Strengthening Higher Education Institutions in the South: the challenges to partner institutions

SAIH, November 16-17, 2006
How to Strengthen Institutions of Higher Education in the South

Thank you for the invitation to attend this important conference on

How to Strengthen Institutions of Higher Education in the South.

Education is a human right. Race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other views, national or social origin, property, birth or other status must not preclude the right to education. It is particularly important that the right to education becomes a reality for discriminated and disadvantaged groups.

Education is not only a fundamental human right; it is also a means by which people are able to fulfill their potential. Education is important for personal development of the individual and a democratic development of society.

We see the development of the whole education chain, from pre-primary education to higher education and research, as crucial for building a strong education system and economy. If one of the education parts is weak, the rest of the system will be affected. With an underinvestment in teacher education, for instance, the quality in the rest of the system will suffer.

Introductory comments on tertiary education and development

Tertiary education broadly refers to all post-secondary education, including but not limited to universities. Universities are clearly a key part of all tertiary systems. But the diverse and growing set of public and private tertiary institutions forms a network of institutions that support the production of formal knowledge necessary for development. Accordingly, I will use the term tertiary education in my presentation and thereby include higher education and research.

Until the mid 1990s the majority of education development projects focused on the level of primary schooling. International donors and partners regarded universities, for the most part, as institutional enclaves without contact with the needs of a given developing country. This view was promoted by World Bank (WB) policy for many years.

This one-dimensional strategy led to development policies that had negative consequences for societies and their economies’ development potential.

The analytical report from a Task Force on Higher Education and Society, commissioned by the World Bank and UNESCO, concluded that higher education can not afford to be considered a luxury good for developing countries in an era of globalized knowledge and commerce. Considering the influential role of the World Bank, this change in approach had an important effect of prompting new initiatives of support for tertiary education back on the international community’s agenda. However, I would like to underline the fact that Norway managed to focus both on primary education as well as supporting tertiary education and a more holistic approach to the education sector despite the former WB policy.

There are three basic positions with respect to tertiary education and its role in development

1. Tertiary eduction as a luxury sector - From this perspective higher education is seen as a luxury compared to for example, primary education or infrastructure development which provides more direct poverty relief. Governments in Africa shared this view. As for the World Bank, it decreased the proportion of its education budget for higher education from 17 % in 1985-89, to 7 % by 1995-99.
2. Tertiary education as a producer of appropriately skilled professionals and applied knowledge - Financial commitment and the strengthening tertiary education as the key educational drivers for development.
3. Tertiary education as an engine of development in the new knowledge econom y - New modes of economic production are increasingly dependent on knowledge and information technology.

There is growing evidence and acknowledgement globally that high levels of education in general are essential for being able to use and produce new technologies, while they also provide the foundations for any nation’s innovative capacity. Recent data show that higher education participation in Sub-Saharan Africa remains under 5%, while for many high income countries it is well over 60%.

It is understandable that one might be pessimistic regarding the possibilities of bridging the gap between the South and the North in the field of tertiary education. It should be emphasized that a participation rate of 60 % in higher education not necessarily is the solution. Other segments of the education sector also need to be strengthened regarding capacity and quality.We have to keep in mind that adult Africans have on average attended school for three years.

The Norwegian policy for development cooperation in tertiary education

Developing countries have to set their own priorities and take responsibility for their own development. One important tool for achieving this is to develop national and regional tertiary education institutions that relates to economic growth and achievement of the MDGs.

Norwegian support to tertiary education is guided by a number of policies and guidelines. Emphasis is placed on strengthening the universities so that they can fulfill their responsibility todevelop and spread knowledge. The main objective is to promote the development of knowledge production in the South and to improve the countries’ own ability to meet national teaching needs and to carry out research.

Norway is most concerned with building national capacities. It is important that countries have their own human resource base to meet national challenges and that countries themselves are in charge of their own development. A sound tertiary education system that can train and employ personnel of key sectors is essential.

Norway funds several development programs to strengthen South- North and South-South–North cooperation in the higher education sector as well as research. The well established NUFU Program, the new NOMA Program as well as the pilot programme Teacher Education Program South-North are examples of this. Furthermore, we are now in the midst of planning a new capacity-building program in Sudan.

The overall aim of the newly launched NOMA Program is to contribute to the education of staff in public and private sectors in selected partner countries. This will be done by supporting the development of Master programs at higher education institutions in the South through close collaboration with higher education institutions in Norway.

The Teacher Education Program South-North is a first step in trying to contribute to quality teacher education in developing countries. Teachers are not only important to ensure basic education, but should be considered the building block in all capacity building in a country. We focus on a combination of pre-service and in-service training. Depending on our experiences with the pilot-program we will consider making this program permanent and in a larger scale.

Higher education and broad based research are fundamental building blocks in development in providing necessary knowledge, professional qualifications, critical thinking and analysis, as well as advising governments. Furthermore, it is essential for a vibrant private sector. In essence, institutions of higher learning play a crucial role in any society’s development.

The globalization process now sets the stage for tertiary education in the South as it does in the North. It is becoming increasingly difficult to do national business in isolation from what is happening globally. Policy makers needs to formulate new policies that address these new circumstances.

In this context, ensuring a critical mass of human resources in science, management, administration and policy-making is more important than ever before. The challenge is also to sustain this critical mass. Without more and better national tertiary education, developing countries will find it increasingly difficult to benefit from the knowledge based economy.

The Paris Declaration has become the most important guiding principles for management of international development assistance. All donor countries are now obliged to adhere to this. These principles mean that to an even larger extent, we must be guided by development strategies and priorities that are established by partner countries in all areas of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.

Many of Norway’s partner countries simply do not have policies or strategies for tertiary education that are based on a thorough analysis of the needs of their own societies. Supporting capacities for developing national policies should be high on the agenda.

A concrete challenge of coordination from the Norwegian point of view, is to address the lack of human capital at the tertiary level in developing countries, and the lack of strategic collaboration in the support to this sector internationally.

We would like to put tertiary education on the international donor coordination agenda and strengthen joint bilateral development cooperation in this area.

Closer cooperation with the private sector is a rather unexplored avenue for our engagemnet in higher education development. It would be very interesting to see some innovative ideas for this kind of collaboration.

Before I conclude my intervention, I would like to highlight the gender issue as a cross cutting issue in all Norwegian development assistance. We know that education continues to be a distant dream for the 55 million girls around the world who still do not have access to education. Unfortunately, despite rapid progress in several poor countries with low enrolment ratios, the EFA 2005 gender parity goal has been missed for over 90 countries around the world. Accordingly, girls’ possibility to enrol in tertiary education is seriously hampered. This is particularly unfortunate as, educating girls is among the most effective forms of development. It leads to health improvements and increased school enrolment for the poor. Educated mothers are also more likely to send their children to school. It is estimated that each year of education a girl receives will boost her eventual wage by 10-20 per cent.

The Government’s Soria Moria Declaration particularly stresses women’s right to education. In fact, girl’s education has for many years been one of Norway’s focus areas.

To conclude

Norway’s vision is to become a partner in development cooperation where developing countries set their own priorities and take responsibility for their own development.

This conference is about How to Strengthen Institutions ofHigher Education in the South.

In the construction of democratic knowledge-driven societies, tertiary education institutions are crucial. verty reduction.

Norway gives high priority to tertiary education and to Africa in particular. We have valuable experience which we are aiming to use critically to perform better.

To be abel to support “bridges of knowledge” you have to have strong institutions at both ends, and the bridges have to be able to carry two-way traffic – not one way transfer of knowledge from North to South which most often has been the case.

Strong institutions in developing countries, particularaly in Africa, can contribute to stop the brain drain and thereby strengthen human capital formation. For a country to develop as a vibrant democratic society, tertiary education must stand as pillars of hope, vision and assistance.

Thank you for your attention!