Inside African Private
Higher Education:
Contradictions and
Challenges
Professor Louise Morley
Centre for Higher Education and Equity
Research (CHEER)
University of Sussex, UK
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer
The Rise of Private Higher Education
• Worldwide, more than 1 in 3
university-level students in a
private institution
(Bjarnason et al., 2009).
• Private higher education (PHE) =
response to capacity challenge
(World Bank, 2009).
• In South Korea, Japan, the
Philippines and Indonesia = 80%
students in PHE (Altbach, 2004).
• 2010 sub-Saharan Africa = 650
universities
200 public
450 private (Morley et al., 2010)
Drivers for Growth
• Social demand for higher
education;
• Fiscal constraints;
• Needs of specific groups in
society (religion);
• Influence of market ideology
(Brown, 2011; Thaver; 2004);
• Profit opportunity for
business (Ball, 2007).
Concerns about Private Higher
Education
• Commodification of knowledge
• Changing the ethos, curriculum and
values of higher education
• Abdication of state responsibility
• Compromise of quality and standards –
diploma mills
• Threat to social diversity and equality
of opportunity
• Exclusion of students from low socioeconomic backgrounds?
• Binary between those who enter HE on
merit and those who pay?
• Education for what - employment,
citizenship, criticality, social
responsibility?
• Dismantling the welfare state/ public
services?
(Morley, 2013)
22 March, 2016
Widening Participation in Higher
Education in Ghana and Tanzania
Measuring:
• Gender, age, socio-economic status (SES)
In Relation to:
• Access, retention and achievement.
In Relation to:
• 4 Programmes of Study in each university.
• 2 Public and 2 private universities.
• Quantitative Data
• 100 Equity Scorecards
• Qualitative Data
• 200 interviews/ students
• 200/ staff and policymakers.
• Both private universities = non-profit
Christian organisations.
• 2,809 students in Ghana
• 2,063 in the Tanzania
(Morley et al. 2010)
(www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer/wphegt)
Questioning Quality: Lack and Deficit
• Well the key thing is more quality;
it’s the quality and facilities.
Quality, comfort and facilities,
yes...Private universities…you can
see that we tend to focus more on
facilities than they do – the reason
is simple: the public universities
have to depend funding from
Government... We have a science
laboratory ...
(Male staff, private university, Ghana).
•The performance is very, very bad.
Because we lack resources, we are
more into reading actually than
‘practicals’.
(Male student, private university, Ghana).
•First of all we have very small
library. We have very small computer
rooms we have very few computers.
(Female student, private university, Tanzania).
22 March, 2016
Spatial and Cognitive Injustice?
Assessment
•Reported in the vocabulary of
instability and unfairness.
•Relay of power/ potential for
corruption, sexual harassment
(Morley, 2011).
So sometimes we have more
than eight hundred students
in the class
(Male student, private university, Ghana).
•Lacked consumer rights e.g.
appeals, grade criteria, service-level
agreements.
•Surfaced lack of professionalism/
student voice.
•Collided with financial
considerations e.g. students evicted
from exams.
22 March, 2016
Spoiled Identity
Loss
•Opportunity to enter higher
status public university
universities.
•Status, with PHE seen by
some as second choice.
•Entitlement to state funded
provision (buying an
education)
(Kenway et al, 1993).
22 March, 2016
Equity Scorecard 1: Access to Level 100 on 4
Programmes at Ghanaian Private University According to
Age, Gender and Socio-Economic Status
22 March, 2016
Equity Scorecard 2: Access to Level 100 on 4
Programmes at Tanzanian Private University According
to Age, Gender and Socio-Economic Status
22 March, 2016
The Symbolic Power of Being a
Student/ Somebody
Positional Advantage/ Material
Rewards
I grew in a poor family, … in a village
where very few people who get
opportunity to go to school, …
maybe I want to be someone .. . my
aim was just to pass and pass and
pass until I came to the university
(Female student, private university, Tanzania).
I am privileged... Because there are
few Tanzanians who get this
education (Male student, private university,
Tanzania).
New Competitions/ New Distributions
Questions
•Values
•Value for money
•How students are valued.
Does the private sector represent:
•Enhanced, demand-led
opportunities
•Market opportunism
•Or a complex combination of
opportunity and exploitation?
22 March, 2016
Follow Up?
• Morley, L. (2013): Inside African Private Higher Education. In, D.Araya & P.
Marber (eds) Higher Education in the Global Age: Education, policy and emerging
societies. London: Routledge.
• Morley, L. (2012): Researching Absences and Silences in Higher Education: Data
for democratisation. Higher Education Research and Development, 31(3): 353-368
• Morley, L. (2011). "Sex, Grades and Power in Higher Education in Ghana and
Tanzania". Cambridge Journal of Education, 41(1): 101-115.
• Special Issue: Research in Comparative and International Education 2011 6 (4)
African Higher Education: Researching Absences, Equalities and Aspirations.
'Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an
Equity Scorecard’ (www.sussex.ac.uk/education/cheer/wphegt).
22 March, 2016