Higher Education Expansion in Portuguese-Speaking Countries: The Cases of Angola, Cape Verde, and Portugal

If one considers education and, in particular, higher education as essential to the training of citizens and the development of nations, then higher education institutions (HEI) could be considered the main anchor for social and economic growth and development. In recent decades, higher education has undergone a remarkable expansion, both qualitative and quantitative. Data from UNESCO show that, on a worldwide level, the number of students in higher education has grown from 65 million in 1991 to close to 151 million in 2010. In this context, it is interesting to consider higher education in Portuguese-speaking countries (with a resident population of near 267 million, Portuguese is the fourth most spoken language in the world). This group of countries has experienced fast growth in their higher education systems, albeit at rates which vary according to context and the experience of each country. In this chapter, we aim to present a comparative analysis of three higher education Portuguese-speaking countries (Angola, Cape Verde, and Portugal), providing descriptions of their higher education systems by considering some important indicators (student enrollments, gross enrollment rate, public expenditure on higher education, spending per student in higher education as a percentage of GDP) and looking for key trends and future challenges. We will also introduce the results of three studies carried out in these countries considering the higher educational costs and socioeconomic conditions of students (in the 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 academic years), through the application of a questionnaire (developed from ICHEFAP—International Comparative Higher Education Finance and Accessibility Project) given to a representative sample (public and private, university and polytechnic students), with a special focus on the socioeconomic characterization of students, sources of financing, and the accessibility of the higher education system.