Higher Education Financing in East and Southern Africa Pundy Pillay

1. Higher Education Financing in East and Southern AfricaPundy Pillay

2. Findings from a Nine-Country Study • Botswana • Kenya • Lesotho • Mauritius • Mozambique • Namibia • South Africa • Tanzania • Uganda

3. HE Funding: Key Issues • Public Commitment to HE spending • Impact on Access and Equity • Funding Mechanisms – institutions, students • Budgeting and Planning Processes • Efficiency and Effectiveness of HE Financing • Special Initiatives

4. The Public Commitment to HE Spending • Varies in terms of both % of national income and of the budget • Where HE exp. is low there are various reasons: • Education exp. is low generally • Schooling is a priority • Inter-sectoral competition for resources • HE is a low priority

5. Common Themes • HE financing is often INADEQUATE, and almost everywhere, INEQUITABLE and INEFFICIENT • Enrolments are growing everywhere • Serious financial constraints

6. Common Themes (contd.) Responses: • Cost-sharing – Namibia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, SA (in some cases, dual-track) • Expansion of private higher education sector

7. Common themes (contd.) Private Higher Education • Serious equity questions • Questionable quality • Absence of regulatory framework to effectively monitor both local and overseas providers

8. Common themes (contd.) Efficiency of HE Expenditure • Inefficient because of poor planning and budgeting – Mozambique; Namibia; Tanzania • Inefficient because of no/little cost recovery of loans – Botswana; Lesotho; Tanzania • No systematic funding mechanism such as funding formula

9. Common Themes (contd.) Inadequacy of Higher Educ. Expenditure • Reasons alluded to earlier • But also because of weak departments of higher education within Ministries of Ed. • Significant involvement of donors in Mozambique and Tanzania, for example – sustainability implications

10. Good practices Financing policies that address inadequacy of public expenditure 1. Public-private partnerships – Botswana 2. Differentiated funding model in Mauritius 3. Cost-sharing – Namibia, Tanzania, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda

11. Good practices (contd.) Financing polices that promote equity • Provincial scholarships – Mozambique • Loans to students in private HEIs – Botswana, Tanzania • Loan scheme to address equity and access – South Africa, Kenya • Funding formula to promote equity – South Africa

12. Good Practices (contd.) Funding policies to promote efficiency • Linking HE planning to budgeting – South Africa 2. Funding to improve quality of provision - Mozambique

13. Some Possible Lessons • Cost Sharing • CS is necessary in most countries in the light of serious public resource constraints • CS can take a number of forms • Number of advantages and disadvantages to CS • Form of CS must minimize impact on equity/inequity

14. Possible Lessons (contd.) 2. Developing efficient and equitable loan scheme • Look at South African and Kenyan examples • Encouraging signs in Namibia but not anywhere else • Successful loan schemes need some necessary pre-conditions – e.g. efficient tax system

15. Possible lessons (contd.) 3. HE funding formula to promote effectiveness • Look at South Africa model for resource allocation in HE • Important for the following reasons: predictability of revenue; promoting institutional autonomy and equity; in-built efficiency incentives