Higher Education in Africa: Survey and Assessment

Overview & Synopsis

The aim of this article is to examine and assess Africa's higher education effort. The theoretical framework employed distinguishes between three dimensions of the higher education project: the quantitative dimension (measured in terms of higher education enrollments and enrollment ratios), the qualitative dimension, and the equality dimension. After the political and economic context of Africa as well as the historical evolution of higher education in Africa are sketched, higher education in Africa is analyzed and evaluated in terms of each of the three dimensions of quantity, quality, and equality. The development of national higher education systems really only began after the advent of independence in 1960, moved painstakingly slowly and even stagnated until the 1990s, when higher education developed an accelerated rate. While enrollment ratios, quality and equality in higher education in Africa lags behind the rest of the world, the growth in enrollments since 1990 is encouraging, and the current economic boom and political pacification of the continent bode well for the evolution of higher education in coming years and decades.