DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE WB/AFD FINANCING OF HIGHER EDUCATION- CMI
Higher Education in the Mediterranean and beyond: how to reach financial sustainability while providing high quality standards? 1. Background In line with the worldwide trend, tertiary education enrollment is growing significantly in the MENA region. In the past 8 years, Gross Enrollment Rates have increased in MENA from 20% to 30%. Most countries have experienced rapid enrollment increases and with the expansion of secondary education and increased number of secondary graduates throughout the region and the population projections, this trend is likely to grow in the coming years. In some countries such as Libya, Lebanon and West Bank and Gaza, GER for higher education are already above 50%. In addition to this rapid expansion, tertiary education systems are seeking to diversify the type of tertiary education available, ranging from University graduate and undergraduate programs, to technical and professional degrees granted by polytechnic institutes, Community Colleges, as well as Open University programs. There is also a wide interest in the region for developing e-learning and distance education tertiary programs, and for many of the countries in the region, the expansion of the provision of private tertiary education is stated as one of their goals for the near future. In this regard, transnational education particularly in the form of importing institutions has been the choice specifically in the Gulf countries. In the Maghreb and Mashriq, many public and private universities are setting up partnerships with foreign institutions with an interest to raise their standards and reputation, therefore introducing new modalities of delivery as well as financing. Although expansion of higher education is a positive move, it is important that it is done with the necessary quality assurance mechanisms, and within a context of economic and social development national agenda. The expansion of the systems throughout the region has implied the need to increase the financial resources, which in most cases has not been done in the most cost efficient way. As in the case of OECD countries, when confronted with the expansion of higher education a few decades ago, MENA countries are now faced with critical dilemmas, such as how to increase resources when fiscal constraints are evident. MENA countries are not alone in this dilemma, OECD countries are as well, and lessons on how these issues have been dealt with for the past two decades are relevant.
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