Armed with a Sh500 million war chest in funds, partly raised through a private placement, the Kenya School of Professional Studies is set to expand its facilities after getting the green light to operate as a private university.
PRESS statements by higher education minister Blade Nzimande confirm his eagerness to address issues in the public higher education arena. But what about the private education sector?
There are strong indications that demand for higher education is outstripping supply. In January, Gloria Sekwena died and at least 20 other people were seriously injured when about 5,000 people stampeded in a desperate attempt to register at the last minute with the University of Johannesburg. The university received more than 85,000 applications for fewer than 12,000 places last year.
The draft bill also implies that private universities could benefit from public funding should the government deem this to be necessary and allocate money to them through parliament. “A private university shall account for any funds received from the government,” says section 50 of the legislation.
The article discusses Covenant University in a town outside Lagos, Nigeria. As a privately run, Christian university, it breaks with a Nigerian tradition of free public higher education. The demand among Nigerian youth for higher education is beyond what the state can provide, leaving an opening for private institutions.
Uganda's National Council for Higher Education has adopted stricter regulations for the registration of private institutions in an effort to ensure higher standards. It has warned that some private universities might be forced to close.
Concerned that a growing number of students are enrolling in poor-quality private universities and diploma mills, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda are working together to develop more stringent oversight of their higher-education systems.
Algerian universities will need to accommodate over 2 million students by 2015. To address this rise in class sizes, the Algerian authorities may permit the establishment of private universities for the first time.
Most private institutions are in major cities and are rather small. They offer two-year courses in industrial, business and secretarial fields and some are affiliated with foreign higher education institutions, mainly in France, and provide joint higher level courses.
Qualified lecturers rarely do the teaching in the Congo's private universities. Instead, unqualified assistants take courses that are often obsolete, theoretical and useless for finding a job, says Le Potentiel of Kinshasa.
Patrick Awuah, Ashesi University's president, celebrated the fifth anniversary of Ghana's first liberal arts college this week in Seattle. After an eight-year career at Microsoft, Awuah, a native Ghanaian, founded Ashesi in 2002 with this vision: "Imagine if every Sub-Saharan African country had several small liberal-arts colleges, educating students at a level equivalent to liberal-arts colleges in the United States -- colleges dedicated to nurturing critical thinking, effective communication skills, practical experience, and a true concern for society in their students."
Private universities have sprung up like mushrooms in Ghana. In 1999, there were just two but since then 11 new private universities and 19 private polytechnics or colleges have opened their doors.
Nearly 600 colleges are registered to operate in Kenya, but only 10 have been accredited to offer programmes on behalf of foreign universities, higher education regulators have said.
Thousands of Malawian graduates may soon be stripped of their qualifications as the government moves ahead with a plan to crack down on unregistered learning centres.
Minister of Education, Professor Fabian Osuji, following the significant rise in the number of universities in the country, has given the National Universities Commission (NUC) a two weeks ultimatum to submit its agenda for improved quality assurance of the Nigerian University system.
The emergence of Nigerian private universities is seen as an attempt for marketization. There are concerns over the quality of such universities, their lecturers and students. Rarely producing research, private university owners are charged with being interested only in profit, targeting admissions with high tuition and fees.
One doesn't know whether to rejoice or be aghast at the news that the National Universities Commission (NUC), is to license three more private universities before the end of this year, bringing the total number of private universities to 26.
Chairman, Governing Council of the Lagos City Polytechnic, Ikeja, Mr. Babatunde Odufuwa has called on government at all levels to put necessary administrative structures in place to grant aids to students in private tertiary institutions in the country.
The National Council for Higher Education has published a list of universities and other tertiary institutions and warned the public against enrolling in illegal institutions of learning.
The Prime Minister, Prof. Apolo Nsibambi, has cautioned private institutions of higher learning against charging students exaggerated amounts of money.
Revenue Authority has asked Uganda Christian University to pay corporation tax, which the university has appealed against. John Eremu and Bob Kisiki examine the impact of the demand on private higher education provision.
All students enrolling at private tertiary colleges and sitting for examinations set by the Zimbabwean Higher Education Examinations Council (Hexco) must have at least five "O" levels in terms of a new Government directive.
The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday in Abuja approved the issuance of provisional licences for the establishment of seven new private universities in the country. Nigeria currently has 96 universities, comprising 27 federal, 35 state and 34 private universities.
National Universities Commission (NUC) has approved 89 universities in the last 13 years. Among those approved between 1999 and 2012 by the agency are 50 private universities, 27states universities and 12 federal universities. This puts the total number of universities in Nigeria at 125.
We believe that the future of this nation lies with the private universities. When we say some of them are fledgling, it is because they will suffer from the pain of just beginning a programme, which forms the fulcrum of the issue.
Politicians have over the years been accused of not walking the talk in policy implementation especially when it comes to addressing the challenges facing the education sector.
The University of Buckingham in the UK last week announced that it had stopped accreditation of courses for a private university in Uganda over freedom of speech issues and the controversy surrounding the homosexuality bill in the East African country.
A decree by Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi to establish a national scientific research project has fuelled a 20-month dispute between the private Nile University and a research institution managed by Nobel Prize for Chemistry laureate Ahmed Zewail.
News usually thrives on controversy, so most of us would have no difficulty remembering J.A Kufour's last gesture as president, where he ordered the reinstatement of ACP Nathan Kofi Boakye with all his entitlements, and the public's reaction at the time. We would probably not remember that the NPP President had also promised $1billion as seed money to boost the capacity of one of the private universities in the country.
Mahama on Saturday urged owners of private tertiary institutions to maintain high standards, cautioning that government could withdraw their accreditation if found to be operating below standards.
Kenya has enacted higher education reforms aimed at streamlining and improving the management of university affairs. The Universities Act 2012, finally signed into law by President Mwai Kibaki this month, introduces far-reaching changes.
A US$150 million equity investment by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) into US-based for-profit education company Laureate Education will help spearhead a push into Africa, in line with World Bank aims to develop post-secondary education and skills training on the continent.
The Private Universities Students’ Association of Ghana (PUSAG) has appealed to the Ministry of Education, to integrate them into the administration of tertiary education in Ghana.
Prof. Francis Kofi Ampanyin Allotey is calling on government to support Private Universities in the country so they can help in producing the human resource base of the country.
The National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) has accredited Uganda Technology and Management University (UTAMU) as the 30th private university in the country.
Due to insufficient space in the five public universities to accommodate all high school graduates, the government reached an agreement with private universities to admit the students.
The questionable award of 66 PhDs at the Kampala International University in Uganda resulted from a failure by the institution to adhere to governance principles, an investigation by the independent Daily Monitor has revealed.
Similarly, the National Universities Commission (NUC) has licensed several private universities based on the population of prospective applicants for admission. The driving force of the decisions of the NUC has been the need to broaden access to university education regardless of the consequence on the quality of university education. In the end, several public and private universities have consistently failed to meet the requirements for accreditation by the NUC, putting students in dire situations.
Administrators and students at Egypt's private Misr International University are locked in a dispute following protests that turned violent, forcing the suspension of classes.
Mount Kenya University deputy vice chancellor Evans Kerosi said the move will increase the number of students in private universities to be admitted through a joint admission board.
The Private Universities Students Association of Ghana (PUSAG) has called on the National Service Secretariat (NSS) to reconsider its intention of deploying national service personnel to direct traffic.
President John Dramani Mahama on Tuesday stated that the establishment of public universities at areas where private tertiary institutions exist was not a move to compete with them, but to complement their efforts.
The Presbyterian University College is to establish a Medical School at its Agogo campus in the Asante-Akim North District, Professor Kofi Sraku Lartey, its President, has announced.
The Presbyterian University College is to establish a Medical School at its Agogo campus in the Asante-Akim North District, Professor Kofi Sraku Lartey, its President, has announced.
The National Universities Commission (NUC), urged the Standing Committee on Private Universities (SCOPU) not to compromise standards in the discharge of its duties.
Private Universities in Kenya receive no funding from the government for running expenses. They rely on tuition fees to meet recurrent and developmental costs.
The minister of Higher Education, Adao do Nascimetno today in Kuito, Bie, hailed the initiative and efforts of institutions that want to boost higher education in the province, as they will contribute to local development.
The minister of Higher Education, Adão do Nascimento, exhorted on Saturday in the central Huambo province the private higher education institutions of this region to increase their performance, aiming to promote the quality of scientific and technology training.
The President of the Central University College and the newly elected Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Private Universities in Ghana, Professor Kwesi Yankah, has emphasised the significance of private universities in national development.
A private Indian university has been barred from recruiting Ghanaian students for its distance learning programmes since it is not accredited in this country. The university is under a cloud back home with a federal probe likely into its affairs - particularly the awarding of an extraordinarily high number of degrees - and its chancellor-promoter is on the run.
The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has set up a Liaison Committee to monitor and coordinate activities of its affiliate private universities to help maintain high academic standards, the Vice Chancellor, Professor William Otoo Ellis, has announced.
The minister of Higher Education, Adão do Nascimento, last Wednesday in Lubango City, southern Huila Province, said that in some local private higher education institutions there are serious concerns about their functioning and organisation, which need to be dealt with in due time.
The minister of Higher Education, Adão do Nascimento, on Wednesday in Lubango City, Huila Province, said that infrastructures related to private higher education institutions must be adjusted to the functioning of the public ones, aimed for a quality academic training.
The Tanzania Commission for Universities, or TCU, has finally acted against a branch campus of Uganda’s Kampala International University, ordering the Dar es Salaam-based institution to stop offering masters and doctoral courses.
Concerned that a growing number of students are enrolling in poor-quality private universities and diploma mills, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda are working together to develop more stringent...
The Department of Higher Education and Training would like to place on record that Cida City Campus is a private higher education institution and as such is regulated by the department in terms of the Regulatory Framework for Private Higher Education Institutions so as to ensure that the post school system provides both youth and adults with opportunities to participate and gain an education to improve their lives and contribute towards the economic development of the country.
However, the Kenya Association of Private Universities (Kapu) expressed concerns that by implementing the unit costing in public universities, fees charged in their institutions would be affected because of the forces of a free-market.
The Girne American University, a private educational institution in Turkey, which was established in 1985, is recruiting students from Ghana and other African countries for its bachelors, masters and Phd degree programmes, this year.
Founded in 2005, the Crescent University, Abeokuta, Ogun State, has come a long way. The Registrar, Ademola Ajibola, a lawyer, in this interview with Editor, Education, TAYO LEWIS insists that rather than encouraging a depreciation of standards, private varsities are raising a standard which is putting parents’ minds at rest.
Students in private universities taking courses not approved by the Commission for University Education (CUE) have recently learnt, to their utter dismay, that they cannot get help from the campuses to resolve the problem, because CUE’s bark is louder than its bite.
Surat Group, owners of the Nigerian Turkish Nile University (NTNU), have recorded another first in Nigeria as the four-year old institution held its maiden convocation for 77 students. Parents and guardians in their gay outfits watched with pride as their wards graduated from four years of hard work, luckily in an institution not encumbered by the incessant strikes the tertiary institutions in Nigeria are known for.
JCT director Petronella Nyamapfene said the trust was focusing on private colleges because there was growing concern over the welfare of children in these institutions.
Thanks to RPF government through numerous education reforms, we are now talking of seven public universities and over a dozen private universities in just 19 years. That is good enough and very impressive by any standards.
The proprietors of private universities in Nigeria are clamouring for financial support from the federal and state governments. They argue that they are playing an identical role to public universities in producing much-needed skills for the country, and thus deserve state funding.
I have tried to highlight the tragic condition of our Universities in Nigeria. The entrance of private Universities is a welcome development. However, NUC must become more vigilant in how these Universities deal with issues of national integration, regional and ethnic chauvinism and how these institutions contribute to the ideals of national unity. To do this, the NUC must try to lead the way by providing standards for the choice of members of the various layers of authority in the Universities. I want to conclude by making the following observations.
Kenyan universities edged out their East African counterparts to emerge top in a new survey focused on the adoption of information and communication technology in higher education. Private universities outperformed public institutions and Uganda’s Makerere University was placed first.
The Council Chairman of the Presbyterian University College of Ghana, Sam Okudzeto says it is “misplaced”, “unfair”, “unreasonable” and “unethical” for private universities to be taxed.
A former Education Minister Ekwow Spio-Garbrah says government must give private universities a few years tax holiday before taxing their profits, if any.
Professor David Millar, immediate past Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies, said government’s decision to bring private universities into the tax net would marginalise students from the three northern regions.
Parliament recently amended Section 6 of the Internal Revenue Act, Act 859 of 2000 to exclude private universities from the expression "educational institution of a public character" contained in the definition of organisations exempted from paying tax.
The Youth Institute for Democratic Initiative (YIDI -Ghana) humbly calls on Government to restore the tax exempt status of private universities in the country. Considering the inability of public universities to admit the ever increasing number of Senior High School graduates annually, private universities serve as the only hope and option for thousands of Senior High School graduates who are unable to attend public universities due to inadequate number of facilities at public universities.
The President of the Catholic Institute of Business and Technology (CIBT), Very Reverend Jonathan Ankrah, says private universities should be seen as major contributors to national development rather than money-making ventures.
Education in Nigeria is nothing to write home about. The present standard is at its lowest level. Good enough, the Christian private universities have contributed, in no small measure, to the raising of the standard. However, we should ask ourselves if these private universities are meeting the needs of those who really want to acquire qualitative education but are limited financially?
At the first graduation of 45 pioneers in Bachelor of Science degree, Business Administration; Bachelor of Science degree in Public Administration; Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and of course Bachelor of Arts, Study of Religion and Church Administration, the Vice-Chancellor of the Catholic Institute of Business and Technology (CIBT) Monsignor Dr. Jonathan Thomas Ankrah patriotically paddled into the debatable debate surrounding the role of private universities in Ghana.
In 1999, only two private universities existed in Ghana. Now the country’s National Accreditation Board lists 43 private institutions offering degree programs, and most are Ghanaian-owned.
The Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Private Universities, Prof Kwesi Yankah, has called on government to take a second look at the imposition of tax on Private Universities.
The advent of private universities in Nigeria was considered a welcome development for the simple reason that the public universities had become anything but centres for excellence. Aside the endless strikes by the lecturers and the non-academic staff which sometimes lasted as long as one academic session, the neglect of federal and state universities by successive governments has also resulted in a situation in which students of these universities were never certain as to the number of years they would spend for their degrees.
Students of tertiary institutions under the aegis of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) yesterday staged a protest in Ado- Ekiti against the prolonged strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
University students in Ekiti State, on Thursday, threatened to vent their anger over the lingering impasse between the Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) on the private universities ina the country.
I have spent the last couple of months acquainting myself with the goings on in our private universities. The (recent) and still unresolved strike by academic staff in our public universities, and government's pussyfooting over the lecturers' gravamen ensures that public universities have fallen off the radar of most parents/guardians looking to advance their children/wards' education.
Private universities in Ghana have appealed to government to restore the tax exempt status due them to enable them fully discharge their responsibilities to the people.
In June this year the World Bank published a report, Benchmarking Governance as a Tool for Promoting Change: 100 Universities in MENA Paving the Way, which measures the governance structures of 100 universities in the Middle East and North Africa, or Mena, region. Public and private higher education institutions in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq were surveyed.
Private universities in Ghana have appealed to government to restore the tax exempt status due them to enable them fully discharge their responsibilities to the people.
The Entrepreneurship Training Institute (ETI) has held its fourth Congregation ceremony in Accra with a call on private universities to invest more in the development of the competence of their staff to ensure quality education.
Nigerian university students have united under the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) and have protested in the streets of Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State’s capital, demanding that the federal government yield to the demands of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
Out of the 60 Private Universities in Ghana, only one of them has the Presidential Charter to award its own degrees and certificates, Professor Kwesi Yankah, President of Central University College, has disclosed.
The Madonna University Alumni Association has urged the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) to soft-pedal on its threat to massively clamp down on private universities in the country as a result of the ongoing strike by the Academic Staff Union, (ASUU).
Monash South Africa and Laureate Education have unveiled a partnership agreement that will enable the local higher education provider operated by Australia’s Monash University to expand its student enrolment and academic offerings.
Despite growing by leaps and bounds in the past 10 years and expanding higher education access to thousands of needy learners, private universities in Kenya continue to shun science, technology, engineering and mathematics – STEM – courses, leaving the heavy financial and infrastructural burdens of these subjects to poorly funded public institutions.
FOR several years in Nigeria, public universities (both federal and state-owned) were the major sources of higher education. Especially, given the much talked-about disparity between products of the universities and polytechnics in the country over the years, the number of candidates gravitating towards universities kept increasing in geometrical terms.
Competition for students among private universities in Kenya is intensifying, with institutions taking to both the electronic and print media to advertise programmes and display achievements. The private higher education sector is thriving, and now enrols 20% of all students.