, a median of 38% across the 32 nations surveyed say they have a working computer in their household. In 11 countries, half or more own computers, including 78% in Russia 鈥� comparable to the 80% of Americans who say they have a computer in their household. Computer ownership is relatively high in a number of Latin American nations. Majorities in Chile (72%), Venezuela (61%), Argentina (58%) and Brazil (55%) have computers in their homes. Computer ownership rates are lowest in sub-Saharan African nations.鈥�

The extent to which users in each country have reliable access to computers outside the home (e.g., at school or at work) is less clear. Leaving this aspect aside for a moment, we can see that computer ownership broadly correlates to national income levels and explains at least part of the relationship between Internet usage and income that we noted earlier.

Along that same line, cell phone ownership is much more common in the emerging and developing countries in the Pew survey. A median of 84% (across all 32 countries) own a cell phone of some kind. This compares to the US benchmark of 90% for cell phone ownership, and the survey finds a marked difference still between the penetration of more basic cell phones as opposed to smartphones. 鈥淪martphones 鈥� and the mobile access to the Internet that they make possible in some locations 鈥� are not nearly as common as conventional cell phones. A median of only 24% say they own a cell phone that can access the Internet and applications.鈥�

Percentage of 2014 Global Attitude respondents who own a smartphone or cell phone. Source: Pew Research Center

However, phone ownership again underscores the relationship between age and Internet usage. As with the broader correlation the study observes between these factors, smartphone ownership is also highly concentrated among younger users. 鈥淵oung people (those under 35) are significantly more likely than their older counterparts to own an iPhone, BlackBerry, Android or other Internet-capable mobile phone,鈥� says Pew.

Overall, the study makes an important point that broader statistics of Internet penetration and usage in developing and emerging economies have to be interpreted via some important filters, including age, education, English ability, and income. In an international education context, the high school and college-age prospects that educators and agents are mainly trying to reach are among the heaviest users of web and mobile technologies. In this sense, the findings of the 2014 Pew study will only reinforce the importance of the Internet, and the social and mobile web in particular, as a key channel for reaching and engaging prospective students.

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We see this at a macro level, most recently in Africa where government leaders and academics have called for a dramatic expansion of higher education and have strongly linked access to quality education to the long-term development of the continent. And we see it as well at the level of individual students and families, where there is a greater emphasis on indicators of the return on investment in tertiary education.

There is a demand at all levels for stronger evidence of positive employment outcomes for graduates. We have reported on some of the current research in the field previously, and the findings of two new studies released this quarter provide further compelling indicators for educators and marketers alike.

Is education the solution?

A new study from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), , underscores why the question of education-employment links is so compelling today:

鈥淭he global jobs crisis has exacerbated the vulnerability of young people in terms of:

• higher unemployment;
• lower quality jobs for those who find work;
• greater labour market inequalities among different groups of young people;
• longer and more insecure school-to-work transitions;
• increased detachment from the labour market.鈥�

More to the point, the authors note the dramatic rise in youth unemployment in many markets around the world is a threat to the social, economic, and political stability of those countries. The study therefore aims to provide 鈥渦p-to-date evidence on labour market outcomes and education for the population of youth aged 15 to 29 in developing economies, which still make up 90% of the global youth population.鈥�

The study examines 28 countries in every region of the world, ranging from Bangladesh and Cambodia to Brazil and Colombia to Egypt and Uganda. Within that sample, 27 countries were classed as 鈥渓ow- to upper-middle income.鈥� It excludes the Russian Federation as the only high-income country in the countries covered.

The ILO found a fairly compelling linkage between education and employment across those 27 markets, in that completion of tertiary education serves as a 鈥渇airly dependable guarantee鈥� towards secure employment. On average, 83% of youth with tertiary education were in 鈥渘on-vulnerable employment.鈥� The surety of that guarantee drops somewhat in the lowest-income countries in the study but even there, 75% of tertiary graduates were in non-vulnerable employment.

In contrast to this, the study found that youth who had completed only secondary school were reliably less well off in terms of employment prospects. Only seven in ten (72%) of secondary school graduates – across the entire sample of countries in the study – were working in non-vulnerable employment. The difference, however, was even sharper in the case of low-income countries where only four in ten secondary school leavers were securely employed.

鈥淯nfortunately,鈥� the study adds, 鈥渃ompletion of education at the secondary level alone is not enough to push youth through towards better labour market outcomes in low-income countries.鈥�

The ILO report makes an interesting distinction between employment/unemployment rates and engagement in vulnerable or non-vulnerable employment. This is, in a sense, a more nuanced understanding of employment outcomes – and the relative stability of graduate employment prospects – where 鈥渧ulnerable employment鈥� can be understood as a more precarious variety of self-employment or 鈥渃ontributing family work.鈥� As the study puts it, 鈥淚n other words, employment of these young workers often falls short of decent work, and is driven to a significant extent by the need to make a living in the absence of an adequate social safety net.鈥�

Azita Berar Awad, director of employment policy at the ILO told University World News, 鈥淭he results of the study to improve their higher education systems in order to reduce unemployment and informal work arrangements among the youth.鈥�

The ILO report notes as well the persistent challenge of labour market gaps across the study sample, and again offers a more nuanced view by income category, such as:

• The issue in low-income countries, such as Liberia for example, is profound undereducation, particularly related to access to education and the ability to finance studies at the secondary and postsecondary levels.
• Middle-income countries, such as Egypt or Jordan, however, were found to have well-educated youth populations but also high levels of youth unemployment.

The ILO puts this down to a mismatch between graduate skills and employer requirements, and argues that there is a 鈥渃ompelling need to make education systems more demand-driven.鈥�

The ILO鈥檚 findings are echoed by additional research released in 2014 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) via its landmark . The OECD finds that employment rates for those with tertiary education are reliably higher than those without.

At the same time, the report points out, there is a direct relationship between more limited educational attainment and the risk of being unemployed – that is, the less education you have the harder it will be to secure and retain suitable employment (鈥渘on-vulnerable employment,鈥� in the parlance of the ILO).

This may be a reasonably obvious relationship on its face. However, the broad, evidence-based findings of global organisations such as the ILO and OECD are compelling in the education-employment linkages they illustrate and will no doubt reinforce the efforts of educators and policymakers to address persistent issues of youth unemployment.

The mobility effect

Another recent study from the UK Higher Education International Unit adds a further dimension to the employment-education discussion with its findings that study abroad can have a direct impact on employment prospects and income.

Their report, , finds that tertiary graduates who had studied (or worked or volunteered) abroad were more likely to be employed within six months of graduation. Those with international study experience were found to be earning slightly more than other graduates as well.

The study examined the profiles of 233,185 UK-domiciled graduates of undergraduate programmes (for the graduating year 2012/13), and identified 10,520 who had been internationally mobile at some point during their studies. Looking across this generous sample, the study finds that:

• Internationally mobile graduates were less likely to be unemployed six months after graduation (5.4% as compared to 6.7% for non-mobile students). The authors characterise this as, 鈥淎 significant difference based on the sample sizes.鈥�
• Mobile graduates were more likely to be working abroad (11% as opposed to only 2% of non-mobile graduates working abroad).
• Mobile graduates, on average, earned more across 11 of 17 subject areas considered in the study.

Vivienne Stern, director of the UK Higher Education International Unit, highlighted the significance of the report for students, educators, and policymakers:

鈥淚f we want to encourage students to think about spending some time abroad, we need to be able to show them what they will get out of it. While qualitative evidence of the benefits of international experience is widely available, there is little quantitative evidence to support this.鈥�

In this respect, the Gone International report is an important addition to the research in the field, and a complement to earlier work such as 2014鈥檚 Erasmus Impact Study.

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Robust growth provides opportunities, challenges

Africa has been attracting more attention from international recruiters of late due in part to major demographic shifts currently underway across the region. A recent article in The Globe and Mail cites Standard Bank figures indicating the , growing from 4.6 million households in 2000 to 15 million today in the continent鈥檚 11 largest economies.

The countries in the Standard Bank study – Angola, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia 鈥� account for about half of sub-Saharan Africa鈥檚 population and GDP, and have seen their economies grow 10-fold since 2000. Standard Bank estimates the number of middle-class households across these 11 economies will nearly triple again, to 40 million families, by 2030. Nigeria – the most populous country in Africa – is itself expected to contain 12 million middle-class households by 2030.

We have reported previously on some of the challenges and opportunities created by a surging population in Africa. Explosive growth, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, means that by 2050, 2.4 billion people will live in Africa, up from just over one billion today, with Nigeria set to become the world鈥檚 third most populous country. Yet Africa is a large, diverse continent with striking cultural, historical, and economic differences from one country to the next. Not surprisingly, significant regional variations also exist in higher education enrolment rates, mobility patterns, and policy priorities.

Our focus in this article is on sub-Saharan Africa, in particular the group of countries who comprise the Southern Africa Development Community (): Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

High mobility levels in sub-Saharan Africa

The UNESCO report explores the current mismatch between supply and demand in higher education across the sub-Saharan region.

Static or diminished government investment, quality concerns, and overcrowding have resulted in many students opting to travel outside their home countries to pursue tertiary education. In 2009, 4.9% of tertiary students in sub-Saharan Africa (rising to 5.8% in SADC countries) were internationally mobile, compared to 2% globally.

While the majority of sub-Saharan students outside the SADC choose traditional study destinations such as France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, or Canada, fully 48% of SADC mobile students choose South Africa for their studies.

The report also found that the majority of mobile tertiary students in the region were pursuing undergraduate opportunities, with social sciences, business, and law the most popular programme choices.

Distribution of Non-SADC sub-Saharan students by destination, 2009. Source UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Regional responses to growth

The sub-Saharan region has averaged an enrolment growth rate of 8.4% over the past four decades, nearly double the 4.3% global average. There were nearly 4.8 million higher education students in the region in 2009, a 20-fold increase since 1970.

Despite this rapid growth, the World Bank estimates that this figure represents just a 6% gross enrolment rate (GER) of the total tertiary-aged population (compared with enrolment rates of 13% in South Africa and 72% in North America and Western Europe).

While the growth in overall student numbers has been impressive, the gap in enrolment rates between the sub-Saharan region and other parts in the world is growing, underlining one of the key challenges of keeping up with such dramatic population growth.

Yet steps have been taken to encourage greater participation in higher education within the sub-Saharan region. The 2004 Accra Declaration (an agreement made among the Association of African Universities following a 2004 meeting with UNESCO and the South African Council on Higher Education) re-affirmed the region鈥檚 commitment to internationalisation and enhancing access to higher education.

The report notes that a number of programmes aimed at facilitating the mobility of students have been put into place. For example, in 2007 the African Union set up the Mwalimu Nyerere African Union Scholarship Scheme (MNAUSS), designed to enable African students to study at recognised higher education institutions on the continent in areas related to science in technology. In exchange, students who participate in the programme must work in Africa for a minimum of two years following graduation.

Focusing on the SADC region, the UNESCO report highlights a number of emerging patterns in student mobility within SADC countries.

A clear link was established between higher outbound enrolment and increased overall participation rates.

Namibia, for example, has a relatively high GER for tertiary education at 9%. Combined with a high number of outbound tertiary students, the total enrolment rate rises to 12%. Smaller countries such as Lesotho, Swaziland, Seychelles, and Mauritius also record high outbound enrolment rates and higher overall participation rates, with most mobile students in these countries choosing to study in nearby South Africa.

Larger countries such as South Africa and the Demographic Republic of the Congo record lower outbound rates, but maintain high overall participation rates, a situation the report attributes to the availability of opportunities at home.

Gross outbound enrolment ratio and gross enrolment ratio for tertiary education, 2009. Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Conversely, the UNESCO report also finds that when local growth in some countries surpasses the growth in outbound enrolment, pressure on the system (in the absence of increased funding) raises concerns of overcrowding, diminished access, and the erosion of quality. One example noted is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where a decreasing number of mobile students stands in sharp contrast to a strong increase in local enrolment.

SADC students are highly mobile

With an outbound rate of nearly 6%, students from SADC countries have the highest outbound mobility rate in the world. Reflecting a trend toward intra-regional mobility that has also been observed in other global regions, nearly half of these students choose to stay within the region.

The 鈥渄ispersion rate鈥� for countries in the SADC (the extent to which students from a given country are concentrated or dispersed over a number of destination countries) varies by country, with students from countries such as Angola, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, the Seychelles, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia studying in a larger number of destinations than students from other countries in the region. The report notes that one potential benefit of higher dispersion rates – assuming students return home following their period of study – is the introduction of a broader range of ideas to the home country.

Distribution of SADC students by destination, 2009. Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

High regional mobility rates part of larger trend in internationalisation

, according to a 2013 article in University World News. Higher education providers are responding to opportunities in the region. For example, the article notes, Lancaster University has opened a campus in Accra, Ghana. India has invested in the Pan-African e-Network Project to develop higher education links with several African countries. Limkokwing University, a prominent private university in Malaysia, now has campuses in Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland.

Noting that 鈥渄emand for higher education will grow tremendously over the coming decades as a consequence of massive expansion in access to basic education,鈥� and 鈥淲est and Central African countries face a particular shortage of human resources and capacity within Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) as well as agriculture and health disciplines,鈥� the World Bank announced earlier this year the at institutions across the continent. Managed by the Association of African Universities, the initiative has allocated US$150 million for skills development and research and innovation projects located in Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and Togo.

Makthar Diop, World Bank Vice-President for Africa, said he was excited to support these pioneering centres because of how they will nurture specialised higher education institutions on the continent. 鈥淚 can think of no better way to grow African economies, create jobs, and support research in Africa, than educating young graduates with expertise in high-demand areas such as chemical engineering, crop science, and the control of infectious diseases.鈥�

Internationalisation in Africa was also a hot topic at last year鈥檚 EAIE conference in Istanbul. A presentation by Christoff Pauw from Stellenbosch University focused on intra-African mobility schemes, highlighting the Mwalimu Nyerere scholarship programme and urging the need for 鈥淪outh-South鈥� solutions to education challenges such as 鈥渂rain drain鈥� and diminished funding that currently hamper growth in the region. This same presentation also placed a spotlight on the increasing emphasis on distance education initiatives across Africa. A second presentation by Jacob Songsore from the University Ghana outlined the 鈥淧eriperi U鈥� partnership, an innovative collaboration among ten African universities that aims to build regional capacity to reduce the impact of natural disasters.

University World News also recently reported that an African Virtual University (AVU) has been launched in partnership with the in order to . The AVU will offer open, distance, and e-learning programmes at 29 learning centres across 21 countries, with centres set up to provide services in English, French, and Portuguese. According to University World News, 鈥淚t is intended that the new centres will help to tackle the digital divide by helping Africa to overcome geographical, technological, political and financial obstacles that often hinder students’ access to higher education.鈥�

With its booming population and economic growth, a corresponding and continuing rise in the middle class, strong growth in outbound mobility, and dramatic expansion of education at all levels, it seems clear that sub-Saharan Africa will be a key region for international educators for many years to come.

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Universities worldwide have been switching wholly or partly to teaching in English for a number of reasons such as improved graduate employment and mobility prospects, and the need for graduates who can speak English for international trade. There is also the growing impact of university league tables. Even if academics question their objectivity, they have become increasingly important in how universities market themselves. And the use of English, particularly for research, is seen as helping to raise visibility in international rankings.

But there are also challenges, including a shortage of lecturers who are proficient in English, local resistance, as well as the costs involved for new text books, lectures and course materials.

recently provided a convenient round-up of those following the English-medium trend:

China

Chinese universities have been adding bilingual lectures to curricula to comply with a 2007 government requirement for more lectures in English and Chinese to improve the overall quality of Chinese students, according to the Ministry of Education.

Ningbo University in the key east China trading port of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, started trialling bilingual teaching then, and has a small number of English lectures, including some taught partly in English.

Around half of these are finance-related, including international clearance, international finance and accounting.

鈥淓nglish-teaching makes our students more competitive if they want to seek jobs in foreign companies or banks. It will also benefit our students planning to study abroad,鈥� said Zhang Ying, a curriculum specialist at Ningbo.

Other lectures, such as liberal arts and scientific engineering, use just Chinese. “For one thing, the English level of Chinese students is not good enough. For another, we lack English-speaking teachers.鈥�

Limited budgets are another constraint. Ningbo usually seeks teachers among overseas returnees, or sends its own teachers abroad for short-term language training. “It costs a lot more if we hire returnees, let alone foreign teachers.鈥�

However, Zhang added that a 鈥渇oreign language cannot be quickly improved in just six months. That’s why we are still trialling the English-teaching programme.”

Editor’s note:

In recent news, three postgraduate courses at 鈥� masters and doctoral degrees in organic chemistry, and doctorates in Vietnamese studies 鈥� are the latest to switch to being taught in English from the semester that began in September 2012.

They join 14 other courses, seven undergraduate and seven postgraduate, delivered in English since 2007 at the country鈥檚 largest multi-disciplinary university, under its Nhiem vu chien luoc (Strategic Tasks) programme to lay the foundations for internationalisation.

Middle East

In the Middle East, English is the official language of long-established American universities in Lebanon, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and is rapidly becoming the language of choice at new universities in the region.

In Lebanon, for instance, students over the past decade have increasingly opted for English over French at university despite being schooled in French. Again, job opportunities are typically cited as the major reason.

This has not generally caused problems, but there has been some resistance in the more conservative Gulf countries 鈥� and there have recently been moves towards in higher education.

In Qatar, English has been gradually imposed on schools as well as at the state-owned Qatar University, where most subjects are now taught in English. Also, Qatar Foundation’s Education City has six branch-campuses of leading American universities.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one academic based in Qatar told University World News: “Some Qataris are not happy about English being the dominant language, as they feel it is at the expense of Arabic and a further blow to their culture.

鈥淭his is a pressing issue at Qatar University as English is the course language at the Education City universities.鈥�

Editor’s note:

黑料官网 Monitor has just learned that following a decree by Qatar’s Supreme Education Council, Qatar University, the country’s largest third level educational institution, all lessons in business, economics, media and international affairs will be solely in Arabic starting next semester. However, courses in engineering and science will remain in English.

As Qatar looks to promote itself as a knowledge hub, it will need to find the balance between accessibility and preservation of language and culture.

Latin America

In Latin American universities too, teaching in English is increasingly common. It is driven largely by job opportunities opening up at overseas companies investing in Latin America, and as more students look to work overseas.

Ecuador is typical, and Universidad San Francisco de Quito in the capital city Quito leads the way.

Students must reach an advanced level of English before they can graduate. A growing number of courses, including psychology, sociology and education, are now taught mostly in English, with each specifying a number of credits that students must take in the language.

鈥淭he use of English here has been growing over the past five years,鈥� said Rhys Davies, English coordinator at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. 鈥淲e are always looking for teachers to teach in English, and lots are now from the US and the UK.

鈥淪tudents know how important it could be for their professions and embrace any opportunity to improve language skills.鈥� Another factor is the growing number of students becoming postgraduates in the US, Davies added.

East Africa

One particularly illuminating example is in Africa. Former Belgian colony Rwanda once taught mainly in French or the indigenous Kinyarwanda dialect, but switched to English as the primary language of educational instruction in 2008.

It changed partly in order to integrate better with nations that cooperate as the East African Community 鈥� Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi 鈥� the majority of them English-speaking in official circles.

The switch has also helped to distance Rwanda from France, which the Rwandan government has accused of arming the 1994 Hutu genocide against the minority Tutsi population.

The Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in the capital city was one of the first to convert fully. Focusing first on English-taught technical classes, it is now expanding English usage across the arts and humanities.

However, four years on, students and instructors still struggle with English, said Professor John Severin Mshana, KIST鈥檚 vice-rector for academics. 鈥淚t’s a problem for students to understand what lecturers are saying,鈥� he said.

This stemmed from not having enough primary and secondary school teachers with English fluency, he added. So KIST offers remedial English classes to students.

Despite the challenge, Mshana said he has never heard anyone question the transition. Quite the opposite, because 鈥渢o be bilingual is a benefit.鈥�

Europe

There are more than 4,500 university courses now being taught in English in continental Europe.

But lately, professors in The Netherlands have complained of Dutch becoming a second-class language and students have not been generally happy about the spread of English.

Competition for foreign students has seen English gain ground since 2009 depending on subject and degree level. Dutch prevails for bachelor degrees, and English at masters level. International programmes are largely in English.

At the University of Amsterdam for example, two bachelor of arts programmes 鈥� economics; and business, liberal arts and sciences 鈥� are in English, as are 87 masters and research masters programmes.

Since 1996, almost all courses at Maastricht University have switched to, or started up in, English. Some staff and students worried about their English proficiency, so the university has student admission requirements based on TOEFL and IELTS English language exams.

“For teaching and support staff, courses are offered to improve their level of English,” a spokesperson said.

Using English has attracted students from Anglophone countries. The Netherlands is seen as an option by students from the UK, where tuition fees have tripled of late. Within a broader strategy, teaching in English has seen a doubling over 10 years in the proportion of foreign students registered at Maastricht.

The Dutch approach to English usage in universities is echoed in other European countries, including Germany and Scandinavian nations.

“Universities are in a more competitive world, if you want to stay with the other global universities – you have no other choice,” says the Politecnico di Milano’s Professor Giovanni Azzoni.

He says that his university’s experiment will “open up a window of change for other universities,” predicting that in five to ten years other Italian universities with global ambitions will also switch to English.

“We are very proud of our city and culture, but we acknowledge that the Italian language is an entry barrier for overseas students,” he says, particularly when recruiting from places such as China and India.

“It’s extremely important, at present you have two choices. You can either stay isolated in your own country – which is not realistic in a global world.

“The other is to open up and be able to work in an international context. Either our university will understand that or else our country will be isolated.”

Source: ,

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Tanzania

In Tanzania, students are raving about an initiative called the , a distance learning programme launched in 2009 to enable Indian universities to share their expertise with their African counterparts. Through it, three Indian universities provide live lectures for students in Africa, and students can both pose questions to their lecturers and interact with their student peers in other African countries.

Over 40,000 students across Africa are enrolled in these undergraduate and master鈥檚-level programmes. What makes this an especially exciting venture is 鈥渢he enthusiastic cross-continental collaboration of several African and Indian universities.鈥�

Students enrolled in the programme note that they are benefitting from the high quality of the lectures, the internationally recognised credentials upon degree completion, the affordability of the courses, and the fact that they don鈥檛 have to sit in the very crowded, small classrooms provided by their university for normal courses.

Kenya

In Kenya, higher education is escaping austerity measures meant to combat the economic pressures the country is facing. Though the government is struggling to meet even urgent budgetary needs, it has .

A government paper tabled in parliament, which will guide the annual allocation when East Africa鈥檚 biggest economy reads its 2012鈥�13 budget in June, shows that universities will receive KSh60 billion (US$732 million), up from the KSh44 billion they received in the current fiscal year.

The increased funding will, among other things, help to build the Open University of Kenya, a new institution whose programmes are to be delivered through e-learning and print media to enable people to access university flexibly from their homes.

But even with the increased higher education funding, university administrators are likely to find it difficult to deal with the surging number of students seeking admissions. The country last year rolled out a double-intake plan to admit an additional 40,000 students over the next three years.

鈥淭he sector鈥檚 biggest challenges include inadequate infrastructure and staffing, slow pace of ICT integration and dealing with accelerated admissions to universities,鈥� said Finance Minister Njeru Githae in his budget policy statement for 2012-13.

鈥淭he government will seek to address these challenges by providing enhanced education and training opportunities, building capacity in industrial training and reforming the university education system.鈥�

Update: It was also announced that to its universities in the next academic year, making use of additional capacity in the form of new colleges. This brings to 41,000 the number of students who will join universities in the coming academic year, up from 34,000 admitted last year 鈥� a 20% jump.

Mauritius

And in Mauritius, the government is prioritising education as the lynchpin for economic and social development in the country. It will soon sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kenya and Tanzania as part of its effort to position Mauritius as a destination for higher education.

The MoU will provide for joint recognition of educational qualifications between the countries, with staff and student exchanges, and establish links between universities in the respective countries.

The Minister of Tertiary Education, Science, Research and Technology Rajeshwar Jeetah explained that economic and social development in the country must rest with education, hinting at overall educational reform at the tertiary level and stating that foreign investment is the key to structuring a knowledge hub.

Government is well on its way to achieving the target of increasing the tertiary enrolment rate from the current 46% to over 70% by 2015, with a view to attracting up to 100,000 foreign students by 2020.

The granting of student visas under certain categories by immigration authorities, with authorisation for foreign students to work a maximum of 20 hours weekly, has been proposed by Mauritius as well.

South Africa

Two new universities are expected to open by 2014, says Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande. Over the next two years, R3.8bn (US$491.6 million) has been earmarked for overall infrastructure development, R1.6bn of which has been set aside specifically for historically disadvantaged institutions.

“On the academic front, my department is committed to increasing the production of graduates in engineering, the natural sciences, human and animal health sciences, and teacher education in line with my performance agreement with the president.

We are engaging with Higher Education South Africa and the deans of relevant faculties to accelerate, especially black and women graduate output, in these areas,” said Nzimande.

To help tackle the problems faced by students wanting to enrol at a university, a National Information and Application System and a National Student Financial Aid Scheme will be established soon. This would centralise applications so that students would not have to apply to multiple universities, each with its own application fees.

Update: We recently came across some additional news that According to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), since 1994 the provisional number of international students in South Africa’s 23 universities grew dramatically – from 12,600 in 1994 to . About a quarter of these are studying postgraduate qualifications.

Sources:  , , Africa Review,

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