Eshiwani, George S. (1999) “Challenges and strategies for the 21st century” in Altbach, Philip G. and Patti McGill Peterson (eds.) Higher Education in the 21st Century: Global challenge and national response: IIE research report number twenty-nine. New York: Institute of International Education. Pages 31-38.
Eshiwani offers a more focused, helpful-to-me-than-Altbach-and-Davis, list of issues facing higher education in Africa – page 31:
(1) effects of demographic change on the provision of higher education;
(2) adverse effects of a deteriorating economy on quality education;
(3) the participation of institutions of higher learning in the production and ownership of knowledge – especially in the area of information and technology; and,
(4) the role of universities in the political and cultural changes that are likely to occur in the 21st century.”
Mentions Makerere and Yaba Colleges (Fourah Bay may eb taken as an even earlier, exceptional example) as existing before the “modern university” really expanded in Africa – apparently post-1960 (i.e. post-independence).
Post-independence universities – Eshiwani goes to Kenya for context – from 1964-1994, Kenya established five public universities and “several private universities”. This growth was to help meet upper-level manpower needs. Universities were also expected to adopt the “best of the past tradition of academic and search for universal knowledge” while also “meeting the real problems, needs and aspirations of the new nations.” Finally, universities would be spurs to economic development.
Eshiwani gives some statistics on Kenya that can also be found elsewhere: public universities have approx. 41,000 students. Approx. 30,000 high school leavers qualify for 10,000 spaces at public universities, leaving 20,000 to find alternatives. Eshiwani says that “private universities . . . fill the gap left by the public universities and in part meet the demand for tertiary education.” (page 34)
This last quote from page 34 is not really all that true – see table below, from Oketch (2004). The private universities only have a total of just over 7000 students, one year after Eshiwani has written this chapter. Thus they meet, at best a limited portion of the “gap left by public universities”
1996/97 1997/98 1998/99 1999/2000
University Male Female Male Female Male Female Male Female
University of Eastern Africa, Baraton 489 433 470 372 498 444 537 507
Catholic University 569 638 668 657 742 660 807 810
Daystar University 559 691 607 790 752 696 861 1417
Scott Theological College 65 13 68 14 80 16 84 19
USIU 857 905 868 940 1022 1100 928 1032
Total, by gender 2539 2680 2681 2773 3094 2916 3217 3785
Institution Enrollment Total 5219 5454 6010 7002
From Oketch (2004).
Eshiwani writes a paragraph on equity and access for women – a fairly generic statement about needing to increase access, and how the Joint Admissions Board in Kenya is working on just this point.
A tripartite sharing of responsibility for cost/funding limitations at Africa’s universities:
(1) Structural adjustment programs;
(2) Policies encouraging free tertiary education;
(3) Poor financial management at the institutions themselves.
Kenya deals with these by establishing the Commission of Higher Education – in the mid-1980s, I believe (see other notes), by establishing the Students Loan Board; by introducing tuition and fee payments for nearly all programs.
Parallel degree programs – Makerere and Nairobi are each mentioned as places where the universities have introduced fully private programs (the so-called parallel degree programs) operated on campus, but separate from regular admission programs, all to spur income generation.
Brain Drain – trained staff – generally the most fully qualified – often leave their universities when pressures like those seen in the high enrollment, under-resourced period since the early 1990s. Many east Africans, for example, move south – South Africa, Botswana, Namibia - where pay scales are much better for academic work.
Eshiwani writes of the African Virtual University – especially as it impacts Kenyatta University students and their library. By 1999, just three years after the founding of AVU, Kenyatta students could access over 1,700 journals.
Regarding the section on university education and unemployment, Eshiwani, like many others, feeds into the university as testing ground for employers, universities as needing to educate toward market needs. Too much training not geared for employment. Yes, this is certainly an issue, and yes, this is a short chapter, but damn, try to mention at least a little, the pursuit of education for other reasons that employment.
