Higher Education Financing in East and Southern Africa Pundy Pillay

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

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

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: 1. Education exp. is low generally 2. Schooling is a priority 3. Inter-sectoral competition for resources 4. HE is a low priority

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

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

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

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

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

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

Good practices (contd.) Financing polices that promote equity 1. Provincial scholarships – Mozambique 2. Loans to students in private HEIs – Botswana, Tanzania 3. Loan scheme to address equity and access – South Africa, Kenya 4. Funding formula to promote equity – South Africa

Good Practices (contd.) Funding policies to promote efficiency 1. Linking HE planning to budgeting – South Africa 2. Funding to improve quality of provision - Mozambique

Some Possible Lessons 1. 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

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

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