Private higher education in Africa: The case of Monash South Africa

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to review the contribution of private institutions to higher education in Africa and use Monash South Africa as a case study. A literature search was conducted to gain perspective on the current situation with respect to private higher education institutions in Africa and how they are perceived in relation to public higher education institutions.

In comparison with public higher education institutions, private higher education institutions in Africa were successful in four areas: ? Widening access to higher education in the continent

? Improving the quality of education

? Improving student experience

? Increasing the recognition and marketability of their degrees

However, private higher education institutions in Africa have failed in two areas: ? Reducing the costs of higher education in Africa

? Assisting with retention of skilled human capital in African countries.

In fact, private higher education institutions in Africa, have exacerbated the two situations above.

Monash South Africa was the first foreign university to be established in South Africa and one of over 100 private universities in the continent. As a campus of Monash University in Africa, it has seen a steady growth with over 3,500 students in the past 10 years of its existence. Like other private institutions, the campus was successful in the four areas above and also fails in the area of costs and assisting in retention of skilled staff in Africa. The campus has been successful in blending its private provider status with a public purpose mandate by offering degrees in social science, business and economics, information technology and health sciences.     

南非高校合并:成效与经验

自20世纪90年代中期以来的南非高校合并,是摆脱了种族隔离制度的新南非改造其整个高等教育体系最重要的手段,在很大程度上改变了南非高等教育的面貌。南非的高校合并是在政府的主导下进行的,具有很强的计划性。充分调研,反复论证;政府推动,因势利导;就近归并,稳定重点;形式明确,深度融合,是南非高校合并获得成功的基本经验。     

The World Bank and financing higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa

This article critically examines World Bank andother donor agency's policy changes towardfinancing of higher education in Sub-SaharanAfrica. It concludes that policy vicissitudeshave adversely affected these institutions. Therecommendation is that the unique context ofeach state play a role in higher educationfinancial policy formation and implementation.     

Access to higher education in South Africa: expanding capabilities in and through an undergraduate photovoice project

ABSTRACT

There is a gap in research on access to universities in South Africa. The research that exists focuses on quantitative methodologies, although some qualitative studies are now emerging. These research methodologies, although necessary and substantial for the development of equity measures and policies, might be less successful in their impact on the local context, on research participants and in expanding what counts as knowledge in the university. In this paper, participatory research, which has not been used to research access, is explored. The paper seeks to go beyond the instrumentalization of research participants – especially those from low-income households – highlighting the potential of using multi-strategy research, in which participatory elements are included as a way to foster both participants’ human development and local impact. Drawing on a research project on access to higher education in South Africa, the paper demonstrates that by including participatory elements (in this case photovoice) has the potential to operationalize Appadurai’s notion of the ‘right to research’ among undergraduates. Using data, including processes, observations, workshops, interviews, and visual narratives from a participatory photovoice project, the findings highlight how methodological plurality creates space for locally and relevant knowledge production, challenging epistemic barriers and fostering human development among the research participants.     

发展我国高等工程教育的探讨

从教育思想观念、体系、模式以及师资建设、人才培养等方面，提出正确发展我国高等工程教育的思路。     

Vocational education and training for sustainability in South Africa: The role of public and private provision

Written in the twilight of the Mbeki Presidency, this paper considers the role that skills development has in the sustainability of the South African political–economic project. It explores some of the disarticulations of public policy and argues that these both undermine public sector delivery and open up opportunities for private provision to be, under certain circumstances, more responsive to the challenges of national development. We argue that there is a possibility that the state could work more smartly with both sets of providers. Crucially, however, this would necessitate working more smartly within itself. This was a major plank of the Mbeki strategy but it has failed conspicuously with regard to the Education–Labour relationship. Whether a new President can achieve a radical reworking of this relationship may be an important indicator of the viability of any new development project.     

对高校公共体育教学改革的思考

分析高校公共体育教学的培养目标和存在的问题,提出了要以“终身体育”作为高校公共体育教学改革发展的方向以及进行高校公共体育教育改革的具体措施。     

心理健康教育与完善高校德育

“全面推进素质教育的决定”明确指出 :“各级各类学校必须更加重视德育工作……针对新形势下青少年成长的特点 ,加强学生的心理健康教育”。通过几年的努力 ,心理健康教育不仅成为高校德育的一个内容 ,也开辟了增强德育科学性和实效性的重要途径。一、心理健康水平与德育效果的关系高校德育是教育者根据一定社会或阶级的要求对受教育者施加政治思想、道德影响 ,使个体具有一定的政治观点和立场以及一定的人生观、价值观和社会要求的道德规范等等 ,较多强调个体的社会属性。而心理健康教育则是运用心理学理论和方法 ,通过解除个体的心理困扰…     

论高等教育的公益性与私益性

高等教育的公益性与私益性是可以相互转化的,是政策选择的结果。公益性始终是高等教育的本质属性,但在资源不足的情况下,高等教育的私益性生产是不可避免的。大力弘扬高等教育的公益性、正确引导高等教育的私益性是全社会的共同要求,也是政府、高校和社会的共同责任。     

Stigma and student mental health in higher education

Stigma is a powerful force in preventing university students with mental health difficulties from gaining access to appropriate support. This paper reports on an exploratory study of university students with mental health difficulties that found most students did not disclose their mental health problems to staff at university. This was primarily due to fear of discrimination during their studies and in professional employment. Many students went to considerable efforts to hide their mental health condition and in doing so struggled to meet university requirements. Of the minority who did disclose, most received helpful assistance with both their studies and management of their mental health condition. The university was the main source of support services including counselling, disability, student union and housing. A range of measures are required to address the impact of stigma and mental health to empower students so that they can disclose in the confidence that they will be treated fairly.     

The public/private divide in higher education: A global revision

Our common understandings of the public/private distinction in higher education are drawn from neo-classical economics and/or statist political philosophy. However, the development of competition and markets at the national level, and the new potentials for private and public goods created by globalisation in higher education, have exposed weaknesses in the traditional notions of public/private. For example, (1) the statist notion that higher education is always/already a public good blinds us to its role in producing scarce positional private goods, even in free systems; (2) because there is no global state, both statists and neo-liberals model the global higher education environment simply as a trading environment without grasping the potential for global public goods in education – goods that are subject to non-rivalry or non-excludability, and broadly available across populations, on a global scale. Yet higher education in one nation has the potential to create positive and negative externalities in another; and all higher education systems and institutions can benefit from collective systems e.g. that facilitate cross-border recognition and mobility. The paper sets out to revise public/private in higher education. Rather than defining public/private in terms of legal ownership, it focuses on the social character of the goods. It argues that public/private goods are not always zero sum and under certain conditions provide conditions of possibility for each other. It proposes (a) units in national government that focus specifically on cross-border effects; (b) global policy spaces – taking in state agencies, individual universities, NGOs and commercial agents – to consider the augmentation, distribution of and payment for global public goods. This paper has been adapted from a keynote address to the Conference of Higher Education Researchers (CHER), University of Twente, Enschede, 19 September 2004. The CHER conference was focused on the public/private question. Warm thanks to Erik Beerkens, Jurgen Enders, Marijk van Wende, Ben Jongbloed, Guy Neave, other colleagues who took part in discussion at the CHER conference, and the reviewers for Higher Education.     

Neoliberalism,new public management and the sustainable development agenda of higher education: history,contradictions and synergies

This paper explores the ideological and the practical relationship between neoliberalism and New Public Management (NPM) and the sustainable development agenda of western higher education. Using the United Kingdom and specifically English universities as an example, it investigates the contradictions and the synergies between neoliberal and NPM ideologies and the pursuit and practice of the sustainability agenda, focusing in particular on education for sustainable development (ESD) and ESD research. This paper reveals a range of challenges and opportunities in respect of advancing sustainability in higher education, within the prevailing neoliberal context. It illustrates using examples how neoliberal and managerialist control mechanisms, which govern institutional, departmental and individual academic, as well as student behaviour, are working conversely to both drive and limit the sustainability education agenda. The case is made for further exploration of how ‘nudging’ and ‘steering’ mechanisms within English HE might provide further leverage for ESD developments in the near future, and the implications of this for sustainability educators.     

加快发展云南高等教育规模的思考

本利用大量详实的统计资料，用对比的方法，较全面地分析了云南高等教育的现状，论证了加快发展云南高等教育规模的重要性，并在分析影响云南高等教育规模发展制约因素的基础上，提出了相应的对策。     

Bridging the gap between higher education and the Telecommunications Engineering Sector

In this paper, the growth of the telecommunication sector in Pakistan and consequent development in the related professional education is studied. The widening gap between the telecommunication industry and associated education sector is identified. The higher educational programs in Pakistan have grown very rapidly to meet the needs of the explosive growth in the telecommunications＇ engineering sector but this growth is not in synchronization with the requirements of the industry due to non-existence of collaboration and co-operation between the two. The professional education in telecommunication in Pakistan and the higher educational degree programs are very precisely focused on producing quality graduates with refined technical and mathematical skills While the telecom sector in Pakistan is in principle a service provider and a consumer market that mainly requires engineers for operation and maintenance related activities. As such the skills imparted by the education sector are rarely utilized, which results in dissatisfaction among the telecommunications＇ engineers. A survey of both the telecommunication sector and the academia has been conducted along with detailed discussions to explore the reasons for this ever-increasing gap, ways and means to arrest this trend and future course of action for the academia and the telecom sector to develop. A study related to other emerging technical fields like computer science has also been made for the comparison. On the basis of this extensive exercise outlined above, measures have been suggested to bridge the gap between the education and the industrial needs of the telecom sector. By adopting these measures not only our education sector will become more beneficial to the industry, but the industry would also get the advantage of immense potential of young graduates and the academic research.     

芬兰高等教育的国际化及其启示

本文从高校的国际交流、与跨国公司的合作以及信息技术的应用等几个方面分析了芬兰高等教育国际化的特点,并就如何进一步推动我国高等教育的国际化提出了建议。     

高校体育与学生心理健康

据世界卫生组织 ( WHO)统计 ,全球目前至少有 5亿人存在各种精神心理问题 ,约占全球总人口的 1 0 %。国家教委于 1 989年在全国范围内对 1 2 .6万大学生的心理健康状况进行了抽查 ,其结果显示 ,大学生患有心理疾病者竟占 2 0 .3%。尤其让人忧虑的是 ,近年来存在心理健康问题的大学生比例不仅没有下降 ,反而呈上升趋势。据最新公布的统计 ,30 %的大学生有心理障碍。联合国专家曾断言 :“从现在到 2 1世纪中叶 ,没有任何一种灾难能像心理危机那样给人们带来持续而深刻的痛苦。”大学生的心理问题应引起我们的高度重视 ,高校体育在促进学生心…     

探索高职院校公共英语教育与专业教育结合的可能性——苏农院公共英语教学改革的设想

针对目前高职院学生公共英语教育的现状,本文以苏农院为例,探讨公共英语教学模式的改变,教学方式的变革和期望达成的教学成果。     

从结构性约束看大众化阶段我国高等教育公共政策的选择

随着高等教育大众化阶段的来临,我国财政性教育经费和高等教育成本补偿政策均面临着诸多的结构性约束问题。为妥善处理好这些问题,促进我国高等教育的健康发展,应完善我国高等教育的公共政策选择。即强化政府财政责任,确保法定经费足额到位;弥补市场失灵,完善国家助学贷款体系;健全捐赠税收优惠政策,拓宽多元化融资渠道;允许民办高校合法营利,强化民办高校的分类监管。     

Sociocultural paradoxes and issues in e-learning use in higher education Africa

Sociocultural issues are major contributing factors in mass acceptance and effective use of technology. These issues are often perceived to contradict the benefits the technology brings about. E-learning use in higher education in Africa, as a technology, faces some sociocultural barriers that contradict its promise and benefits. This paper identifies five social cultural paradoxes, namely globalisation, cultural identity, westernisation, authenticity and foreign ideologies, with the aim of creating awareness of, and eliciting the interventions required to improve the acceptance and use of e-learning. The paper presents the differing and contradictory views of technology advocates and technology sceptics on the use of e-learning in higher in Africa.     

高职思想政治理论教育与心理健康教育的联系与区别

思想政治理论教育和心理健康教育是现代素质教育工作的重要组成部分,高职院校的教育工作者应从一定的理论高度出发,充分认识两者之间的相互联系、相互区别及相互作用,据此不断完善高职思想政治理论教育和心理健康教育工作,共同促进高职院校学生的健康成长。本文旨在论述高职思想政治理论教育和心理健康教育之间的辩证关系,探讨总结两者间相辅相成的促进作用,进而提出实现两者有效融合的具体措施。