Higher education – key to any country’s development

What

The higher education sector plays a key role in the development and progress of a country. The sector has a multidimensional social mission: 1) train a relevant workforce, 2) produce knowledge and innovation and 3) promote critical thinking and contribute to social debate. This provides the basis for a greater understanding of dilemmas and challenges , evidence-based policies and practices and contributes to economic growth and sustainability. It is important to ensure that countries in the global south have a viable higher education sector that can deliver on this social mission. A prerequisite is sufficient capacity and quality at academic institutions. Norad’s support to higher education in developing countries contributes to  this. 

Why

The higher education sector in many developing countries struggles to deliver on its social mission. This is expressed through failure to meet the needs of the labour market and low qualifications of  the university graduates. Furthermore, there is a low number of researchers, scientific publications and patents in these countries compared to the rest of the world.

The reasons for this are multifaceted . Insufficient quality assurance systems at national and institutional level alike are one major cause. Furthermore, qualifications among academic employees are decreasing , particularly the proportion of faculty employees with doctorates. At the same time, there is a downtrend in the number of academic employees compared to students, limiting their role as lecturers, academic supervisors, researchers and mentors. This also affects the quality and relevance of study programmes.

The main reason for this situation is low national investment in higher education in the global south, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. With a few exceptions, national investment in higher education in the region is less than 1% of GDP, in many countries it is below 0.1%. Another reason is that most of the international funding for higher education goes to grants for individual students studying at universities in donor countries. Such funding has limited impact at institutional and sectoral level and thereby also for sustainability over time.

The proportion of the population attending higher education is also low and there are major inequalities in access to education. This became exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Women, people with disabilities, cultural and ethnic minorities and indigenous groups are particularly underrepresented.

How

Norad works to ensure that the higher education sector can deliver on its social mission by working towards increased quality in higher education in the global south. This is done through funding of  academic partnerships between universities in the global south and in Norway. The main initiative is Norway’s capacity development programme for higher education and research, the NORHED programme.

The programme strives to strengthen quality through improvements in the content of study programmes and teaching, knowledge production, infrastructure upgrades and quality assurance systems, as well as generally good governance. Increased expertise among academic staff at universities is key to strengthening the quality of education. This is done by prioritising education and research grants for faculty staff at the universities in the south.

To provide women with equal opportunities to higher education, leadership development and research expertise, the programme includes initiatives aimed at women in particular. Examples include funding of grants, paid maternity leave, development of institutional equality policies, academic supervision and career development programmes, as well as knowledge production for dissemination and influencing of policy design that safeguards the needs and rights of women. Norad also promotes the importance of adaptations for students with disabilities and other marginalised groups, including refugees, as well as cultural and ethnic minorities.

Higher education funding must be viewed in context with research funding (link), as these are mutually reinforcing.

Who/Where

Since the challenges within higher education are greatest in sub-Saharan Africa, Norad’s main focus s is in this region. Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Malawi, South Sudan, Mozambique and Ghana are important partner countries. Thematically, the NORHED programme reflects the priorities of Norwegian development policy, with sub-programmes within health, climate change and natural resources, education and teacher training, energy, humanities and political and economic governance. 

The NORHED-program  compises academic partnerships between 11 universities in Norway and more than 60 universities in 26 developing countries.

Links

News stories:

• We will strengthen research in the global south (khrono.no)
• Higher education and research are important to developing countries (panoramanyheter.no)

See also: NORHED ll (norad.no)

Contact

For further information, please contact the higher education and research team in the Section for Education and Research (UTFORSK)