1. The Trials of Higher Education Funding in
Africa: Effect on University Governance,
Academic Programmes and Research

2. Outline
• Introduction: The Challenges facing African
Universities
• Recent trends and approaches in funding
higher education
• Some recent responses to the crisis:
international capacity-building initiatives
• The responses from African public universities
• Case study: University of Ghana
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3. 1. Introduction: The Challenges
facing African Universities
The main critical challenges facing African universities
can be summarised as follows:
• Dwindling public funding for academic resources
and research and increasing reliance on
development partners and donors for funding
• Situation contributes to a growing crisis in academic
leadership and a growing inability of many
institutions to set their own research agendas
(Kamola, 2011; Manuh, 2005; Peltzer and Bless,
1989; WHO, 2004)
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4. Challenges (contd)
• Political stifling of bold scholarship and academic
freedom. In some countries, the content of classroom
teaching in areas of regional politics and
development, has been subjected to political
interference and has led to institutional closure
• Poor remuneration of university lecturers and
researchers contributes to academics leaving their
institutions for lucrative non-academic positions or to
academic positions in other African countries, Europe
and North America
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5. Challenges (contd)
• Disenfranchised community of academics with low
levels of research productivity, low engagement in
global academic discourse and trends, and increased
over-dependence on donors and consultancies for
financial security
• Africa produces an insignificant percentage of
scientific publications in a broad range of disciplines
(see Table 1).
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6. Table 1. Papers in Science Citation Index by
Region: 1981-2000
Region 1981 1990 2000
Americas 158,108 199,347 230,060
Europe 163,471 203,598 264,829
Asia 45,906 62,217 123,572
Africa 5,305 6,539 8,311
Source: Mohamedbhai (2009)
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7. 2. Recent Trends and Approaches
in Financing Higher Education
• The funding of higher education has experienced
many significant changes throughout the world in
the last three decades.
• The changes in how higher education is financed
are mainly responses to increases in higher
education costs without a corresponding increase
in government revenues in many countries
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8. Recent approaches in financing
(contd)
• Significant increases in enrolment at universities
affected the cost per student, attributable to rapid
population growth of young people in the university-
going age, especially in developing countries.
• The need to improve the technology available to
universities for teaching and doing research has
added significantly to the cost of universities. Higher
education institutions require new equipment in
order to be competitive.
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9. Table: 2- Student Enrolment for Ghanaian Public
Universities from 2000/01-2012/11 Academic Year
INSTITUTIONS 2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11
UNIVERSITY OF GHANA 12972 15332 17893 23898 27414 28482 28236 28920 34199 36092 37257
UNIV. OF SCIE. & TECH. 10333 11258 11976 13391 16146 19923 22560 23866 23659 24116 25784
UNIV. OF CAPE COAST 8959 9822 11637 12735 13541 17090 16972 16835 16404 15492 16117
UNIV.COLL.OF EDUCATION 7702 8153 9909 9915 11496 12462 13087 15378 16323 15464 14645
UNIV. FOR DEV. STUDIES 707 996 1796 2765 3948 5264 6629 7891 10712 15023 20064
UNIV. OF MINES AND TECH. 623 684 872 863 857 961 1083 1251 1453 1585
TOTAL 40673 46184 53895 63576 73408 84078 88445 93973 102548 107640 115452
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10. Figure: 1- Student Enrolment for Public Universities from
2000/01-2011/12 Academic Year
120000
100000
STUDENT ENROLMENTS
80000
60000
40000
20000
0
2000/01 2001/02 2002/03 2003/04 2004/05 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11
YEARS
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11. Figure: 3- Budget Allocation to Ghanaian Higher Education
from 2004-2011
300,000,000
250,000,000
200,000,000
AMOUNT IN CEDIS
150,000,000
100,000,000
50,000,000
-
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
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12. Table: 3- Budget Allocation to Higher Education from 2004-2011
BUDGET ALLOCATION FIGURES FROM 2004-2011
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
PERSONAL EMOLUMENT 42,838,019 51,040,166 79,730,583 95,163,880 100,000,000 130,000,000 255,484,411 259,863,860
ADMINISTRATION 3,201,161 7,052,000 11,600,000 15,251,000 16,104,521 8,800,000 12,800,000 12,000,000
SERVICES 2,369,900 1,662,243 15,800,000 1,798,900 1,500,000 7,300,000 5,000,000 4,000,000
INVESTMENT 286,400 300,000 200,000 440,000 358,000 747,432 746,589 473,295
TOTAL 48,695,480 60,054,409 93,110,583 112,653,780 117,962,521 146,847,432 274,031,000 276,337,155

13. Recent approaches in financing
(contd)
• There has been a push towards cost recovery by
introducing tuition fees in countries where higher
education used to be provided for free
• As fees have been introduced, the need to consider
financing options for students has grown. Student loan
schemes are becoming commonplace in many
countries.
• It is now expected that public universities will generate
financial resources by selling their services, mainly
consultancy and physical products and patents. But this
is very difficult in most developing countries.

14. 3. Recent responses: international
capacity-building initiatives
• Capacity building and strengthening has
become a dominant international response to
the crisis of higher education in Africa, with
European and American funders and
universities spearheading initiatives for
institutional and professional development
(BA/ACU, 2009; Morley et al, 2009).

15. Recent responses: Capacity
building (contd)
• Capacity building initiatives can be placed
under three categories.
– First, projects have sought to strengthen
institutional capacity in order to improve
organisational, management and technical
processes
– Second, projects have focused on postgraduate
training, with particular emphasis on PhD training,
to address the professional and skills gap created
by the brain drain in the 1970s and 1980s

16. Recent responses: Capacity
building (contd)
– The final approach has been to develop research
networks and centres of research excellence.
• Research networks create important disciplinary
spaces for intellectual engagement, development
and training (e.g. AERC, CODESRIA, UAPS).
• Centres of research excellence focus on
interdisciplinary research development and
implementation, especially in areas of
developmental importance (e.g. African Population
and Health Research Centre (APHRC)).

17. Recent responses: Capacity
building (contd)
• One of the best known initiatives at building
capacity has been the Partnership for Higher
Education in Africa.
– The Partnership for Higher Education in Africa was
an unprecedented collaboration between seven
major U.S. foundations to support African higher
education institutions in building capacity and
training the next generation of scholars, public
servants and entrepreneurs

18. Recent responses: Capacity
building (contd)
• Capacity building initiatives have had varied levels of success
– Improving IT access for some universities, training new PhDs
who have assumed teaching and administrative positions in
their departments, and establishing important regional spaces
for scholarly engagement and development (BA/ACU, 2009).
• However challenges still exist
– First, the investment in capacity building has not been
equitable: some countries have been multiple recipients of
funding and support, while others have received little attention.
– Second, a number of schemes have faced critical challenges in
implementation and sustainability

19. 4. The Responses from African
Public Universities
• In November 2008, UG hosted a University
Leaders’ Forum to discuss African university
challenges and to chart a way forward
• This and other meetings (Nairobi Report) led to
three proposed solutions
– Building institutional foundations, through improving
structures, systems and governance
– Building “communities of research excellence”, rather
than “centres of excellence”

20. Responses from African public
universities (contd)
– Investing in individuals, particularly early career
academics through flexible PhD programmes
, dedicated mentoring and progressive career
structures
• The Nairobi Report outlines at least 6 factors essential
for effective development of communities of research
excellence
• Emphasis on inter-institutional collaboration to simultaneously
build institutional capacity and link colleagues working across a
number of centres within and outside of national borders

21. Responses from African public
universities (contd)
– Collaboration based on ‘specific disciplines or subject areas’ or
‘a particular theme or set of issues to bring together an
interdisciplinary group’
– An organisational and management structure that manages the
complex collaborative process, preferably located in one
institution with experience and expertise in managing larger-
scale research to manage funds on behalf of the community
– Local ownership to ensure sustainability; and also to build
capacity in experience and expertise in managing larger-scale
research
– Sharing responsibilities and tasks in relation to the community’s
goals, ‘relieving the burden on any one centre or department’
– Prioritising issues of trust, openness and participation

22. Table 4. British funded centres and communities of excellence in
Africa
Funders Countries/Partners Focus of centres or communities
DFID Ghana, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia Mental Health and Poverty
British Academy Algeria, Benin, Botswana(3), Burkina Faso, Twelve research partnerships
Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, covering 13 countries focusing on
Senegal(2), South Africa (4), Uganda, Zimbabwe various projects including
development intervention, health,
post-conflict peacebuilding and the
macroeconomics of employment and
poverty
Wellcome Trust Botswana, Chad, Democratic Republic of Seven consortia covering 18
Congo, Ghana (3), Ivory Coast (2), Kenya (3), countries focusing on various
Malawi (2), Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria (2), projects including diseases of
Rwanda (2), Senegal, SA(3), Sudan, Tanzania poverty, environmental health and
(4), Uganda (3), Zambia (2), Zimbabwe postgraduate training
Note: Some countries have benefitted from multiple funding. Figures in brackets denote the number of funded
research network/community a country has secured from one funder. Countries benefitting from more than one
funded project from either one or multiple funders have greater potential for inter-institutional capacity building
within national boundaries.

23. Responses from African public
universities (contd)
• A number of initiatives have been developed to train PhD level
researchers and academics in universities across the
region, including:
– The Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA) is a
collaboration between nine universities and four research institutions
from West, East, Central, and Southern Africa and selected northern
partners. Based in Kenya at the African Population Health Research
Centre (APHRC), CARTA aims to train PhDs from universities across the
region.
– Carnegie Next Generation of Academics in Africa Programme: funds
Ghana and three other African countries, one main aim is to support
existing faculty without PhDs to obtain their PhDs and build stronger
long-term academic careers.
– Royal Society/Leverhulme: training basic scientists in Ghana, Tanzania
and Ethiopia

24. Case Study University of Ghana:
Dealing with Inadequate Funds
• There is growing competition from both public and private
universities
• Need for cost-recovery and better management of
resources
• Introduction of fee-paying by some students, less than 10%
of enrolment
• Visitation panel advising on extensive governance and
curricular reforms and research management
• Growing use of partnerships to enhance access to human
and financial resources
• New PhD programmes are to be full fee paying and done in
partnership with northern universities

25. University of Ghana (contd)
• Negotiations with government for block grants
that allow universities to determine how best
to use their resources: very problematic
• Use of PPP approach to develop new
infrastructure
• Increasing borrowing of long term funds for
equipment purchase and capital projects
• Increasing fund raising activities among
alumni and private sector

26. West Africa Centre For Crop Improvement
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27. West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement
•Partners:
•Cornell University’s Institute for Genomic
Diversity
•International Institute of Tropical Agriculture,
Nigeria
•PhD Plant Breeding
•Individual UG faculty initiative
–Joint curriculum development, teaching & supervision
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28. Convergence of Sciences PhD programme
• Collaboration between:
• UG’s College of Agriculture & Consumer Sciences
•Royal Tropical Institute, Netherlands
•Wageningen University
•Inter-disciplinary training aimed at
strengthening agricultural innovation systems
•Soil quality, Crop diversity
•Integrated pest & weed management
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29. Marine & Fisheries Sciences
•University of British Columbia
• Staff/Student exchange & collaborative research
•Office of Naval Research of the US Navy
•Collaborative research
•Oregon State University
•Fisheries Management Training
• Staff/Student exchange
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30. Hebei Institute, China University of Cape Town
12/11/2012 30

31. Internationalizing Student
Experience
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32. Conclusion
• Dwindling public financial resources have
forced many universities to be a lot more
creative in how they govern themselves, what
programmes they run and what research they
do
• They can do a lot more if governments gave
them the needed space for creativity