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LPHREE Background Paper Series

Document No. PHREE/92/48

Private Initiatives and Traditionsof State Control in Higher Education

in Sub-Saharan Africa

by

Thomas Owen Eisemon(Consultant)

Education and Employment DivisionPopulation and Human Resources Department

The World Bank

January 1992

7his publication series seres as an outlet for background products front the onj ging workprogram of policy research and anal.. of theEducation and Employment Ditision in the Population and Human Resources Departnment of the WVorld Bank. The views xpressed arethose of the author(s), and should not be atributed to the World Bank.

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° Thle International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/Thie World Bank, 1992

The study was carried out in connection with the author's responsibilities at TheWorld Bank while on leave from the Centre for Cognitive and Ethnograhic Studies at McGillUniversity.

James Kamunge and Michael Mills, representing The World Bank in Kenya andZimbabwe, provided valuable assistance in collecting the information reported in this paper. Dr.Moussa Kourouma, a research consultant to the Education and Employment Division at The WorldBank, assisted in the analysis of data on university enrollments and expenditures.

Table of Content

Abstract ............ i

L INTRODUCTION .............. 1

II. INCREASING SOCIAL DEMANDFOR HIGHER EDUCATION ............... ................... 2

Um AFRICA'S NASCENT PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION ..... .......... SThe State and Higher Eduation ..................... S

IV. PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION IN KENYA. 7The Growth of Public and Private Higher Education. 7Co-ordinating and Diversifying the University System .7The Proliferation of Private Institutions ........ 9Affiliation and Accreditation .11Regionalism .12Fees. 13Institutional Financing .16C'haracter Building .21

V. CONCLUSION .......... 25

VI. TABLESTable 1: Growth of African Tertiary

EnroHments and Expenditures, 1980-87 ......... ........ 3

Table 2: Enrollment in Kenyan Private Universitiesand Coileges:1990/91 ........................... 10

Table 3 : Undergraduate Major and Postgraduate Programsof Four Private Institutions, 1990-91 ................... 20

References ............................ 28

Abai

Development of privete higher education in Africa has been constrained by poverty

and by extrapolation of the colonial experience that private involvement exacerbates inequaUties in

educational provision, Enrollments are vety low and in most African countries do not account for

a significant proportion of university enrollments. The largest number of private institutions are in

Kenya which is the subject of a case study. Private institutions provide professional training in fields

of employment opportunity but also offer an education that emphasizes character building functions

of higher studies. Efforts to foster private higher education should focus on creating an appropriate

policy framework for national accreditation and supervision of institutions as well as financial support

for construction of student residential facilities, loans to enable poor students to attend these

institutions and funding for staff training. Nevertheless, support for private higher education should

strengthen the regulatory functions of government in ways that preserve the independence of private

institutions.

i

INTRODUCTION

Private provision of highe1 education has been proposed as a means of moderatingthe growth of public expenditures, increasing the production of university and college graduates andof fostering greater institutional responsiveness to changing labor market requirements (Geiger 1986;1987; 1988). As well, a private higher education sector facilitates evolution of diversified systems ofhigher education. It allows public and private institutions to give different emphasis to professionaland liberal education, to undergraduate education and postgraduate training and to instructional andresearch activities oriented to local, national and regional needs.

Many countries, particularly in Latin America and Asia, have large private highereducation sectors which in some cases account for most university enrollment (Levy 1986; Geiger1987). Development of private higher education in Africa has been constrained by poverty, theassociation of public education with high quality education and access to modem sector employmentand, perhaps most important, by extrapolation of the colonial experience that private involvementexacerbates inequbiities in educational pr vision.

Some African governments aie allowing the development of a private highereducation sector in recognition of their reducs J capacity to fund further expansion of public highereducation. There are private colleges and universities in at least six Francophone and AnglophoneAfrican countries. This paper examines the political, economic and educational circumstances thathave prompted the establishment of private institutions, the functions of these institutions and theirrelationship to the state.

Enrollments in private institutions are very low and in most countries do not accountfor a significant proportion of university enrollments. However, developing private higher educationcan be an important strategy for expanding access to higher education and for diversifying universitysystems that should be closely scrutinized by policy makers in African countries.

The largest number of private institutions are in Kenya which is the subject of a casestudy. Although many private institutions in Kenya were founded by religious groups and trainspecialists for the educational, social and pastoral services of their sponsoring organizations, severaloffer a wide range of academic and professional programs and admit students of other faiths.Private institutions have been established to accommodate the high social demand for universitytraining in fields of great employment opportunity. Satisfying this demand is not the primazyfunction of most institutions. Private higher educational institutions have grown slowly with attentionto the implications of expansion for the quality of education they provide.

Private institutions provide professional training but also offer an education based ona liberal philosophy emphasizing the character building functions of higher studies that is quitedifferent from the secular, utilitarian traditions that have guided the establishment of public

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universities and colleges. Thne emphasis on character building is the defining feature of privatehigher education in Africa.

In most African countries, private higher education has developed spontaneously.Few countries have policies to enable the establishment of private institutions, recognize theirprograms or to monitor their growth. In some countries where private institutions exist, they haveno legal status. Efforts to foster private higher education should focus on creating an appropriatepolicy framework for national accreditation and supervision of institutions, thn-h accreditation andsupervision by foreign universities can have an useful role in ti.. .nitial st- .,f tl< establishmentof these institutions. Those without foreign sponsors may require financial assistance in order toachieve a self-sustaining enrollment level, to remain affordable and to upgrade the quality ofinstruction. That may involve support for construction of residential facilities, ioans to enable poorstudents to attend these institutions and funding for staff training. Nevertheless, support for pEivatehigher education should strengthen the regulatory functions of government in ways that preserve theindependence of private institutions.

INCREASING SOCIAL DEMAND FOR HGHER EDUCATION

In the 1980s, African countries began to reap the consequences, both positive andnegative, of more than two decades of investments in forming "high level" human capital. Post-secondary enroilments expanded dramatically. Between 1980 and 1987, the number ofundergraduates grew by about 5% annually (See Table 1). Although the growth of undergraduateenrollment was somewhat below that for Asian, Caribbean and Latin American countries (6% inthese regions, not shown), the rate for Africa is more impressive in view of the limited provision forsecondary and higher education prior to independence. The resulting strains placed on the fragileuniversity systems of African countries are responsible for the significant decline in postgraduateenrollment. Enrollments in polytechnic and other kinds of technical training institutions increasedby 17% per year.

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Tb1O 1

Grwth of Afrcn Tertiaiy Enrollmentsand FEad 19487

% Annual Growth

1. Post-secondaryEnrollment

pre-university 16.6(21 countries)

undergraduate 4.7(31 countries)

postgraduate -16.8(16 countries)

2. Expenditures* 2.1(11 countries)

* measured in constant 1985 US$

Sources: Unesco enrollment and expenditure statistics, various years. InternationalMonetary Fund country data used to deflate higher educationexpenditures.

Public expenditures for higher education, adjusting for inflation, increased at less thanhalf the rate of enrollment growth; i.e. per student expenditures steadily declined. In Nigeria, forexample, "despite a 50% increase in enrollments between 1981 and 1987, and considerable inflationover the same period, federal recurrent budgetary allocations in 1987 were lower than in 1981 andcapital allocations were much lower (World Bank 1988 a., 6)." In brief, many African countr:es wereunable to maintain the levels of support their higher education systems received in the 1960s and1970s.

Increasing austerity has prompted experimentation with strategies to moderatedemand for higher education and contain and/or recover costs (Salmi 1991). The initial responsesof African countries to the higher education crisis are implied in the data presented in Table 1.They responded in three ways.

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First, in the 1970s and early 1980s many countries like Kenya and Nigeria tried tochannel demand for post-secondary education away from the universities and into pre-universityinstitutions. That is reflected in the dramatic growth of enrollment in teacher training colleges andpolytechnics. These generally have a lower cost structilre than universities by virtue of their location(often in rural or peri-urban areas), the lower academic qualifications of their staff and, in the caseof teacher training, because of modest staff requirements and relatively inexpensive instructionalfacilities and equipment. The annual per student costs of polytechnical and teacher education infederal institutions in Nigeria, for instance, were estimated in 1985 to be about 74% and 37% of thecost of educating a student in a federal ziniversity (World Bank 1989, 5).

Such measures only temporarily deflected pressures for university expansion. Indeed,creation of pre-university, post-secondary institutions actually enabled the proliferation of universitiesand university colleges in the 1980s and early 1990s. Kenya's and Nigeria's contemporary systemsof public higher education, for instance, were superimposed upon the network of primary teachertraining cotleges established to forestall expansion. Many were upgraded into university colleges andlater became universities.

Second, most countries reduced unit costs for higher education by allowing inflationto erode real expenditures. This strategy of cost-reduction has the advantage of being equitable-most public services and all civii servants suffer alike---and requires no difficult choices. Thus, thesalaries of African academics, once among the most privileged members of the civil service (Van denBerghe 1973; Eisemon 1979), fell in the 1980s transforming academic work in many countries intopart-time employment (Eisemon and Davis 1991). Kenya's president Daniel Arap Moi onceobserved that a primary school leaver with one grade cow could earn more from the sale of its milkthan a university lecturer (Anon 1986, 6)!

Third, African countries extracted more efficiency from their universities by increasingstudent intake without proportionate increases in staffing and capital expenditures either becausethe funes and/or the staff were not available. Some improvements in efficiency were achieved at thecost of higher staff/student ratios, larger class sizes, shorter intervals between academic terms,overcrowding of residential and instructional facilities and very high repetition rates significantlylengthening the time needed to produce graduates. This led, in turn, to diminished capacity tosupport postgraduate studies at a time of expansion of undergraduate enrollments (Eisemon andDavis 1991).

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AFRICA'S NASCENT PRIVATE HIGHER EDUiJCA17ON SYSTEMS

The State and Higher Emucation

The private sector in Africa is providing a laboratory for experimentation withdifferent models of higner education. There may be as many as thirty private degree grantingcolleges and universities in at least six Sub-Saharan African countries: Kenya, Madagascar, Niger,Rwanda, Zaire, Zimbabwe. The total enrollment in private colleges and universities is perhaps fivethousand students.

Notwithstanding the small number of private institutions that have begun instruction,there is already great diversity. There are private proprietary institutions offering instruction incommerce and other professional fields and colleges established by religious non-governmentalorganizations, mostly Christian, providing pastoral training. The newest and most controversialentrants into the domain of private education are Muslim groups who have started a university inNiger under the auspices of the Islamic Council, and propose establishing institutions in Senegal andUganda.

There is also much diversity in how African governments are in'olved in thedevelopment of private higher education. Two patterns may be discerned; state registration ofprivate institutions and recognition of programs on an ad hoc basis, and establishment of structuresfor institutional accreditation intended to facilitate eventual autonomy. The first is the mostcommon.

In Rwanda, private organizations receive authorization to establish institutions by theministry of justice while their academic programs are recognized and periodically inspected by theministry of education. So far, three institutions have been established, including a private proprietaryinstitution, the Institut Saint-Fidele, founded by a relation of the head of state providing instructionmainly in business administration to students sponsored by the government. The largest is theUniversivt Adventiste d'Afrique Centrale with 333 students from fifteen Francophone countriesregistere:i in its degree programs in 1991, 44% of them in business administration (UAAC, personalcommunication, 1991). Together, the three private institutions in Rwanda may account for as muchas 15% of higher education .rollments in that country (World Bank, personal communication,1991). However, there is no provision for these institutions becoming autonomous universities.Nine private colleges and universities were opera.ing in Zaire in 1991, although higher educationremains a monopoly of the state in law. In a particularly dramatic reversal of the government'spolicy of secularization of higher education after independence, the Catholic church has been invitedto re-establish universities. Sponsorship of private higher education in Zaire reflects patterns ofprivate participation at lower levels of the educational system. Sometimes a private institution hasbegun instruction at the site of a secondary school. For instance, the Universite de Bas Zaire, the

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country/s largest private institution founded by a Catholic community group, has expanded to threecampuses where jt formerly operated secondary schools. Half of the estimated six hundred studentsare registered in seconday school eqvivalence prc.grams (Werld Bank, personal communication,1991).

Private institutions in Zaire operate with the approval of the national ministry ofeducation. Though their is no formal mechanism for the accreditation and inspection of programs,the government exercises supervision indirectly through sponsorship of studentz. and the employmentof graduates.

Only three countries have madr ,,rovision for the accreditation of private institutionsand their evolution into autonomous universities, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. One of these,Nigeria, having encouraged the development of private higher education in the early 1980s,subsequently nationalized private institutions. In 1990 'he federal government returned the facilitiesit expropriated to private control without indicating whether private higher education would besanctioned in the future.

In another, Zimbabwe, legislation to accredit private institutions was recently adopted(Government of Zimbabwe 1991) under which the country's only independent private college hasbeen made "illegal." The prohibition is addressed to Solusi College, a Seventh-Day Adventistinstitution located in Matabeleland near Bulawayo, which is affiliated to Andrews University in theUnited Statws. A Commission of Inquiry into dhe Establishment of a Second University in 1988recommended government encouragement of efforts by Protestant groups to found institutions(Government of Zimbabwe 1989). Nevertheless, the Commission acknowledged s,he manygovernment objections to private institutions. These stem from fears that private higher educationwill develop without adequate government supervision in ways that undermine the government'ssecular ideology and egalitarian social policies (3ovemment of Zimbabwe 1989, 58).

In fact, in most countries which have allowed establishment of private institutions,little thought has been given to what kind of private higher education should be encouraged, to howthis should be done, to the role of private institutions within national university systems or to the;mplications for public universities. Kenya is an exception to this situation.

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PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION IN KEN'iA

The Growth of Public and Private Higher Education

The establishment of private uriversities and colleges in Kenya was an anticipatedoutcome of the great expansion of public secondary and higher education in the late 1980s.Nevertheless, private higher education had a much longer history. In 1947, the Asian communi,petitioned colonial authorities to charter a college as a memorial to Gandhi offering training incommerce and technical subjects (Eisemon 1982). Although the initiative was rejected, it led to thefounding of the Royal Technical College o. -iairobi in 1952 which eventually betime the Universityof Nairobi in 1970 after several institutional iterations.

Kenya proceeded cautiously in expanding higher education in the 1970s. The numberof programs offered at the University of Nairobi were gradually increased. postgraduate programswere developed to facilitate Africanisation of the academic staff, and a constituent college wasestablished in 1978 for teacher training. The annual intake doubled from slightly over 1,000 (1,279)in 1970 to 2,611 in 1979 (Eshiwani 1983 a, 29). In the same period, the proportion of A levelstudents admitted to university declined from 48% to 24%. Meanwhile, the number of primaryschool students doubled and secondary enrollment trippled (Eshiwani 1983b, 3), requiringestablishment of a second public university which opened in 1985.

The number of public universities and constituent colleges has grown to six in 1991.The attendant problems of such rapid institutional expansion have received much attention (e.g.Eisemon and Davis 1991). Despite significant lapses in planning for this expansion, the governmentrecognized in the mid 1980s that a mechanism would be needed to guide development of theuniversity system and that the public sector could not cope with all of the social demand for highereducation. It enacted legislat.on in 1985 creating a Commission for Higher Education to supervisethe development of public and private education.

Co-ordinating and Diversifying the University System

The Commission for Higher Education has responsibility for planning universitydevelopment and accrediting new universities, including private universities. The provisions of theUniversities Act also give it broad authority for co-ordinating admissions to public universities,assessing their financial needs and allocating funding; in brief, the mandate of Britain's UniversityGrants Commission of that time. These have been the most contentious functions of theCommission. Paradoxically, the proliferation of public universities and colleges, coupled withdeclining resources to support expansion of public higher education, increased rather than reducedresistance to an intermediary authority between the public universities and the govermment.

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Decisions affecting university intake and finance have usually been negotiated between individualvice-chancellors (or, sometimes, the committee of vice-chancellors) and State House with theMinistry of Education having an important advisor; role.

The Commission has been more influential insofar as the development of privatehigher education is concerned. Its functions in this domain ,nvolve: (1) making recommendationsto the Minister of Education on applications to establish private universities; (2) approval of coursesof study; and (3) periodic inspection of private institutions (Republic of Kenya 1985). TheCommission has more than one hundred professional and administrative staff to carry out thesetasks---a larger establishment than any of the private universities and colleges it supervises.

A proposal to establish Narok University in 1986 provided a test of the government'scommitment to allow private higher education. Although the name chosen for the university impliesan institution addressing the educational needs of one of the most disadvantaged pastoral districtsin Kenya, the proposal was the initiative of a group representing the educationally advantagedO'.ntral Province. Without waiting for approval from the Commission, the organizers solicitedapplications from students and advertised and even offered staff positions.

Proponents of private higher education had reason to worry about these events. Theexpansion of public education in the 1980s might not have reflected careful educational andeconomic planning but it did show sensitivity to the demands for increased access to secondary andtiigher education from Kenya's various ethnic communities. Private higher education could easilybe transformed into an "uscape clause" for those ethnic groups id the central and western provincesthat were well positioned to capitalize on the resulting opportunities. Indeed, these interests hadconsolidated their educational advantages in the 1930s when the colonial government allowed LocalNative Councils to become involved in primary schooling, and in the 1970s when the independentgovernment encouraged community financing of secondary education.

Narok University was never chartered and its financial backers eventually withdrewtheir support The Commission did not charter any private universities until 1991. The first privateuniversity, the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton, mainly serves a multi-ethnic religious communityin Kenya and neighboring Anglophone countries. It is located near Eldoret, the site of Kenya'ssecond public university (Moi University) named after the country's president whose homeland is inthis educationally disadvantaged region. Private higher education in Kenya has a promising futurebecause the Commission has (wisely) decided that its development should not be perceived toentrench the educatonal advantages of any particular ethnic group or region.

The Commission's regulatory authority has been exercised very judiciously and in waysintended to facilitate the development of private institutions. It inspects instructional and residentialfacilities and has formulated standards to guide construction.

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It has prepared model curricula for six core programs of study such as commerce andeducation. It monitors the financial status of private institutions but does not approve their fees. Ithas insisted that private colleges affiliated with foreign institutions eventually become autonomousthough they may be estab!ished in affiliation with such institutions. It ensures that students admittedto private institutions possess the minimum qualifications for admission to public universities andcolleges in Kenya, or in the case of students from other Eastern and Southern African countries,equivalent qualifications. It places no restrictions on the proportion of foreign students and staff.It requires denominational institutions seeking to become autonomous degree granting universitiesto admit students of other faiths but does not stipulate the proportion and recognizes that theirreligious character should be mainitained.

Equally important, while private institutions must achieve a critical level of enrollment(about 500 students) to become chartered universities, the Commission does not oblige them toincrease intake to accelerate their development. The Commission anticipates that the universitieswhen fully developed will enroll about two thousand students. It has encouraged the many smallernewly established private institutions to pool their facilities and resources to become more viableinstitutions qualifying for accreditation.

The Proliferation of Private Institutions

Eleven private universities and colleges have been registered by the Commission forHigher Education. The number of students attending private institutions in 1990-91 (See Table 3below) represents a very small proportion (5%) of university enrollments which in 1990-91 increasedto more than 40,000 students (World Bank, personal communication, 1991).

The majority of institutions have enrollments of less than one hundred students. Thelargest private institution, the Seventh-Day Adventist University of Eastern Africa at Baraton inwestem Kenya, had an enrollment of less than six hundred students. The United States InternationalUniversity College is the only secular institution. Established in 1970, it has graduated more thanfive hundred students (Kigotho 1990).

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Table 2

Enollment in Kenyan Private Unieritie and Cofaegu 19909

nlstitution Diploma Undergraduate Postgauate Toal

L Univ. of 564 564Eastern Africa

2. Catholic 23 13 36Higher Instituteof Eastern Africa

3. Daystar Univ. College 458 20 478

4. US Int'l Univ. College 358 69 427

5. Pan African Christian Coll. 77 77

6. St. Paul's 12 81 93TheologicalCollege

7. East Africa 50 50School ofTheology

8. Nairobi 53 53EvangelicalGrad. Schoolof Theology

9. Nairobi 47 91 138Int'l Schoolof Theology

10. Kenyan 65 24 89Highlands BibleCollege

11. Scott 69 69TheologicalCollege

Total 124 1,704 246 2,074

Source: Republic of Kenya, Commission for Higher Education

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Nearly all of the other institutions were founded in the 1980s by Christian religiousgroups. The Seventh-Day Adventists and the Catholic Church continued to operate some schoolsafter independence and this facilitated their entry into higher education by providing experience, amechanism for financing the establishment of colleges, a large pool of secondary school graduatesfrom which to recruit students and a reputation for providing high quality education.

In addition to the eleven institutions listed in Table 2, two others are nearingregistration and may admit students this year---African Nazarene College and Kenya MethodistUniversity. Two more private universities are being established. Supporters of PresbyterianPastoral University have acquired a one hundred acre site between Nairobi and Nakuru. They haveraised KSh. 30,000,000. for purchase of land and are selling "membership certificates" forconstruction of residential and instructional facilities through the presbyteries (Anon 1990). Awomens' university is also proposed. Land has been donated by the Murang'a district council in theCentral Province and an appeal has been made to foreign donors for support (Karega 1990).

Attention is given below to the importance of affiliation for the establishment ofprivate institutions, their regional missions, fees and financing, programs of study and, especially, tothe "character building" functions that set them apart from Kenya's public universities and colleges.

Affiliation and Accreditation

The University of Eastern Africa-Baraton and three oldest private institutions---Daystar International University College, the Catholic Higher Institute of Eastern Africa and theUnited States International University College---began as affiliated colleges. Permission from thegovernment to offer degree programs was obtained with the stipulation that these institutions andtheir programs be accredited by and usually affiliated to recognized foreign ir..titutions. Affiliationwas the mechanism through which public higher education was developed throughout the colonialand much of the independence period. The difference is that the affiliating universities are neitherBritish nor African. Nor are they as well known in the world of higher learning as the universitiesof London and East Africa or the University of Nairobi.

In 1985, the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton was affiliated to Andrews Universitywhich accredited the institution, collaborated in developing courses and programs, monitoredadmissions and inspected instruction, provided expatriate staff and support for staff development aswell as awarded its degrees. Andrews University affiliates eleven overseas institutions in LatinAmerica and the Caribbcan, Africa, Asia and even in Britain and Australia. It is, in turn, accreditedby the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools which periodically evaluates its on campusand overseas programs to ensure they are closely related to the University's mission, that theaffiliating arrangement is effective and mutually beneficial, and that the overseas programs are

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comparable to those offercd in the United States (Jcnscn, Wadlow and Carroll 1989). TheUniversity of Eastern Africa-Baraton now grants its own dcgrees.

Daystar Intcrnational University College is affiliated to Wheaton College in Illinoisfor postgraduate studies in Christian ministries and communication and to Messiah College inPcnnsylvania for undergraduate programs in theology, business administration and education. TheCatholic Higher Institute of Eastern Africa, was cstablished with the approval of the SacredCongregation for Catholic Education for its postgraduate course in theology (Mwangi 1990).

Affiliation with foreign universities has not always been beneficial. The relationshipbetweer United States International University of San Diego, California and its Kenyan affiliate hasgenerated much controversy. The American parent institution has been reluctant to grant autonomyto the university college which generates significant tuition from enrollment in undergraduateprograms in commerce and applied social sciences.

New colleges have not been required to affiliate with foreign institutions. TheCommission for Higher Education is able to perform many of the functions of affiliating institutions.In this respect as well, the development of private higher education is following that of the publicuniversity system which severed affiliating relationships with external institutions in 1970 but hasmaintained affiliation as a modus of university development.

Regionalism

At least six of the private institutions have aspirations of becoming universities servingregional educational needs. Several already do so. For example, in 1990-91, Daystar InternationalUniversity College enrolled students from more than seventeen African countries and even a smallnumber from the United States. More than a third (39%) of its undergraduate students wereforeign. In 1989, a fourth (26%) of the students at the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton werefrom other African countries, mostly from Ethopia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Uganda (Jensen,Wadlow, Carroll 1989, 20 & 21). The Catholic Higher Institute of Eastern Africa enrolls studentsfrom seven countries, and intends to develop into an affiliating university for Catholic institutionsthroughout Eastern and Southern Africa. Its governing board includes members from Ethopia,Malawi, the Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The United States International UniversityCollege is the most cosmopolitan institution. In 1990, it enrolled students from forty two countries.Only 55% of its students were Kenyan (Kigotho 19).

Regionalism in higher education has a long and unhappy history in East Africa(Eisemon, Davis and Rathgeber 1985). Nevertheless, regionalism in private higher education maysucceed where inter-governmental co-operation has failed for at least two reasons. First, in contrastto the University of East Africa which dissolved in 1970, the regional status of several of Kenya's

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private institutions enjoys government acceptance. Kcnya's public university system created to satisfynational manpower requirements has expandcd sufficiently to allow private institutions to developa broader role.

Second, regionalism is a financial necessity and not just a preferred role for privateinstitutions. Private universities and colleges are expensive to establish and operate in Africa for thesame reasons that public higher education is costly and for others that havc to do with thedistinctiveness of these institutions. In many Asian and Latin American countries, private institutionscan offer low cost higher education because of urbanization, the availability of rental facilities foruse for instructional purposes, private housing markets, dnd a large pool of university graduates andpoorly paid academic staff in public universities. In Kenya and most African countries, privateinstitutions must compee with public institutions by offering comparable facilities and betterinstruction and prospects for cmployment. There may be excess demand for higher education butthere are severe constraints as to how it can be supplied. In brief, to raise the funds needed toconstruct residential and instructional facilities, pay local staff, acquire expatriate staff and supportstudents or to attract students who can pay fees, private institutions often require a regional resourcebase.

This has occasionally exposed them to political criticism. For instance, DaystarInternational University College was accused in 1990 of receiving foreign funds "to de-stabilize theGovernment (Njoroge 1990)." A high ranking official of the ruling party representing the Muslimcommunity of coastal Kenya alleged that the institut; )n was receiving foreign funds to convertMuslims. These accusations were found to be baseless and the controversy subsided. Nonetheless,the incident indicates the vulnerability of institutions with regional mandates and foreign affiliationsto the concerns of those communities which have so far not taken advantage of the opportunity toestablish private institutions. Perhaps for that reason, most of the newly established and proposedcolleges are local initiatives with local financing.

Fees

The fees to be charged by the major private institutions in 1991-92 range from aboutKSh. 40,000.($1,600.) to KSh. 100,000. ($4,000.) per year, with many institutions requiring about Ksh.70,000. ($2,800). The fees charged by some institutions seem to have little relationship to the costsof instruction either because of large institutional subsidies that help to reduce student costs orbecause fees have been set on an ability to pay principle.

For instance, the United States International University College is the most expensiveinstitution to attend though it rents some instructional and residential facilities, employs mainly part-time staff, and offers instruction in low cost courses of study such as arts and commerce. Tuitionalone (Ksh. 56,000. or $2,240.) exceeds the total student fees of any other institution. The poor

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facilities of this institution---it occupies a former hotel---have been the object of student complaintsand a concern to the Commission for Higher Education. One of its members reportedly comparedits premises to those used by iua kali (informal sector) artisans (Kigotho 1991).

The Catholic Higher Institute of Eastern Africa charges Ksh. 40,000. ($1,600.) whichincludes tuition and accommodation and it offers high cost postgraduate studies. The actual cost ofeducating a student at this institution is estimated to be Ksh. 150,000. ($6,000.) per year. Studentfees cover less than a third of the cost.

Daystar International University College is perhaps a more typical institution. It willbe charging Ksh. 71,000. ($2,800.) in 1991 for tuition and accommodation and other fees:

Ksh. 30,000.: tuition30,000.: accommodation8,000.: books2,400.: insurance

600.: activity feeKsh. 71,000.: Total

This is a major increase from the fees charged this academic year; tuition was raisedby 33%, accommodation by 67% and books by 33%. Student fees are estimated to cover about 80%of recurrent costs; 100% if all students paid the fees assessed at the time of registration. Thirtystudents received financial assistance in 1990-91 amounting to about 10% of tuition for which theyhad to work four hours a week doing secretarial and clerical work. Students also participate ininstitutional fund raising. For example, in August 1990, students cycled the 600 kilometers fromNairobi to Mombasa in order to raise KSh. 500,000. to construct new facilities at the college(Njoroge 1990).

Total fees for a four year program would be about Ksh. 284,000. ($11,360.) at presentprices. That is a considerable sum in a country with a per capita income of less than four hundreddollars ($370. in 1988). But it is comparable to the costs of university training in, say, India wheremany self-sponsored Kenyan students undertake their studies (Republic of Kenya 1981, 15), and wellbelow the costs of attending North American and European universities. Indeed, the presidentrecently commented that "if the public took full advantage of higher educational opportunities in thecountry, which were easily affordable, parents would be less burdened and substantial foreignexchange saved (Anon 1991)."

There are upper limits on what Kenyan and other East African students are willingand able to pay for higher education. These are being explored by United States InternationalUniversity College. However, for most private institutions, this would be inconsistent with their

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mission to provide high quality Christian higher education at the lowest cost to members of theirreligious community.

How can students and their families afford a private education? Some receivescholarships covering most of the cost of tuition and accommodation from the religious groups thatoperate the institutions or from charitable and civic organizations, local and foreign; fifty studensat Daystar International University College were sponsored in 1990-91. Students at the Universityof Eastem Africa-Baraton participate in a compulsory work-study program. The income they receiveis applied against their fees which reduces the amount to be paid by about 10%. The balance is stillsubstantial.

Yet more than seven hundred students applied for two hundred places in 1989.Seventh-Day Adventists are neither a prosperous nor a poor community in Kenya. They areconcentrated principally in western Kenya in Kisii and Kericho districts, and most are small landholders with few livestock Many grow coffee and tea which is a significant source of cash income.The Seventh-Day Adventists, especially the Kisii, have traditionally invested heavily in their children'seducation. This is reflected in Kisii's high school participation rate and average level of educationalattainment as well as in the large number of secondary schools that were established with communityfinancing (Eisemon 1988, 2).

As elsewhere in Kenya, Kisii parents who can not afford to educate their childrenraise funds primarily from other members of their kin group through public pledging or "Harambees"(Lets pull together in Kiswahili). At a recent Harambee in Tabaka, a Seventh-Day Adventistcommunity in Kisui district many of whose members are soapstone carvers, Ksh. 36,000. ($1,440.) wasraised from more than thirty families to send a student to the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton.About half (Ksh. 16,000. $640.) was contnbuted by the student's parents. This method of educationalfinancing strengthens social relationships and creates many obligations. The student, once graduatedand gainfully employed, will be expected to assist relatives in securing employment and become apatron to members of the community.

For this reason, it is very difficult to speculate about the "equity" of private financingof higher education or, for that matter, to regard the costs borne as an investment made inanticipation of a private rate of return. Conventional equity and rate of return analyses poorlydescnrbe how schooling is actually financed in Africa and over-simplify its distributive and re-distributive effects. In the example given above, the inegalitarian effects of ability to pay principlesof private higher education are moderated by community sharing of costs and potential rewards.

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Institutional Financing

For the majority of private institutions, five factors influence the amount of studentfees they have to charge: (1) the location and size of the land they occupy; (2) the proportion ofresidential students; (3) the level of student enrollment; (4) the mix of local and expatriate staftf %nd(5) the number and kinds of programs they offer.

Locating in an urban or peri-urban area enables enrollment of day students andprovides access to part-time academic staff. At Daystar International University College, residentialfacilities can accommodate only 20% of the students and the institution employs ten to fifteen part-time staff compared to twenty-five full time staff This undoubtedly enables the institution to controlsome important costs such as staff salaries and student and staff housing.

However, the advantages of an urban or peri-urban location are off-set by thelimitations of an urban environment. Because students can not be placed in residence halls andmade subject to strict supervision, private institutions can not provide a complete Christian educationthat is regarded as essential to their personal development. Nor can they easily insist that their part-time staff participate in student life at the institution, including sharing responsibility for the guidanceof students. Moreover, urban campuses restrict the income generating potential of the institutionsin ways that do not support either their finances or their educational missions.

This has prompted Daystar International University College to acquire a threehundred acre site at Athi river outside Nairobi where it will construct residential and instructionalfacilities as well as operate a farm. Likewise, the Catholic Higher Institute of Eastern Africa,located at Langata near Nairobi on sixty acres of land in a flood plain zone, has purchased landoutside the municipal corporation in Limuru. It will have a vegetable garden and an orchard toreduce catering costs and possibly generate some income for the institution. The United StatesInternational University, located in Westlands near the city center, plans to acquire land in suburbanKassarani.

The private institutions have not received government assistance to construct facilitiesnor do their students qualify for participation in its student loan scheme. Land grants are the onlydirect or indirect government subsidy which any of the private institutions have received. TheUniversity of Eastern Africa-Baraton received a parcel of land of more than three hundred acresfrom the government of Kenya in 1978 to construct instructional and residential facilities and operatea farm at the site of the Baraton Animal Husbandry Research Station. The Univeasity providesaccommodation for almost all of its staff and students, health services and recreational facilities. Inother words, it is a self-contained university on the model of the "high cost" public higher educationalinstitutions established in Africa during de-colonization and the first years of independence. Whatmakes it very different, however, is that unlike many self-contained public universities situated onlarge sites, it generates income to support the operation of the institution from the land it occupies.

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The University of Eastern Africa-Baraton has a successful fa.m and manages a profitable farmmachinery repair facility used by the local community. Another difference is that university studentsare employed to support these activities as part of their studies.

The proportion of students in residence and level of enrollment affects fees in areciprocal fashion, at least in private religious institutions. Lack of residential facilities limitsenrollments which increases unit costs and, thus, charges for tuition and accommodation.Construction of such facilities must be financed for many years mainly from community and foreigncontnbutions as the costs are recovered very slowly through student fees. This accounts for the lowenrollments and slow growth of many of the private institutions. The University of Eastern Africa-Baraton began instruction in 1980 and as recently as 1989 had only 359 students (Jensen, Wadlowand Carroll 1989, 20). When a critical institutional size has been reached, collection of student feespermits expansion of accommodation to sustain growth.

Construction of residential facilities, it may be argued, should be a low priority of newinstitutions because of the associated costs. A secular institution like United States InternationalUniversity College does not necessarily require them. Its total enrollment has increased to nearlyfive hundred students, many of * om commute to the college from their homes in NairobiNevertheless, a religious institutio, obliged to offer student accommodation if it wishes to be adifferent kind of institution serving an international student community and providing educationalopportunities to rural youth whose families expect that their needs will be looked after by theinstitutions they attend. That increases the cost to these families but it is an integral part of theeducational "package" they purchase. One way to reduce the burden of providing accommodationand catering facilities is to interest the private sector in constructing and managing these facilities.This is being investigated by Daystar International University College in connection with developmentof its second campus.

Private colleges and universities are being established at a time of unprecedentedexpansion of public higher education in Kenya that has been accompanied by a critical shortage ofacademic staff For instance, at Moi University near the Univer3ity of Eastem Africa-Baraton, morethan half of senior staff positions were vacant in 1987 (King 1989). The newer public universitiesand university colleges often recruit staff from older institutions with offers of promotion and betteramenities such as staff housing and health services. This inflates staff costs for all universities andcolleges, public and private.

To meet their staff requirements, private institutions must offer salaries and amenitiesthat are not greatly out of line with those in the public sector as well as superior conditions ofemployment. In addition, because of the extreme staff shortage, they must employ expatriates andfinance the postgraduate studies of local staff who will eventually replace them.

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The salari2s offered by some private institutions are not as unfavorable as might beexpected in these circumstances. A professor at the University of Fastern-Africa may earn up toKsh. 9,200./mo.($368.) versus about Ksh. 17,000. ($680.) at a public university. However, 90% of theincome tax paid is rebated by the institution which amounts to 50% of gross income. That narrowsthe differential between public and private university salaries considerably. Staff also receive agenerous benefit package including subsidized staff housing (7% of gross salary) and a smallprofessional travel allowance (Ksh. 1,188. per year). And staff at the University have normalvacation periods and sabbatic leaves which have been significantly reduced in the public universitiesand colleges.

While teaching loads are no lower than those in public universities and colleges---usually four courses per academic term, teaching conditions in private institutions are usually muchbetter especially in fields like education that account for a high proportion of undergraduateenrollments in both Public and private institutions. Class sizes are kept at about thirty at DaystarInternational University College. At Kenyatta University from which Daystar recruits part-timelecturers, many large classes are held in lecture halls that can accommodate only half of the students.

Nevertheless, despite the attractiveness of teacking in private institutions, there arenot enough qualified Kenyan staff for either the public or the private university system. Most privateinstitutions rely on expatriate staff to different degrees; nearly half of Daystar's teaching staff areexpatriates and more than two-thirds of the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton's staff. Expatriatestaff are paid at local rates at these institutions. North American expatriate salaries at the Universityof Eastern Africa-Baraton are supplemented by the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists.A proportion (25%) of local salaries is paid into overseas bank accounts. This is at no cost to theUniversity, although it is a source of conflict between expatriate and local staff. All Seventh-DayAdventist staff are expected to tithe 10% of their salaries to the church, a portion of which isreturned to the institution. At the Catholic Higher Institute of Eastern Africa, most teaching staffare members of religious orders whose members take a vow of poverty and live together incommunal residences.

The professional qualifications of the expatriate and local staff employed by privateinstitutions varies enormously. Most institutions employ staff with Master's degrees. For example,only six of Daystar's thirty full time academic staff in 1990 had doctoral degrees. At the Universityof Eastern-Africa, about half (44%) of the forty three academic staff had doctoral degrees. But atthe. Catholic Higher Institute of Eastern Africa which offers postgraduate programs, twenty of itstwenty one full time and part-time staff that year had doctorates. The qualifications of its academicstaff in philosophy and religious studies compare favorably to analogous departments at theUniversity of Nairobi.

Kenyan staff usually have much lower qualifications. Consequently, staff developmentis a concern to the institutions and to the Commission for Higher Education as well. Because of the

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reduced capacity of public universities to support postgraduate programs, most staff must be sentoverseas for advanced training. The Seventh-Day Adventists and the Catholic Church maintain sameinstitutions like Andrews University that serve as centers for staff development for their world-widenetwork of colleges and universities.

Daystar International Universit y College is not so fortunate in its affiliations. Yet in1990 it was able to send one of its staff overseas on study leave to complete a Ph.D. The Universityof Eastern Africa-Baraton had two staff on study leave that year. rhe Commission on HigherEducation has required it to give more attention to staff development as a condition of charteringand will re-assess the progress made in 1993. While increasing the number of well-qualified Kenyanstaff is a laudable objective, there are many dis-incentives to accelerating the pace of localization andstaff development in private institutions when a pool of qualified expatriate staff are available at lowcost----and comparably qualified Kenyans are currently in great demand in the public universitysystem.

The mixture of programs offered by private institutions is the most importantdeterminant of unit costs though, as noted previously, it is not necessarily directly related to studentfees. The four private institutions offer disparate programs (See Table 4). Courses in emucation andbusiness administration and management are given at all institutions. This mirrors patterns ofstudent demand and policies affecting studer.t intake in the public universities and colleges. Sincethe late 1980s, competition for entry into commerce courses in public institutions has been keen.Meanwhile, education has become the most important field of intake into public institutions due tothe expansion of secondary education, assumption of government responsibility for communityfinanced secondary schools and the resulting critical teacher shortage.

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Table 3Undergraduate Major and Poduate Pograms of Four Private Itdtutons, 1990-91

U. of E. Africa- Daystar Christian Higher US Int'lBaraton Institute of E.A. U. Coil.

Under-graduateArts Bible & Education BusinessScience Theology & Social EducationTechnology Business Ethics PoliticalBusiness Commun- Science andEducation ication Int'l Rel.Nursing HumanitiesAgriculture Soc.&

NaturalScienceEducation

Post-graduatePastoral Theology BusinessStudies Management

Commun- Counsellingication Psychology

Source: University calendars, 1990-91, 1991-92

However, the education and business programs of the private institutions are quitedifferent from those of the public universities and colleges. The United States InternationalUniversity College, for example, offers a concentration in school guidance counselling at both theundergraduate and postgraduate levels, a field which was largely neglected at Kenyatta Universityuntil very recently. The education programs of the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton, DaystarInternational University College and the Catholic Higher Institute of Eastern Africa are oriented tosupplying teachers for religious schools. The business administration programs of the two religiousinstitutions strongly emphasize "application of the principles of Christian ethics to the world ofbusiness (Daystar 1989, 65)." At the University of Eastem Africa-Baraton, courses in Christianreligious beliefs, ethics and Christian "witnessing" are compulsory for students majoring in business(University of Eastern Africa 1989, 31).

The private institutions also offer other programs that have very different foci fromthose at the public universities and colleges. For example, the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton'sprogram in agriculture "prepares students to be successful Christian agriculturalists, who, by theirlives, their words and their work will be agricultural missionaries (University of Eastern Africa 1989,

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32)." But what also distinguishes this program from the undergraduate programs of Egerton

University and Jomo Kenyatta University College of Agriculture and Technology is the substantialcompulsory coursework in small business operations and management.

The Bachelor in Industrial Technology at the University of Eastern Africa-Baratonwas established to train teachers of technical subjects for secondawy schools. Government techtical

teacher training colleges, polytechnics and university colleges have i)rograms that are similar in scope.

The difference is that students at the University of Eastern-Africa must demonstrate technical

competence through compulsory practical work in campus enterprises. This is required of students

in agricultuire as well.

Daystar Internatioaial University College offers studies in communications as does the

University of Nairobi. At Daystar, more training is offered in non-print communication media and

there are courses in traditional African communication methods, writing for new literates and yo.uth

as well as in media law and ethics.

Private institutions construct programs to subsidize high cost studies in fields like

agriculture and industrial technology with enrollment in low cost programs in education and the

humanities. Private institutions can not persist in offering only high cost programs. The Catholic

Higher Institute for Eastern Africa which began by offering only high cost postgraduate programs

in theology to a very small number of students has established an undergraduate program in

education in 1991 with an enrollment of twenty-two students which is projected to increase to about

three hundred students if residential facilities can be constructed.

Character Building

It is the character building functions of many of the private institutions that most set

them apart from public universities and colleges. The Christian colleges and universities were

created to become agencies for personal and social development according to the beliefs of their

sponsoring faiths. This requires them not only to infuse higher education with Christian teaching,

but to guide all aspects of thei,- students' lives, to be exemplars of Christian societies and to provide

practical demonstrations of tneir concerns for the social, material and spiritual welfare of the

communities they were established to serve.

In contrast, the aims of public secular higher education are primarily vocational.

"We," Kenya's first president Jomo Kenyatta declared shortly after independence, "attach great

importance to higher education for that is how we get our high level manpower requirements (East

African Governmnents 1967, 9)." Kenyatta's pronouncement shows continuity with the philosophy

which guided the development of higher education in the colonial period as well as awareness of the

prevailing development theory of the time which held that; "if a country is unable to develop its

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human resources, it cannot develop much else, whether it be a modem political and social structure,a sense of national unity or higher standards of material welfare (Harbison and Myers 1964, 13.)."

As countries assumed responsibility for their own universities, political ideologiesplaced importance on the "relevance" of African higher education and their pivotal role in fosteringnational integration and embodying the material aspirations of the new states. Staff and graduatesbecame viewed as a modernizing elite, and university students treated as an incipient elite (Van denBerghe 1974). The character building functions of public higher education emphasized training foreventw'al membership in an acculturated class of individuals "displaying patterns of economic behaviornot uniike those of the governing classes in feudal, preindustrial Europe (Diouf 1990)." This wasreinforced by generous subsidies for university studies and allowances which generate expectationsof political influence, employment and exercise of privilege.

Students enrolled in private religious institutions pay for the privilege of attendingthem. There, they receive training for a life of service. Each institution expresses its philosophy ofhigher education differently. There are certain commonalities, however. All emphasize developinga sense of social responsibility as central to the education they provide. The Catholic HigherInstitute of Eastern Africa "seeks on an academic level, to liberate and to transform the integral lifeof the peoples of Eastern Africa...and to be an invaluable resource for the training of lay leaderscapable of taking a prominent place in cultural and public life (Catholic Higher Institute of EastemAfrica 1989, 31-32)." The University of Eastern Africa-Baraton "has the special function of liftingthe vision of society by challenging and motivating its students to develop to the highest possibledegree...developing educated citizens who can serve the needs of the community (University ofEastern Africa-Baraton 1989, 9)." Daystar "promises a sound and viable alternative to secularuniversity education...(graduates) are expected to play both leadership and service roles in the churchand society with integrity, honesty and commitment (Daystar 1989,3)."

Codes of student conduct are similar to those at American religious colleges beforecourts held that these institutions did not have the same legal responsibilities as parents whichprompted many of them to liberalize restrictions on student behavior following trends in large secularpublic universities. Using alcohol, tobacco, drugs, gambling, profane language and indulgence inimmoral sexual behavior is prohibited at private religious institutions in Kenya. Students are heldresponsible for their conduct on and off campus. Outside the campuses of some public universitiesin Kenya and other African countries, the informal sector provides prostitutes, beer halls, discos andother amusements typically found near military bases. At the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton,frequenting "places of ariiusement not approved by the University" is prohibited.

The codes of student conduct of the private religious institutions connect moral tointellectual growth and both to the humility fostered by performing manual labor in the service ofthe institution and community, preferably an activity related to the student's area of study. Thisapplies to all students irrespective of their financial status at the institutions.

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The religious colleges generally admit students of the denomination sponsoring theinstitution, frequently graduates of the secondary schools they operate, who must meet normalentrance requirements and provide evidence of good behavior. At the Catholic Higher Institute ofEastern Africa, students are admitted on the recommendation of a bishop or religious superior(Mwangi 1990). Institutions which offer secular and religious programs of study and seekaccreditation are obliged to admit students of other faiths. The University of Eastern Africa-Baraton, for instance, has many non-Seventh-Day Adventist students; 24% in 1989 (Jensen, Wadlowand Carroll 1989, 22). They are expected to conform to the University's code of conduct and torespect such practices if Seventh-Day Adventists as observance of the Sabbath between sundownFriday and sundown Saturday by suspending all normal work activities.

The religious institutions are particularly strict where student involvement in academicaffairs is concerned. At Daystar "boycotts, strikes, riots, or any form of mass protests or unrulybehavior are not permitted in the College. Any student who will not conform to this code shall besubject to disciplinary action which may result in suspension or dismissal (Daystar 1989, 15)."Student organizations are not allowed at the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton.

These measures are designed to ensure that private institutions do not experience thestudent turmoil which has plagued Kenya's public universities and colleges for many years. Theprivate institutions are not free of student turmoil, however.

In Spring 1990, students at the University of Eastern Africa-Baraton staged a strikeon behalf of eleven lecturers who were released by the institution (Matoke 1990). The studentsdemanded that the lecturers be reappointed and that the University's principal, a Black American,resign on the grounds that he had racially insulted Kenyans. The University was closed and studentssent home. Those wishing to be reinstated had to complete a questionnaire eliciting informationabout their involvement in the student protest and appear before University authorities accompaniedby their parents, guardian or sponsor. Several students were expelled.

So far, the events follow a familiar pattem. Students protest and instruction issuspended. Disciplinary action is taken against some students.

The University remained closed for several months. Local ruling party politicianscalled for the re-opening of the University, re-instatement of the expelled students, permission toestablish student organizations, increased representation of Kenyans on the University's governingboard which is dominated by North Anerican Adventists, and resignation of the Principal (Munene1990).

What followed is remarkable in the history of university student protest in Kenya andmany other African countries. The Principal retained his position. Students who were expelled werenot reinstated nor were the lecturers who had been released.

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Th%.e "egg ball (meat balls cooked in egg batter)" riot in the dining halls at theUniversity of Nairobi in late 1989 is a more typical illustration of university student unrest (Eisemonand Davis 1991). Students claimed that funds allocated for their boarding were being misused byoperators of the University's catering facilities. Protesting students entered the streets adjacent tothe University where cars were stoned prompting response from the police and threatening closureof the University. The University's Vice-Chancellor, anxious to avoid escalation of the controversy,acted on the students' complaints. He personally supervised preparation of the students' "egg balls,"cooking several himself Yet the students continued to riot prompting him to close the University.No disciplinary actions were taken and additional funds were provided to the caterers to improvefood service.

The two incidents are not recounted to show the virtues of intransigence. Instead,they demonstrate fundamental differences between the public and the private institutions not onlyin their handling of student protest, but in the importance they attach to the character-buildingfunctions of higher education. The precipitating event at the University of Eastern Africa-Baratonwas the dismissal of lecturers---mostly Kenyan and some non Seventh-Day Adventists---who did notsatisfy the University's expectations of what a good teacher should be. The administration'sjudgement was disputed by students, the majority it seems, who felt that they should have someinfluence in such decisions. The students did not riot over an issue of privilege. Nevertheless, theUniversity administrators and trustees had little choice but to assert control in ways intended toprevent challenges to their authority in matters they perceived as affecting the quality of theinstitution.

Kenya's president has spoken of the "high quality" of higher education available at theprivate institutions and cabinet ministers and permanent secretaries have defended their standards(Anon 1991; Kigotho 1990; Njoroge 1990). There have been complaints reported in the nationalpress about instructional conditions in some institutions (Kigotho 1990) but no allegations that poorlyqualified students are being admitted or .hat academic requirements at any of the major privateinstitutions are inferior to those in the public universities. The Commission for Higher Educationhas given close scrutiny to these institutions. Its inspectors have recommended changes in curricula,increased attention to staff development and better academic and financial planning. Nevertheless,the Commission has been satisfied with the progress of most of the private colleges and universities.

The number of private institutions and their enrollment continues to expandsuggesting that they are not only accommodating social demand for higher education, but providinggood employment opportunities. The programs of many institutions, of course, are oriented to thepastoral, educational, health and social services operated by the religious communities that supportthem. Administrators of several of the institutions providing secular training indicate that theirstudents are readily employed and are sometimes preferred to graduates of the public universitiesin fields like education. They attribute this to the quality of the training students receive---smaller

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classes, more attention to the student's performance, practical experience---and to the importanceplaced on character building.

CONCLUSION

Africa's higher education crisis has prompted the growth of private institutions. Thisis a radical and, for some governments, a troubling departure from traditions of state monopoly ofhigher education in the independence period.

Most private institutions have been established by religious or community groups withmuch experience in operating educational institutions, and access to students and financial resources.In Kenya and Zaire which have the largest number of private institutions and a tradition of private

financing of primary and secondary education, the rapid growth of public education in the 1980sstrained the limited resources of the public sector, creating opportunities for private education. Forgovernments in these countries, a private higher education sector has been allowed to develop to

accommodate some of the social demand for higher education which the public sector is unable tosatisfy.

African governments have been reluctant to concede complete responsibility forproviding higher education despite what might appear to be favorable circumstances for thedevelopment of private institutions. Nigeria which permits establishment of private colleges anduniversities, closed the institutions and expropriated their facilities. Zimbabwe has enactedlegislation allowing establishment of private institutions whose implementation will result in theclosure of its only independent private institution. In Zaire, private higher education still has nolegal status. In many countries, there are no procedures for institutional accreditation and eventualautonomy.

The slow development of private higher education in Africa must be understood in

relation to the association of private initiatives with educational, social and racial inequality in thecolonial period. Few African governments are inclined to welcome what many perceive as re-establishment of conditions which public sector educational expansion in the independence periodwas intended to correct. Development of private higher education in Africa will require sensitivityto this concern. Kenya's policy of promoting geographical dispersion of private institutions andbroad religious and community participation in their establishment and financing, has been crucialto its success with private higher education.

Many private colleges and universities, secular and religious, have been establishedwith affiliation to foreign universities. There are important benefits that accrue from these affiliating

relationships; assistance in program and staff development, access to funding and recognition of

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degrees, for example. In Kenya, the Commission for Higher Education has encouraged suchinstitutions to become autonomous when they have reached a critical size. Since 1985, it hasdeveloped the capacity to provide the academic guidance and management support the newlyestablished institutions require, and to inspect their programs of study for purposes of registrationand recognition of their degrees. In Zimbabwe, some privately managed, government funded andadministered teacher training institutions are affiliated to the national university which monitors theirprograms and awards certificates on their behalf Nevertheless, government higher education co-ordinating authorities and public universities can not supplant the role of foreign institutions indeveloping private higher education in Africa.

One consequence of these affiliating relationships with foreign institutions is that manyprivate colleges and universities have regional missions, cosmopolitan student bodies and staff, andmulti-national structures of governance. That is a distinctive feature of private higher education andit serves to insulate them from the kind of political interference that has weakened public universitysystems. That is also a reason why governments like Zimbabwe's regard foreign affiliatingrelationships with such suspicion.

Private higher education in Africa is expensive to provide and costly to attend. Whileit may cost less to educate students at private institutions than at public institutions, the coststructure is similar. Most private institutions are residential. Local salaries must be competitive withthose offered by public institutions to attract and retain academic and administrative staff.

Moreover, while private institutions enroll students who are usually unable to obtainaccess to fully subsidized public higher education, students who can afford private higher educationdo not necessarily lack educational choices. Private higher education in a country like Kenyacompetes with high cost public and private education in North America and Europe and with lowcost public education in developing countries like India.

Private institutions have stronger incentives to offer quality education than to reduceinstructional costs. There is, of c3urse, great variability in student tuition and other fees and, thus,increasing choice in the private higher education sector. Charges at the least expensive majorKenyan private institution, for instance, are less than half those at the most expensive institution.Instructional fees typically reflect institutional characteristics.

Small enrollments and the need to raise funds for construction of residential facilitiesto increase enrollments are among the most important factors determining student costs. Manyprivate institutions are caught in a dilemma. They can not achieve significant efficiencies by reducinginstructional costs without damage to the quality of their programs, and they are reluctant to raisetuition and accommodation charges because of the distorting effects on student recruitment.

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Independent private higher education in most African countries is not state supported.There may be a wiliingness on the part of some governments to provide such support. But thiswould probably be resisted by many private groups, especially those with previous experience of

government participation in financing private primary and secondary education, unless the assistanceprovided did not confer government control of their affairs.

Support to students, assistance for staff development and funding to constructresidential facilities would facilitate the growth of private institutions. The fees charged are highrelative to incomes and few private institutions can afford to provide significant financial assistanceto poor students or to exercise much patience in collecting delinquent fees. Student support isneeded if access to private higher education is not to be restricted by wealth. In a country like

Kenya, eligibility for student loans might be expanded to include students attending privateinstitutions if the government can make this scheme self-financing, the support provided is based onfinancial need and academic performance, and the piivate institutions have some influence over theadministration of these funds.

Private institutions have difficulties in financing staff development which necessarilyinvolves expensive foreign training because of the collapse of postgraduate training in many Africanpublic universities. Staff employed by private institutions usually do not have access to governmentfunds for overseas training, including funding provided by foreign donors. A change in policies

affecting foreign training might assist the private institutions to localize staff and upgrade theirprograms.

Raising funds for construction of residential facilities from tuition and local

philanthropy is a critical constraint to the growth of private institutions, especially those withoutforeign affiliations. Governments could provide low interest loans or matching grants to assist them.

African governments that have allowed establishment of private institutions have beenpersuaded of its benefits for deflecting demand for higher education away from public universities

and coileges that are under great financial pressure, and saving some foreign exchange. However,private higher education does not account for a significant proportion of university enrollments evenin Kenya which has the largest number of students in private institutions. Nor is that likely to

happen in the near future. As long as public higher education in poor countries is provided at lowor no cost and private higher education is entirely self-supporting, the private sector will have a

periph c-al role.

Yet private higher education in African countries can help to accommodate some of

the social demand for higher education and to diversify university systems and, thus, merits

encouragement by governments.

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