In 2018 James Tooley, and colleagues, launched a no-frills private school -- the Independent Grammar School: Durham (IGSD). This offers full-time education for £58 per week per child (2019-20), in contrast to the markedly higher cost per capita in either the state sector or in established private schools. We question IGSD's affordability and…

Drawing on over fifty years of on-the-ground experience, Fred M. Hayward's "Transforming Higher Education in Asia and Africa" analyzes change processes in higher education in eight Asian and African countries. The twelve cases range from the push to upgrade and transform higher education in Afghanistan in the midst of a war, to the…

In 2015, the world, through UNESCO adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development floated on 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to "transform our world." SDG4 titled "Quality Education" seeks to "ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all and promote lifelong learning." An ordinary look at SDG4…

Conceived in order to provide a crucial baseline in research on internationalization in MENA, this report draws on available data to respond to both a real need for regional analysis and a direct demand from stakeholders, including tertiary education institutions in the region. Encouraging internationalization to be mainstreamed throughout MENA is…

Quality assurance of African higher education is at the top of the region's development agenda. Prompted by the imperative to enhance the quality of higher education, the Africa Union Commission is implementing the African Quality Rating Mechanism (AQRM). The AQRM is a continental tool that affords higher education institutions an opportunity to…

This article studies issues of coloniality in so-called capacity-building projects between universities in Africa and Scandinavia. Even fifty years after independence, the African higher education landscape is a product of the colonial powers and subsequent uneven power relations, as argued by a number of researchers. The uneven geography and…

In 2014, UNICEF commissioned a review of language policy and education quality in the 21 countries of UNICEF's Eastern and Southern Africa Region. This paper examines findings from the review, related to the role of English and local languages in current education practice in the region. National language policies and implementation practices are…

This article explains why there are so few world-class universities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region today. It first summarises the systemic exogenous economic, political and social problems facing all countries in the region, and the impact of these on the development of their higher education sectors in recent times. Then, with…

The purpose of this article is to discuss how best to finance higher education in low-income countries of sub-Saharan Africa, drawing on benefits and drawbacks of the prevalent models of higher education finance, and lessons to be learned from countries which have seen greater expansion of their higher education systems in recent decades. Two main…

This report, which has been developed through a partnership between the African Union Commission (AUC) and UNICEF, aims to: (1) track the progress that African nations have made in education, especially in relation to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA) goals; (2) identify the challenges…

The aim of this article is to examine and assess Africa's higher education effort. The theoretical framework employed distinguishes between three dimensions of the higher education project: the quantitative dimension (measured in terms of higher education enrollments and enrollment ratios), the qualitative dimension, and the equality dimension.…

In the face of increasing social demand and cutbacks in state budgetary support, universities in African countries are now turning towards a multicampus system strategy. As African governments have adopted neoliberal education policies that place premium on entrepreneurialism, profit making, privatization, and markets as drivers of university…

Despite the fact that access to education has dramatically increased over the past decade, 57 million children do not currently have access to education, and many of those who do receive limited, low-quality services. Recent estimates have shown that the stagnation of aid and inflation has meant that the funding gap needed to provide basic…

Learning Management Systems (LMS) have been widely adopted by higher education institutions globally for over a decade. Institutions in sub-Saharan Africa now spend a significant proportion of their limited resources on installing and maintaining these systems. This expenditure continues to increase, raising questions as to whether LMS in these…

The purpose of these guidelines is to provide methods for comprehensive education sector analyses to support the preparation and monitoring of education sector plans. They are an update of a 1999 document that has been used to support the preparation of approximately 70 Education Country Status Reports (CSR) in more than 40 countries. The goal of…