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How are educators and investors faring in rising Africa?

It wasn’t just the tropical heat that felt familiar to Diom when he first arrived to start a Business degree at Murdoch University in Dubai International Academic City. Despite being the only student from Cameroon on campus he says he fit right in. “I saw a lot of students from different countries so immediately I felt at home,” he beams. “There are a lot of African students here and I’d never heard of Kazakhstan before, but I got to know it!”

Diom was one of the more than 22,000 students from Cameroon, 9% of total tertiary enrolments, who decided to seek education abroad last year. His experience of pursuing an Australian degree in a foreign country is characteristic of the growing role transnational education (TNE) has in answering demand among African students for a quality education.

Traditionally African students pursue postgraduate degrees in applied sciences, engineering or agriculture fields aiming to find a job in the oil & gas industries

In terms of statistics Cameroon fares better than other African countries. Over 11% of university-aged students are enrolled in tertiary education, higher than the Sub-Saharan average of 6% and public ex- penditure for a tertiary student as a percentage of GDP per capita is just 40% while in Ethiopia, Madagas- car and Guinea it’s over 100%.

According to Unesco, high expenditures per capita of GDP on tertiary education suggests that public resources are highly concentrated on relatively few students and are indicative of the current state of education in most countries on the continent: demand is high but enrol- ments remain low due to poor teaching standards, few resources and little industry to employ graduates.

Mobility Patterns

African students accounted for almost 10% of international students in 2010 worldwide according to Campus France, with the ratio of outbound mobile students to domestic students higher than 25% in most countries. Destinations tend to be dictated by historical and linguistic ties and cross-border convenience; France attracted the largest proportion of students in 2010 – 222,390 followed by South Africa, 114,551. The UK and the USA received around 73,000 students each.

Morocco, Nigeria and Algeria are the largest source countries on the continent for France. Open Doors data from 2013 shows that Nigeria was the top African source country for universities in the USA followed by Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Ethiopia and Cameroon.

As a study destination, South Africa is the region’s main education hub with international enrollments growing from 12,000 to over 60,000 from 1994 to 2006. According to the Institute of International Education’s Project Atlas, international students made up 8% of all South African tertiary enrolments in 2009.

In that year, the top five countries of origin of foreign students were Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland but South Africa has also become the top attractor on the continent for students from the US.

Traditionally African students are employment-motivated, which influences their fields of study – most pursue postgraduate degrees in applied sciences, engineering or agriculture fields aiming to find a job in the oil & gas industries.

Driving Demand

As large proportions of populations near the age of tertiary education in most African countries, governments find themselves with a severe supply shortage. Quite simply, the demand for quality higher education cannot be met by local, publicly funded suppliers.
This creates opportunities for in-country tuition and skills development across all levels for foreign providers. Local governments recognise the need to partner with outside operators and are writing policies to make it easier for private providers to establish operations.

Most recently, the government in Kenya replaced its Commission for Higher Education with the Commission for University Education which will be charged with establishing a level regulatory playing field for public and private providers.

Africa’s middle class is expected to grow from 355 million (34% of Africa’s population) to 1.1 billion (42% of the population) in 2060. Consumer spending by the middle classes reached an estimated US$680 billion in 2008 – or nearly a quarter of Africa’s GDP.

There’s no doubt about it: what is developing about Africa at large is its buying power. Some estimates predict that spending will reach $2.2 trillion by 2030, making Africa accountable for 3% of worldwide consumption.

In many countries across sub-Saharan Africa, there is a demand for ESL courses, especially among students preparing to take an English-taught degree course

Huge investments in oil & gas, mineral extraction and agriculture industries have created the need for skilled wor kers. Vocational training opportunities abound in countries like Nigeria, the Ivory Coast, Uganda, Ghana and Ethiopia where funding comes mostly from governments aiming to build infrastructure or private companies looking to upskill their human capital.

Being able to compete in English – accepted now as the global language of business, commerce and international relations – has increased interest in English language teaching, especially in former Francophone and Lusaphone countries such as Rwanda, Gabon, Angola and Mozambique that are all aiming to transition to English as their official language.

“We’re busy not only managing traditional teaching centres for members of the public, but are working increasingly to support national governments making this shift to English, advising them on how to develop their curriculum, train their teachers and integrate ICT into the curriculum,” comments Tony Reilly, the British Council Country Director in Kenya.

And despite English already being the official language in many countries across sub-Saharan Africa, there is a demand for ESL courses, especially among students preparing to take an English-taught degree course.

Tony Crooks is team leader at the government-funded Australian Awards in Africa, which provide access to postgraduate education and professional training for Africans who return to their country after studying in Australia in support of the Millennium Development Goals. He says that in some cases, award winners coming from English-speaking countries aren’t able to meet IELTS minimum scores.

“You get into some quite heated political and post- colonial issues that go beyond the commercial interests of a testing organisation when you discuss the issue,” he comments. “You get into the question of whose standards of English are better. Many students speak a variety of English that is not the variety that is used in the academic circles of the UK and Australia.”

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