Aid policy for universities in developing countries: A British view

This article draws attention to the implications of recent British government policy decisions for cooperation with universities in developing countries. The writer, the former head of the Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas, suggests that the increasing amount of central government control has led to a deterioration. Traditional governmental methods of organising technical assistance are unduly expensive in terms of cost and staff time and are unsuited to the type of institution-to-institution collaboration which is essential if aid programmes are to he effectively focussed upon key universities in the Third World. There has been an unnecessary proliferation of in-house expertise in various government or semi-government agencies. The author calls for a return to the de-centralised policy of the late 1960s when the government helped British universities to reconstitute the Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas. The present policy of merging the activities of organisations such as the British Council and the Inter-University Council under the Overseas Development Administration is criticised and a case made for recognising that higher education should be a separate and distinct element in the programme for each country. Such activities are best handled by a single specialist agency which uses the method of facilitating direct collaboration between identified institutions./p]