Developed countries owe their success to higher education, and thus third world countries must emulate this concept to advance themselves. Third world countries have poor education systems that further complicate higher education. Most universities do not have their own income generating projects which leaves them at the mercy of international donors and federal governments (Akkari 34).
The governments put more emphasis on primary and secondary education while ignoring higher education. The governments direct majority of their money towards funding free primary and secondary education. They construct many secondary schools without considering the number of universities that are supposed to absorb those students.
There are few institutions of higher learning that are unevenly distributed in administrative regions. Some provinces do not have their own universities and thus students from such regions have to relocate when they are admitted into the learning institutions.
There have been many instances when the funds meant for higher education projects have been squandered, and since the governments in developing countries are not committed towards ending corruption the donors are discouraged from giving monetary hand outs (Baker and Wiseman 179).
Both teaching and non-teaching staffs are poorly paid and thus learning is regularly halted due to the strikes that are staged by these personnel in their bid to demand for better pay. The lecturers use outdated teaching models but then they are not blame because the governments are supposed to budget for their continuous training programs.
In addition, the learning institutions do not have enough money to construct more structures for the purpose of accommodating many students. In fact, most universities in third world countries have inadequate boarding facilities and the ones that are there are in a sorry state.
This is because they are hardly renovated. Inadequate resources cause the universities to limit the courses that can be studied in their facilities. For instance, only a few universities can offer training in the faculty of medicine and thus such students have to be congested in one or two institutions. This causes the learning institutions to adopt poor university admissions which eventually lead to overcrowded institutions.
The poor remuneration packages that are offered to the lecturers do not motivate them but instead causes them to be engaged in other private institutions that offer better pay (Chapman and Austin 174). This causes a negative impact on the quality of education because the learners cannot contact the educators. The other problem revolves around tuition fees, which tend to be constant. Most universities have tried to hike tuition fees, but contrary to their expectations, the learners have never collaborated.
Furthermore, the learning institutions do not manage their own revenue because they are placed under the ministry of education. The officials from the ministries are given the mandate of allocating budgets to the universities. Many intellectuals have criticized this approach because government ministers do not understand the priorities of universities. This constitutes to poor governance in public universities.
The problem involving funding of higher education can be remedied by allowing the university staff to draft their own budget because they know the areas that need more emphasis. Transparency with regard to handling of money should be enhanced through the installation of monitoring systems as well as watchdog committees, which would ensure that money is used for the intended purpose.
The universities should focus on being self reliant instead of depending on handouts from government agencies. This can be achieved by commissioning income-generating projects within and beyond the learning institutions’ compounds. This will ensure a steady supply of income.
Works Cited
Akkari, Abdeljalil. “Education in the Middle East and North Africa: The Current Situation and Future Challenges.” International Educational Journal 5.2(2004): 34-36. Print.
Baker, David and Alexander Wiseman. The Worldwide Transformation of Higher Education. Bingley, WA: Emerald Group Publishing, 2008. Print.
Chapman, David and Ann Austin. Higher Education in the Developing World: Changing Contexts and Institutional Responses. Massachusets: Greenwood Publishing, 2002. Print.