Conference on Cost Sharing in Africa Volume 5, Issue 1 - Spring 2002 Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania will be the site of an invitational regional conference on cost sharing in Africa funded by the Ford Foundation and jointly organized by the International Comparative Higher Education Finance and Accessibility Project of the State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of Dar Es Salaam. The three day conference (March 25 – 27th), entitled “Financing Higher Education in Eastern and Southern Africa: Diversifying Revenue and Expanding Accessibility”, will bring together approximately 35 regional experts and practitioners from nine African countries and 15 - 20 international experts and interested donors who will share research and operational experience on higher education finance in eastern and southern Africa. The conference will examine the diversification of revenue by cost sharing, as in the establishment of tuition and the charging of more nearly break-even charges for institutionally- and governmentally-provided student dining and lodging, as well as the encouragement of a more tuition-dependent private sector. The conference will then examine policies for maintaining and expanding higher educational accessibility (even in the in the face of these rising costs to parents and students) through such programs as means tested, or need based grants and student loans. The University of Dar Es Salaam is one of a handful of universities in Africa that is not merely surviving, but is prospering thanks to its own reform efforts and consequent strong donor support. Its successful self-financing efforts undertaken as part of its Institutional Transformation Program and its efforts to increase the participation of women in tertiary education make it a particularly appropriate venue for a conference on revenue diversification and accessibility expansion. A desire to encourage real dialogue and candid interaction have compelled the organizers to keep the numbers low, and by invitation only, and to include only countries that have made a commitment to some form or forms of higher educational revenue diversification by cost-sharing. The same limitations, together with some already established research contacts suggest a concentration in Eastern and Southern Africa. In order to yield diverse stakeholders and still to limit the size of the conference, invitees include vice chancellors or other university leaders, government officials responsible for advising on higher educational policy, students, agencies directly involved in the financing of universities and in the dispensing of financial assistance and loans to students, researchers and scholars of higher education finance, management, and governance, and international and African higher education associations and non-governmental agencies. The formal conference will be followed by a meeting on the third day of about 15 selected participants and the organizers during which specific follow-up activities will be identified. It is hoped that the conference will result in more ongoing dialogue and exchange between countries and contribute to the development of regional approaches to problem solving. Return to the International and Comparative Studies in Education Homepage |
