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 public450 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 socio-

economic 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) 20 April 2023

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).

20 April 2023

Spatial and Cognitive Injustice?

So sometimes we have more

than eight hundred students

in the class (Male student, private university, Ghana).

Assessment 

•Reported in the vocabulary of

instability and unfairness.

•Relay of power/ potential for

corruption, sexual harassment (Morley, 2011).

•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.20 April 2023

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).  

20 April 2023

Equity Scorecard 1: Access to Level 100 on 4 Programmes at Ghanaian Private University According to Age, Gender and Socio-Economic Status

20 April 2023

Equity Scorecard 2: Access to Level 100 on 4 Programmes at Tanzanian Private University According to Age, Gender and Socio-Economic Status

20 April 2023

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?

20 April 2023

Follow Up?

20 April 2023

• 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).