Higher education
HIGHER EDUCATION IN SOMALILAND
Definition of Higher Education as Understood in Somaliland
Abdirahman A. Liban
Amoud University
An Assignment Submitted in Partial Fulfillment for the Requirements of Postgraduate
Diploma in Education
January 2022
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Abbreviations and Acronyms
HE
-
Higher Education
HEIs
-
Higher Education Institutions
SEDSA
-
Somaliland Education Sector Analysis
SNEP
-
Somaliland National Education Policy
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Table of Contents
Abbreviations and Acronyms ......................................................................................................... ii
Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... iii
Higher Education in Somaliland ......................................... Ошибка! Закладка не определена.
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................... 4
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The creation of academia has been the human race’s greatest success at countering the
inevitable loss of human capital and knowledge that each general must endure. While the
education of ruling, clerical and military elites has existed since the inception of civilization, the
system that would characterize as a university did not originate until the medieval era. The first
universities were housed in Bologna, Italy and Paris, France. The success of Paris and Bologna
was evident across the globe and their replication was inevitable. The emerging of institutions in
Oxford and Cambridge played a pivotal role in the “intellectual controversies of the later middle
ages. Later than, Universities eventually evolved to provide a wider range of academic programs,
utilize specialized research professors, and even begin to see the emergence of state supported
universities (Himanka, 2015). These evolutions by then created what is now termed higher
education, and this is what this paper is going to conceptualize from globe, regional and local
perspective.
Globally, higher education can be defined differently. In the United States, higher
education is considered to be voluntary studies beyond the high school level. It is defined as
Higher education refers to postsecondary education, which is offered at institutions such as
colleges, universities, community colleges, and vocational-technical schools (Barnett, 1990). In
addition, higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher
education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional
final stage of formal learning that occurs after completion of secondary education (Sharipov,
2020). Higher education is a form of formal learning, in which education is provided by
universities, colleges, graduate school, etc. and completed with a diploma. Higher education also
includes teacher-training schools, junior colleges, and institutes of technology and technical
colleges (Miller, 2014).
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In Africa, higher education is critical to Africa’s development yet African universities
and scholars contribute very little to the global knowledge economy. In the Kenyan system of
education, university education is the epitome of higher education. Higher education is necessary
in generating a pool of highly qualified personnel in various specialized skills and the potential
for promoting higher production of human as well as economic capital and other resources in
their individual capacities. The role of higher or university education is to provide mature and
conscientious graduates with ability and desire to contribute to the development of the country
and provide for national services which reflect the national and cultural heritages (Gathitu,
2010). In the process develop and transmit knowledge and stimulate the intellectual life and
cultural development of the country to produce high level labour in scientific and technological
fields to meet the social and cultural as well as economic development needs of the nation. Each
country no matter how small has its own system he conceptualize higher education. Here and
after, networking is expected to offer chances for different higher education institutions in Africa
and in other continents to pool their resources.
The Higher Education (HE) sector is relatively new in Somaliland. As a result, data on
university education in Somaliland is extremely limited due to lack of regulation of institutions
and insufficient Ministry involvement. The first university, Amoud University, was launched in
1998. By 2011, the number of higher education institutions registered with the MOEHS reached
16, with a total student population of about 15,000. Each of the original six regions now has at
least one university. There are seven public universities located in each of the Somaliland
regions. Additionally, the number of private universities has increased to 35 to accommodate
public demand for tertiary education [Somaliland Education Sector Analysis (SEDSA), 2017].
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In conclusion, this paper presented the different definitions of higher education from
global perspective, through regional perspective to local perspective. The paper shed-off the
origins of higher education and how it started through its inventions. It also highlighted that
higher education is generally defined as the formal education person came across after secondary
education whatever type it is. In addition, the paper presents some of the common higher
education institutions which include teacher-training schools, junior colleges, and institutes of
technology and technical colleges. The paper also pointed that networking is expected to offer
chances for different higher education institutions in Africa and in other continents to pool their
resources. Finally, the paper presented that higher education is relatively new in Somaliland, and
data on university education in Somaliland is extremely limited due to lack of regulation of
institutions and insufficient Ministry involvement.
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REFERENCES
Barnett, R. (1990). The idea of higher education. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Gathitu, M. W. (2010). Higher education in Kenya: an assessment of its rapid expansion and
future prospects (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nairobi, Kenya).
Himanka, J. (2015). On the Aristotelian origins of higher education. Higher education, 69(1),
117-128.
Miller, M. T. (2014). The global scholar: Challenges and opportunities of working with
transational faculty in higher education. NewYork, USA. Presbyterian publishers.
Sharipov, F. (2020). Internationalization of higher education: definition and description. Mental
Enlightenment Scientific-Methodological Journal, 2020(1), 127-138.
Somaliland, E. S. A. (2017). Republic of Somaliland ministry of education and higher studies:
Somaliland education sector analysis. Hargiesa, Somaliland: Sagal Jet publishers.