Organization: United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, Geneva (UNRISD)
Authors: Yann Lebeau, Ibrahim Ogachi Oanda
Type of publication: Working Paper
Publication Date: October 2020
Higher education (HE) participation in sub-Saharan Africa has risen at a higher pace over the past three decades, but enrolment rates remain modest by comparison with other parts of the developing world. Significantly, the rise in the number of institutions and in enrolment has not kept pace with population growth and increased demand for HE. Data on participation by social or ethnic groups is not readily available everywhere on the continent to reveal whether this expansion is equally distributed, correcting existing inequalities, or is rather exacerbating them by generating new forms of exclusion. However, studies drawing on various comparative material reveal that what has been referred to in some literature as massification of HE in sub- Saharan Africa has effectively yet to happen anywhere in the region, and that what is being experienced in HE varies a great deal according to gender, geography and ethnicity. The increased resistance from students to tuition fee hikes or to other HE reforms may also be indicative of tensions between “new” groups seeking access to HE as a passport to social mobility, and elites who are bent on controlling the transformation of HE to consolidate their ascendancy (Luescher et al. 2016).
The pressure for access has also resulted in a diversification of HE landscapes, notably marked by the elevation of often poorly resourced public institutions to university status, and by the consolidation almost everywhere of a vast and disparate private HE provisions, therefore raising issues of quality of “epistemological access” (Muller 2014). The social recognition and market value of qualifications obtained varies considerably in these circumstances, generating new inequalities, a feature usually associated with high participation systems (Marginson 2016b). Such trends, along with the persistence of structural inequalities affecting access to higher education, remain poorly documented in the region, and too often hidden by aggregates, comparators and typologies linking HE growth and economic development without attention to equity and social justice (Ilie and Rose 2016).
Drawing on secondary data and on debates from three national contexts of sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal), the paper seeks to address the following sets of questions: How do inequalities manifest themselves at the levels of access to HE institutions and programmes, in student experience, and in access to labour markets and social recognition in contexts of unevenly distributed expansion of HE opportunities? How have issues of inequalities and equity in access and participation been addressed in national policies on HE? How have these policies evolved in contexts of expansion and diversification of HE systems? A historical perspective is brought to each case, to reveal the relationship between growth of enrolment and other dimensions of national HE developments. Linking questions of “access for whom?”, “to what?” and “what for?” through national illustrations also allows to consider more context-relevant options for greater inclusion.
Colonial and post-colonial experiences: massified institutions in low participation systems
While the whole world progressed towards mass HE from the early 1990s, the sub-Saharan African region stagnated with levels of participation unable to absorb an increasing demand resulting from the generalization of secondary education (Ilie and Rose 2016). A greater rise occurred from the 2000s, in part resulting from a liberalization of the sector in most sub-Saharan African countries from the 1990s, although it was still unable to satisfy the demands of the ever-increasing population of qualified secondary school leavers. And despite a high proportion of African students enrolled outside their country on the continent or beyond, HE remains out of reach for large segments of the population. Unlike in other contexts of expansion, HE systems in the region never appeared to control the balance between efforts to address inherited barriers in accessibility (at the point of entry in HE), and the necessity to widen the geographical availability of institutions and programmes in order to enhance the attainability of all qualifications. Instead, in almost everywhere in the region, unavailability, inaccessibility and unattainability combine and perpetuate increasingly unequal HE systems (Carpentier et al. 2018).
Conceptualizations of equity in the transition from colonial to postcolonial access policies
A similar climate of suspicion accompanied the parsimonious and very late development of HEIs across colonies of Africa. Both French and British colonial powers in particular had resisted the introduction of the type of universities established decades earlier in the colonies of North Africa and Asia. This had resulted in a steady flow of “educated elites” towards the metropoles for further education, often encouraged and sponsored by the colonial state. Returning home with “proper” HE qualifications, the elites were unimpressed by what was about to be offered at home.
Even the emphasis on “adapted education” (a model of education designed to address the practical needs of a people and oriented towards fostering family and community cohesion) introduced from the 1930s in the framework of the British colonial policy continued to be perceived as an “external” construction of what counted as knowledge. According to Samoff and Carrol, this externalization of the values upon which the system was built made it more receptive to international pressure and dependent on donor resources for decades to come (Samoff and Carrol 2004). Although resting on a different philosophy than the British “adapted education”, the French strategy of parsimonious and downgraded HE offered to local populations (towards the training of intermediate cadres) also created patterns of intellectual dependency and symbolic domination that continued to define the shape of national HE systems in countries such as Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire or Madagascar (Singaravélou 2009).
Trends in Access and Enrolment: the growth and expansion of HE systems in sub-Saharan
Africa has been marked over the last four decades by four features. These are the increase in the number of public universities through the conferment of university status to middle level HE institutions, the rapid establishment of private universities, a broader spatial distribution of both public and private universities even though skewed towards economically endowed regions, and the gradual emergence of institutional and academic programme stratification. These developments, as will be argued, have had multiple implications as regards access to, HE and inequalities. While the socio-economic recruitment of universities widened, old inequalities in terms of access and completion continue to operate within new institutional landscapes. In other instances, new forms of inequalities are emerging in ways that erode gains realized through increased enrollment of students from lower socio-economic groups.
In terms of academic programmes, distinctions operate along prestigious versus non-prestigious programmes, STEM versus social sciences and humanities, and between programmes perceived to have higher employability prospects and others. Emerging studies across the continent do suggest that in the context of this competition for access to reputable institutions and academic programmes, students’ socioeconomic background and political influence are playing a larger part than in the past in determining access to reputable institutions and academic programmes (Darvas et al. 2017).
- Nigeria
In Nigeria, the HE sector includes universities (federal, state and private) as well as polytechnics (skills-intensive and experiential learning programmes) and colleges of education. Expansion and diversification have taken place among all these categories of institutions over the last two decades. Until 1999, the university sector was primarily dominated by public universities, categorized as federal and state. The number of both types of public universities grew from 45 institutions in the year 2000 to 95 institutions by the year 2017, comprising 43 federal universities and 52 state universities (National Universities Commission 2018). This was complemented by 79 approved private universities, bringing the number of university institutions to 174 (National Universities Commission n.d). Private universities therefore constitute 45 percent of all Nigerian universities, a majority of which are religiously affiliated. Data from the Nigeria Federal Ministry of Education show that by the academic year 2012/2013, the latest for which data is available, only 5.8 percent of undergraduate students were enrolled in the 50 then existing private universities, compared to 59.7 percent in 40 federal universities and 34.5 percent in 39 state universities (Federal Ministry of Education n.d.). Following a trend that was set with the location of universities during the colonial period, the Southern part of Nigeria has the highest concentration of public and private HEIs. A large number of these private universities have been set up by churches in the Lagos-Ibadan area of the south-west where economic opportunities and demands for new skills are high. This concentration of opportunities in the South contradicts the principle of the Nigerian Federation (and its obligations under the “federal character”) to make educational opportunities available across the country. This is a good illustration of inequalities generated within a process of system expansion.
- Kenya
In Kenya, as in Nigeria, public universities dominate in terms of number of institutions and number of students enrolled over the last two decades. In terms of institutional growth and diversification, the number of universities increased from one public (University of Nairobi), and one private (United States International University) in 1970, to 31 public universities (with 6 constituent colleges and 111 public university campuses) and 32 private universities (with 5 constituent colleges) by 2018 (KNBS 2019; Simson and Harris 2020).
The growth in public universities has however not entailed establishing new universities, but occurred through the conversion of middle level technical and vocational colleges (TIVET) into full-fledged universities. There have also been trends towards the establishment of regional public universities and colleges as a strategy to promote equity and regional development (Oanda and Jowi 2012). Rather than promoting equity, however, the new regional universities, established in the context of declining public resources, have focused on increasing the enrolment of fee-paying students while doing little to invest in the quality of academic programmes (Nganga 2016). Middle-level TIVET colleges operated on huge public subsidies and served to train the large pool of high school graduates who would not get admitted to public universities nor have the resources to pursue HE outside the country. This alternative for poor students has however been compromised by the fact that once converted into universities, these institutions started to focus on attracting fee-paying students (Oanda and Jowi 2012). Establishing regional public universities and colleges in the context of reduced public funding also resulted in poorly resourced institutions in the rural regions of the country offering low-cost entrepreneurial courses, without sufficient measures to reduce existing marginalization (Oanda and Jowi 2012).
- Senegal
In Senegal, Université Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD) remains the country’s largest university, enrolling about 80 percent of students in the public HE sectors and unable to absorb the ever-growing demand for places from qualified candidates, despite the diversification of the field in the last two decades. The university has an official capacity of 25,000 students, but by 2016 UCAD had a student enrolment of 79,943 (MESRI 2019). Overcrowded facilities have been seen as responsible for low completion rates (as low as 30 percent in certain public social science departments) and frequent programme disruptions due to student and academic staff strikes (Caerus Capital 2018). UCAD operates within the constraints of a public policy guaranteeing university education to everyone with a baccalaureate, retaining a virtually tuition- free public HE, and a system of bursary covering in certain conditions the fees to attend private institutions (between USD 2206 and USD 2836 per year in 2018), and also attracting a substantial number of students from other Francophone West African Countries (UIS n.d.d).
In terms of expansion and diversification, public HE expansion began in the early 1990s with the establishment of the University of Saint-Louis (now Université Gaston Berger, UGB) and the creation of another three universities later in 2007, namely the University of Thiès (UT), University Alioune Diop of Bambey (UADB) and University Assane Seck of Ziguinchor (UASZ). Besides public universities, the government of Senegal has also invested in distance education to expand capacity.
At the same time, from the 1990s, private universities have been allowed to operate in Senegal. By 2016 there were 75 private HE institutions authorized by the state, most of which are management schools with a capacity of about 200 students each (Dimé 2018). The government also supports the private HE sector by redirecting about 15 percent of baccalaureate graduates applying for places in public universities and covering their tuition fees (MESRI 2019). The percentage of students paid for by the government to attend private institutions now reaches 25 percent of all enrolments in private HEIs (Diallo 2019; Dia and Kane 2018).
Higher Education-to-Work Transitions
Do students from different socio-economic groups graduating with the same qualifications have equal opportunities in transitioning to work? And has the expansion and diversification of HE landscapes enhanced the employability of graduates in ways that redress social inequalities? While levels of graduate unemployment in sub-Saharan Africa are high, and actually recorded in our three country cases as higher than for those without HE qualifications, the socioeconomic profile and area of qualification of graduates mostly affected are not consistently recorded, calling for caution in interpreting a relationship that has yet to be systematically researched (Filmer and Fox 2014; McCowan et al. 2018).
Multiple barriers to graduate employment: Evidence from Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal
The British Council funded study already cited (McCowan et al. 2016), covering South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, established that university graduates in these countries who come from disadvantaged backgrounds face a combination of barriers: after beating the odds to get to university in the first place, they struggle while at university to engage in the kinds of enrichment activities such as internships and work study programmes that employers increasingly consider when hiring new graduates (McCowan et al. 2016). The study also established that a majority of the university students in the sample thought that background inequalities in society affected their chances to access university level study and employment; and that increasingly, non-academic factors such as gender, ethnicity and family networks influenced transition from HE to work. In Kenya, a 2013 national report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and the Society for International Development, shows that the share of the population with secondary and HE that are unemployed across the country’s counties correlates with regional poverty profiles, with the northern and coastal counties having the highest number of unemployed graduates with secondary and higher-level educational qualifications (KNBS and SID 2013). Studies from Nigeria suggest a similar trend to that of Kenya regarding the profiles of university graduates that are likely to remain unemployed for a long time. A closer look reveals that graduate unemployment affects female graduates and those from the rural areas most, who typically remain unemployed for more than five years after graduation (NISER 2013; National Bureau of Statistics 2018).
In Senegal, with no more than 57 percent of the working age population in some form of declared employment (ANSD 2017), the national agency of statistics and demography officially estimates that the highest unemployment rates are affecting the 20-24 and 25-29 age groups, a situation unchanged since the 2000s (Ndior 2013; Dia 2016). Moreover, university graduates appear to be experiencing the greatest difficulties of insertion in the labour market.
Disaggregation by gender indicates that at equivalent qualifications, female graduates are more affected by unemployment. Although graduates in economics and management do find internships, such positions are limited and usually secured through private education, social networking and intervention from high-level contacts in political or economic circles. Students from poor socio-economic backgrounds and from marginal groups usually do not have such networks and therefore are likely to be disadvantaged. Students who do not secure employment but manage to get some family support enroll for further studies, referred to in universities as “eternal students”, to boost their chances of employment by acquiring further qualifications (Lom 2011).
Other studies on access of youth more generally to jobs in Senegal indicate that employment conditions are influenced by variables such as gender and location, with education playing a limited role (Echevin and Murtin 2009). The labour markets also do not seem to have undergone a policy shift to considering young people for employment, resorting instead to recruitment practices based on social and family networks, which clearly puts inexperienced graduates and those from poor and socially marginalized backgrounds at a disadvantage (Echevin and Murtin 2009). By 2018, the ILO estimated the combined rate of under-employment linked to working times and unemployment at around 31.5 percent (42.4 percent among women and 23.4 percent among men), with most of the jobs being in the informal sector, which also poses challenges related to health, safety and social protection (ILO 2018b).
The studies reviewed here from the three countries do suggest that socio-economic inequalities that limit opportunities for individuals from poor socio-economic backgrounds to access HE also come into play in limiting the rate of their transition to gainful employment. In terms of interventions, what this means is that HEIs need to go beyond affirmative action policies that promote access for students from disadvantaged and marginal backgrounds, to also provide targeted interventions that enhance their chances for employability.