Proposed budget cuts by the Kenyan government in September 2018 includes slashing the university education budget by approximately US$23 million. This move reflects a wider issue affecting numerous African countries struggling to finance higher education as it has globally been perceived as a private rather than a public good since the 1980s.
“significant effects on the quality and accessibility of higher education for young people in these countries”
The methods in which universities will cope with these cuts include enlarging class-sizes, dropping low-priority programmes as well as freezing financial assistance, all having significant effects on the quality and accessibility of higher education for young people in these countries.
However, the global research university budget gap has long been a challenge facing the quality of education in African universities. According to UNESCO data, 80% of global spending on research and development is accounted for by only 10 countries, none being African. This raises the question of how the quality of education impacts the overall development of countries.
When informed of this issue one UoN student commented that they were concerned by the lack of awareness surrounding the global education budget gap, adding that they
‘struggle to comprehend the effect it must have on so many young people who just want to continue their education past 18…’.
Similarly, in the UK university fees were increased from £9000 to £9250 per academic year. This increase, despite its unpopularity, did not affect the number of students applying to university. According to UCAS, a record 16.1% of people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds have been accepted, a rise of 0.4 percentage points in 2017.
Some have suggested that to tackle this issue, governments should provide tax incentives to encourage the private sector and individuals with notable wealth to increase their support for universities by funding research, scholarships, programmes, and faculty positions.
Erika Yap
Image courtesy of John Walker via Flickr. Image license here.
