Models of Higher Education Financing

• In Event: Financing Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia

Proposal

The discussion will complement findings from the literature reviewed about challenges with higher education financing in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. We depart on the basis that insights based only on problematisation are not only incomplete science but also do not empower policymakers and practitioners with actionable strategies to improve enabling conditions to access and education outcomes alike. We improve the challenges with higher education financing contribution in two ways:
First, we compare SSA’s literature review findings to that of South Asia, another global South context characterised by a huge population, young people and higher education finance equity challenges. At the very least, these two South-South contexts are similar in the political economy sense, as evidenced in the BRICS coalition but also actively piloting various experimental models in tertiary education finance.
Second, we will go beyond the literature highlighting challenges in the two developing contexts and share new insights from the literature review in the solution space. This will allow the conversation to be grounded on both the deep understanding of the problem but also pilots, prototypes and projects currently experimenting with new finance models and implementation approaches. We will compare similarities and differences, where applicable, and highlight what policymakers and practitioners can learn from the comparison.

Author

• Yageshree Moodley