Liberalization of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper discusses the liberalisation of higher education as under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) signed by member countries of the World Trade Organisation. The impact of commercialisation of higher education sector on the quality of education in sub-Saharan Africa is presented. The liberalization resulted in drastic expansion of higher education with significant decrease in public expenditure on education while private providers were interested more in money making than education quality. The liberalisation has resulted in a policy vacuum for the management of liberalisation of higher education. Individual households account for the major contribution for higher education funding which as a result is accessible to youths from privileged families. The proportion of university going-age youths in universities in sub-Saharan Africa is only 6% while the global average is 29%. Many graduates from these universities unfortunately cannot compete in the local as well as global labour market. For Africa to provide cost effective equitable quality education and produce skilled youths for the global and local labour markets, in desired quantity, the best option is to adopt technology led open learning and distance education in addition to the conventional delivery mode.