Higher Education Funding Frameworks in SADC

Two sets of issues provide the rationale for an exploration of higher education funding frameworks in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). First, in Africa in general and in SADC in particular, the analysis of higher education financing issues is critical to enhancing access and equity. Currently access and equity are unacceptably low. Moreover, access is highly inequitable in terms of gender, location and socio-economic status. Higher education financing policies must act to address this twin challenge of access and equity. A second and related issue concerns the relationship between higher education and development. There needs to be a greater recognition on the part of African policy makers of the growing importance of higher education for development in its broadest terms (that is, economic, environmental and social). Recognition of the increasing importance of higher education in developing countries will lead to greater attention being paid to how higher education can and should be financed.