Higher Education in French-Speaking Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

The establishment of higher education institutions in French-speaking African countries began in 1896, but it is during the first decade after the independence of these countries that the higher education sector experienced a major development. At that time, the mission assigned to higher education institutions was primarily related to the preparation of human resources needed for operations of the civil service and the development of the education sector. In French-speaking African countries (also known as Francophone Africa), higher education institutions started facing problems during the 1970s, such as a rapid increase in student enrollments, the insufficiency of financial resources allocated to the higher education sector and the implementation of policies which allocated a significant share of the resources to student scholarships and various subsidized social services provided to students. This trend, which continued at least until the end of the 1980s, led to a significant deterioration of staff working conditions, the degradation of infrastructure and facilities and a lack of teaching materials. Together, these resulted in a major decline in the relevance and quality of higher education offered in these countries. At the beginning of the 1990s, the decline in relevance and quality of higher education had reached such an alarming level that several French-speaking countries decided to undertake major reforms of their higher education systems in order to enable them to respond more effectively to the challenges of sustainable human development. Towards the end of the 1990s, all the major stakeholders in higher education in Africa had agreed that there was an urgent need for revitalizing higher education in Africa. This support was clearly affirmed at the 1998 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education and in several subsequent publications, in particular a 2002 World Bank policy document entitled Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges for Tertiary Education. This chapter analyzes the development, challenges and opportunities of higher education in French-speaking African countries during the period from 1960 to 2004. The analysis encompasses the major stages of higher education development in French-speaking countries, covering systems, students and staff issues, research, inter-university cooperation, funding policies and reforms undertaken in selected