Beyond World Bank’s higher education projects in the developing world : a closer look at four Sub-Saharan African countries

1

Beyond World Bank’s higher education

projects in the developing world:

a closer

look at four Sub-Saharan African countries

Ghislain Noorlander 10197850

ghislain.noorlander@student.uva.nl Master Thesis

Research Project Political Economy of Development Finance

Sijeong Lim Farid Boussaid

Department of Political Science June 24, 2016

Abstract.

While the World Bank (WB) has supported basic education for decades through their primary and secondary education projects in developing countries, higher education has been neglected. It is only quite recently that the focus also includes reforming the higher education sector of developing countries. Hence much has been written on the implementation of reform projects within basic education. However, not much has been written about the phenomenon of implementing higher education projects. The aim of this thesis is to contribute to this end by examining whether or not World Bank’s quality-focused higher education projects achieve their stated objectives under the following formulated conditions: (1) a centralized implementation; (2) the presence of a quality

assurance agency or a similar agency; (3) an evidence of institutional consensus-building among several stakeholders; and (4) the existence of a relatively sound higher education enrolment rate. This

research was done by four case studies on higher education in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mauritania and Tanzania. The overall conclusion is that most importantly; the existence of institutional consensus-building plays a significant role when it comes to the successfully implementation of WB’s quality-focused higher education projects.

Keywords: World Bank, Higher Education Projects, Higher Education Institutions, Higher Education Quality, Institutional Consensus-Building.

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Table of Contents.

1.

INTRODUCTION

5

2.

LITERATURE REVIEW

9

2.1

The scope of education reforms

10

2.2

World Bank’s education projects and their focuses

12

3.

THEORY AND HYPOTHESES

14

3.1 The Technocratic Approach

15

3.2 The Institutional Approach

18

3.3 Higher education enrolment

21

4. METHODOLOGY

22

4.1 Case studies

22

4.2 Case selection

23

4.3 Strengths and weaknesses

24

5.

ANALYSIS

25

5.1 Projects Objectives, Development and Outcomes

25

34

39

6.

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION

47

3

LIST OF TABLES

1. World Bank’s Educational Lending, tertiary in millions US dollars

6

2. Top 10 African Universities

7

3. Gross Enrollment Ratio (%), tertiary, both sexes by Regions

12

14

18

6. Rating Scale PDO

26

7. WB’s quality- focused higher education projects in 4 Sub Saharan Countries

27

8. Overview Tertiary Education, Cameroon 2011-2015

34

9. Overview Tertiary Education, Ethiopia 2011-2015

36

10. Overview Tertiary Education, Mauritania 2011-2015

37

11. Overview Tertiary Education, Tanzania 2011-2015

38

12. Visualization of existing conditions in the cases

40

LIST OF FIGURES

1. Average Primary Gross Enrollment Ratios by National Income, 1965 and 1995

5

6

11

23

4

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

CHESR

Council of Higher Education & Scientific Research

GERTE

Gross Enrolment Ratio Tertiary Education

HEAC

The Higher Education Accreditation Council

HEIs

Higher Education Institutions

HEP

Higher Education Project

HERQA

Education Quality and Relevance Assurance Agency

HETTP

Higher Education Technical Training Project

ICRs

Implementation Completion and Results reports

IUT

Institut Universitaire Technologique

MOE

Ministry of Education

PDOs

Project Development Objectives

POs

Project Outcomes

PSP

Post-Secondary Project

QAA

Quality Assurance Agency

QRAA

Quality Relevance and Assurance

RDOs

Risk to Development Outcomes

STHEP

Science Technology Higher Education

5

I.

Introduction

For decades, primary and secondary education have been perceived as strong tools to improve aspects of development such as health, wealth and peace. Most importantly, basic education has been seen as a cure for the sickness that is called poverty. Hence much has been written on how to improve the primary and secondary sector in education systems. As the largest single source of multilateral external finance for education, The World Bank (WB) has operated education projects in 71 developing countries managing a budget of nine billion dollars with the aim to improve basic education. Since the early 1990’s, the WB has implemented over 530 education reforms in the Global South (Website World Bank). As a result, a great progress has been made in terms of access and quality of basic education; while the quality of the teaching-learning aspects has been improved, enrolments have increased rapidly, especially in the poorest parts of the world (Figure 1) (The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank 2010). Eventually, WB’s goal is to provide all children with education that is critical to end poverty by 2030 (Website World Bank). Figure 1- Average Primary Gross Enrollment Ratios by National Income, 1965 and 1995*

*Countries are shown according to income groups as defined by the World Bank. The gross enrollment ratio can exceed 100 percent. Source: Robert Barro and Jong-Wha Lee, Data Set for a Panel of 138 Countries, 1994; UNESCO, Division of Statistics, http://unescostat.unesco.org 1999; United Nations, World Population Prospects 1950-2050, electronic data set: Demographic Indicators 1950-2050, 1996. In World Bank 2000, p. 26. Half of the Sub-Saharan African countries are included in the list of low-income economies; World Bank data. Income classification divides economies into income groups per capita gross national income (World Bank 2011; World Bank 2015).

However, it seems that another sector of education has not only been neglected by other external financers of education projects and operations, but also by the WB; higher education. It is only in 2007 that the WB wrote on this matter:

A more knowledge-intensive approach to development is not an option for African countries. It is the only path, which is likely to lead to sustained outward oriented development given the evolving circumstances in Africa and in the global economy. This report maintains that a knowledge intensive strategy requires a greater focus on tertiary education and on research (World Bank 2007, p. 52).

6 The above quote reflects the notion that higher education is now seen as a vital tool for (economic) development in developing countries. Despite acknowledging this in the report ‘Expanding the Possible in Sub-Saharan Africa: How Tertiary Institutions Can Increase Growth and Competitiveness’ (2007), far more WB’s education projects have focused on the primary and secondary sector. Recently, there has even been a declining in educational lending towards higher education (Table 1).

Table 1: World Bank’s Educational Lending, tertiary (in millions US dollars)

World Bank* Total Volume to

Tertiary Education Percent of total loans to Tertiary Education Percent of total education loans to Tertiary Education 1960-1969 47,8 0,6 % 19,6 % 1970-1979 710,6 1,4 % 28,7 % 1980-1989 3,580,0 2,3 % 50,6 % 1990-1999 4,513,7 2,0 % 25,7 % 2000-2005 1,703,0 1,5 % 18,5 %

Source: Crowley and Kapur 2008, p. 83-84.

*: Includes higher education and post-secondary vocational training

Moreover,given the decreasing funding, higher education graduates in Sub-Saharan Africa are likely to be temperate in the next few years (Figure 2). For instance, where the graduates in the secondary sector are expected to grow rapidly in the next fifteen years, the growth of higher education graduates seems to be modest in the same period.

Figuur 2. Projection of graduates (in millions) by education level in Sub-Saharan Africa

7 WB’s education projects that have targeted higher education have mainly focused on the expansion of input and output by implementing expertise over time in a technocratic way. However, by doing this, there has been less attention for improvement of quality within the higher education institutions (HEIs) in terms of strengthening institutional development: ‘’the value added by higher education over and beyond the student’s innate abilities’’ (Capur and Crowley 2008, p. 5). When it comes to this aspect of quality improvement, there exists a bigger gap within HEIs in the Sub Saharan African region; compared to other parts of the world, institutional development is the slowest in this region (Capur and Crowley 2008). For instance, the top 10 African universities list below (Table 2) shows little variation in diversity; South Africa is clearly overrepresented with six universities, which indicates that quality HEIs are far from equally differentiated over the African continent. Moreover, only the university of Cape town and Stellenbosch university are included in the list of the top 500 universities of the world.

Table 2: Top 10 African Universities

Source: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/top-30-african-universities-times-higher-education-reveals-snapshot-university-ranking *The top 10 ranking is based on the top 30 snapshot that was calculated using the ratio of the citations received by an institution’s publication output between 2009 and 2013 and the total citations that would be expected based on the average of the subject field. To be included in the table, an institution must have published a minimum of 500 research papers in the five-year period assessed, with at least 50 papers per year. *World Rank is based on the data of

Webometrics, the largest academic ranking of Higher Education Institutions;

http://www.webometrics.info/en/Ranking_africa, January 2016 edition.

If is it assumed that higher education is crucial for (economic) development and that it has been neglected until quite recently, then it is not the access and quality of basic education that are at stake here, but the access and quality of tertiary education. The emphasis here will be on WB’s quality-focused higher education projects. This focus does not downplay the importance of access.

Rank Name University Country All publications

(2009-2013)

Citation score World rank

1 University of Cape Town South Africa 5540,21 99,90 332

2 University of the Witwatersrand South Africa 4387,17 99,76 521

3 Makerere University Uganda 1112,69 99,72 1156

4 Stellenbosch University South Africa 4357,33 95,48 435

5 University of KwaZulu-Natal South Africa 4235,09 89,41 717

6 University of Port Harcourt Nigeria 573,55 88,92 3200

7 University of the Western Cape South Africa 1154,77 84,61 899

8 University of Nairobi Kenya 671,72 84,60 702

9 University of Johannesburg South Africa 2192,74 83,64 1126

8 The enrolment rate is also important in determining the quality of higher education. Nevertheless, just expanding the higher education system might not be enough for students to perform well in their social economic lives. A solely cognitive skill-oriented focus lacks ultimately to recognize students’ commitments towards higher education and their contested behavioral attitudes and values, developed through their student lives (D’andrea and Gosling 2005). Eventually, although quantity it needed and important in itself, it does not automatically guarantee quality.

Subsequently, two important issues can be pointed out: one issue is to investigate why the WB has mostly focused on basic education and not so much on post-secondary education. The other issue is to look at projects that do target the higher education sector in Sub-Saharan African countries. The focus of this research is on the latter. It is important to understand the effectiveness of existing WB’s quality-focused higher education projects in developing countries, simply because of resource constraints. Billions dollars are spent to improve education (Website World Bank), but to invest more in higher education may include a decrease in resources for basic education or other aspects of development. Therefore, a better understanding on why the implementation of WB’s quality-focused higher education projects work in some countries and not in others is desirable. This thesis attempts to contribute to this end.

Following that, the main question of this thesis remains: When do WB’s quality-focused higher education projects work in Sub-Saharan African countries (i.e. achieve their stated objectives)? On the assumption that some of these education projects do reach their targets in improving the quality of higher education, it is interesting to find out why they work in some Sub-Saharan African countries and not in others. Through what mechanisms are some projects effective and others not? Under which conditions can these projects succeed and which political implications can foster positive outcomes? The aim is thus to look at the outcomes on the project levels, by deriving their observational implications in terms of their outcomes. This will be done by evaluating and interpreting WB’s appraisal, information and Implementation Completion and Results reports (ICRs) on the implemented quality-focused higher education projects in four Sub-Saharan African countries: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mauritania and Tanzania. Finally, although it might be interesting to discuss the outcomes derived on the project level in terms of a country’s overall level of development, it is not the main purpose of this thesis to do so.

The expectation is that the effectiveness of WB’s quality-focused higher education might depend on one of or the combination of the following conditions: (1) a centralized implementation; (2) the presence of a quality assurance agency or a similar agency: an agency that assure acceptable standards of education; (3) evidence of institutional consensus-building among several key stakeholders; and (4) the existence of a relatively sound higher education enrolment rate. One or all

9 these conditions together can then be seen as (a part of) the cause why WB’s quality-focused education projects achieve their stated targets in some Sub-Saharan African countries and not in others. The conclusion is that most importantly the evidence of institutional consensus-building is a vital condition for World Bank’s higher education projects to achieve their stated objectives, while the lack of institutional consensus-building is often a recipe for failure.

The remainder of this paper is divided as follow: the next section will discuss the scope of WB’s education reforms and their focus over time. Section III will look into two theories within the education development field: the technocratic and institutional approach. The purpose of this section is to provide insights in how the two approaches differ in defining quality improvement and in their favored strategies to implement them. The used methods in this thesis will be discussed in section IV. Section V will deal with four case studies on higher education. Moreover, this section will evaluate and interpret WB’s appraisal documents and ICRs of the implemented higher education projects in the four chosen Sub-Saharan African countries and attempts to explain why some WB’s quality-focused higher education projects were successful and others not. Finally, section VI will discuss the findings’ implications, the shortcomings of this thesis and eventually conclude.

II.

Literature review

This section will review what already has been written on the implementation of education reforms, its challenges and implications. The following subsections will deal with the scope of education reforms and their focus over time. However, it is first important to explain what is exactly meant by WB’s quality-focused higher education projects. Although each project has its more specific description, it often comes down to the following definition:

The Higher Education Project will help the Government’s strategy on improving qualified graduates’ skills, needed for increased productivity, and diversification of its economy. The project is designed to improve the quality of the learning environment, and the relevance of courses in regards to the labor market, and in addition, to establish pedagogic, administrative, and financial management systems in the Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs), in order to strengthen institutional development (World Bank 2014, p. 3; World Bank 1998-2013: Education Project List).

With access is meant the “the ability of people from all backgrounds to access higher education on a reasonably equal basis” (Usher and Medow 2010, p. 1). Although the quality of higher education is almost impossible to grasp in one general definition, the WB defines it as ‘the contribution to the development of cognitive skills and behavioral traits, attitudes and values that are judged necessary for good citizenship and effective life in the community’ (Website World Bank). By referring to HEIs,

10 public and private universities and post-secondary bodies that are legally involved in the graduation process such as technical training centers and institutes of excellence, are meant (Materu 2007). Finally, graduates are those students who have obtain an accredited diploma within a HEI.

2.1

The scope of education reforms

Over time, scholars have written much about the implementation of education reforms in developed countries in order to better understand what the process of implementing changes in education systems entails (Miles 1964), while at the same time not much has been written about implementing education reforms in developing countries (Havelock and Huberman 1978). As a result, a gap arose; there were no significant insights on how educational projects for the less developed parts of the world should be designed in order to succeed. That is why the WB (The Education and Training Department) started a project in the early 1980’s that could provide more information on these limitations. By using the ‘know-how’ and education research largely done in developed countries, they shaped policies that would design the frameworks on how to implement education projects in developing countries. (Middleton et al 1988; Verspoor 1989).

Although implementation of education reform was and is still seen by others as a reproduction of the Western dominant structure, values and ideology (Kiwia 2013), the national political leaders in the developing countries saw education reforms primarily as an efficient tool for the incorporation of people’s loyalty, patriotism and the promotion of political ideologies, developed prior the post-colonial era. In this sense, access to education could be used to obtain access to important and powerful positions within the governance structure (Middleton et al 1990). Meanwhile the WB has invested billions of dollars in developing countries in order to strengthen education (Website World Bank).

More recently, more insights on specific reforms, which can strengthen the education sector in developing countries, have been generated (Hanushek 1995; Glewwe 1999; World Bank 2001). Furthermore, scholars have explored that over time many education reforms have affected by certain determinants, if they wanted to be successfully put into practices of school structures: first, the receiving country needed to be qualify as a considerably environment of political stability; second, reforms needed to include components of local teacher training to enhance quality education; third, within the process of implementing, it was important to gather the commitment of government, the implementers, the potential opponents in the policy discussion. In other words, broad participation was required; and fourth, all the above had to be reviewed through mechanisms of feedback. The conclusion was that education reforms proved to be challenging to implement under any circumstances, especially in the environments with unstable social-economic and political

11 characteristics combined with the lack of capable institutions that are needed to maintain and enhance implemented reforms (Verspoor 1989; Middleton et al 1990: The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 2010).

At the same time, higher education has not only been seriously neglected by the international development community. Even the WB seems to have overlooked this education sector, with projects rather focusing on the enrolment and quality of basic education in developing countries (Crowley and Kapur 2008). Funding the higher education sector was often considered as counterproductive by replicating the already existing social and economic inequalities within a certain country (Bowles and Gintis, 1976; Bourdieu 1996; Brown and Scase 1994). This is partly because higher education was mostly reserved to the elite in the past. Even so, economic scholars had already done further research on how higher education can influence economic development (Barro 1991; Mankiw et al. 1992) and concluded that when it comes to income growth combined with the increasing economic importance of knowledge and cognitive skills, higher education was no longer counterproductive. In fact, it has become crucial for (economic) development. A strengthening of the higher education’ sector can eventually increase technological development and hence decrease gaps in knowledge (Becker 1995; Bloom et al 2006). As result, the higher education sector has gained a bigger role in defining education improvement (The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank 2010).

Figure 3 - Average Tertiary Gross Enrollment Ratios by National Income, 1965 and 1995*

*Countries are shown according to income groups as defined by the World Bank. The gross enrollment ratio can exceed 100 percent. Source: Robert Barro and Jong-Wha Lee, Data Set for a Panel of 138 Countries, 1994; UNESCO, Division of Statistics, http://unescostat.unesco.org 1999; United Nations, World Population Prospects 1950-2050, electronic data set: Demographic Indicators 1950-2050, 1996. In World Bank 2000, p. 28. Income classification divides economies into income groups according to per capita gross national income (World Bank 2011). Since then, tertiary education has largely expanded from access to a small segment of societies to a broader enrolment of millions of students around the world. Particular in developed countries, this growth has relatively exploded during the last decade, while not the same can be said about

12 developing countries; their growth in terms of tertiary enrolment has been relatively modest (Figure 3 and Table 3). Looking at the whole picture, the global tertiary student population was 68 million in 1991. It had almost doubled to 132 million by 2004 (UNESCO 2006) and the prediction is that by 2025 this number will reach 150 million (Moe and Blodget 2000).

Table 3: Gross Enrollment Ratio* (%), tertiary, both sexes by Regions

Source: World Bank EduStats . *: The gross enrollment ratio is the total enrollment at a given educational level, regardless of age, divided by the population of the age group that typically corresponds to that level of education. The specification of age groups varies by country.

The rapid expansion of higher education has paradoxically also had adverse effects in terms of a social equity. Even though student enrollment has increased, the current state of resources’ allocation among the different levels of education shows a highly inequitable pattern in developing countries. This is because in much of the developing world, most students do not come from rich families, so the percentage of students in the higher education sector is small. As a result, higher education has relatively received an unequal share of the whole government education budget (Salmi 1992), where the funding for this education sector remained poor.

2.2

World Bank’s projects and their focus

When it comes to the improvement of higher education, WB’s projects’ aims have been to institutionalize sustainable application, integration and innovation (The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development /The World Bank 2010). WB’s choice to also target higher education seems reasonable, because there exists evidence that income levels for individuals in developing countries who completed basic education are not much different to the income levels of those who never benefited any kind of education. Therefore, a transition from basic education to higher education seems to be crucial if people in less developed parts of the world want to escape poverty (Bird & Higgins 2009).

Regions 1980 1997 2004

High Income countries 36,2 51,6 66,7

Least Developed Countries 1,8 3,2 8,7

Sub-Saharan Africa 1,7 3,9 5

Arab States 9,6 14,9 22,6

Latin America and the Caribbean 13,7 19,4 28,6

East Asia and Oceania 3,8 10,8 19,6

13 Moreover, higher education enforces human capital and it is exactly a shortage of human capital developing countries have due to ‘brain drain’; (talented) students prefer to study abroad and often do not return after they are done studying. It is therefore difficult to create more human capital when human capital leaves the country (Crowley and Capur). In terms of the world’s highest proportion of brain drain (in comparison with students studying at home), Sub-Saharan African countries have the highest percentage (6 percent) compared to the rest of the world (Materu 2006). Higher education can generate the same people who can form institutions crucial for the increase of (economic) development. Hence it is important to retain the exit of (talented) students. With their departure, a great part of the potential future civil society is gone and a vicious circle is maintained. To reform national and local HEIs by implementing WB’s quality-focused higher education is vital to keep talent at home. Having quality HEIs can break this vicious circle by preventing excessive brain drain through education that is intellectual engaging and rewarding (Crowley and Kapur 2008).

Higher education has thus been identified as a significant factor that shapes human capital, increase a country’s income and level of development (Erosa et al 2006; Manuelli and Seshardri 2007; Cordoba and Ripoll 2007; Schoellman 2009 and Castello-Climent and Hidalgo 2010). In order to achieve the latter, the implementation of higher education reforms has mainly focused on increasing the quality of curriculum development in terms of providing equitable access for all, better exam outcomes through cognitive skills’ tests and higher amounts of graduated students. The improvement of curricula should strengthen the link between the course programs and the needs of the labor market (World Bank 2003). The way to effectively implement these reforms has been often a technocratic one. This technocratic dimension has primarily put an emphasis on the implementation expertise, the so called ‘know-how’, in terms of an increase in efficiency by implementing reforms in a centralized manner; developing a kind of universal curriculum that ‘fits all’. In contrast, another way on how to successfully implement WB’s higher education projects’ aims has been developed; the institutional approach. This perspective rather focuses on a multi-actor oriented perspective of implementing education reforms with a primarily focus on civic skills, students’ commitment and institutional development of HEIs (Levine 2007). This approach advocates thus a broad-based participation perspective, where institutional consensus-building is the key for positive outcomes.

14 Table 4: Technocratic approach versus Institutional approach on quality improvement

Technocratic approach Institutional approach

1. Centralized 2. Cognitive skills 3. Curriculum development 4. Expertise 1. Decentralized 2. Civic skills 3. Institutional development 4. Commitments

So, the focus on reforming education has often been on expansion of education systems with an emphasis on the enrollment rates and the construction of school buildings, until further research showed that other crucial factors, such as the quality of teaching-learning aspects and the institutional development of HEIs were still not that high in certain parts of the world (Heyneman & Loxley 1983; Middleton et al 1990). As a result, the focus was broadened and quality of higher education was now seen as an equally or even greater priority on the agenda of educational development, rather than just the opportunities of getting access to higher education (Carrol and Samoff 2004).

Still, there exists a lack of empirical knowledge on the role of higher education, both in academic and policy terms. Although there is evidence that higher education has expanded in terms of the amount of students and the number of graduated students, it is not quite sure how meaningful one can reckon this growth measured in numbers. For scholars, it has been difficult to totally grasp two complex output measures that are considered as critical; the measurement of quality in tertiary education and the added value by other HEIs besides the universities in terms of providing the students civic skills; the abilities to function well in a modern society (Crowley and Kapur 2008). Eventually, the challenge for Sub Saharan Africa lies ‘in creating knowledge economies that improve the quality of tertiary education and at the same time increase the number of people trained at high quality levels in appropriate fields’ (Materu 2007, p. 8).

Finally, an important aspect sensible to the success rate of education reforms cannot be let unmentioned: implementing education projects require time. When the aim is to strengthen a certain education sector, schools need sometimes to be reformed one by one in order to bring changes in the whole sector (Weick 1976). That is why the process of implementing educational reforms and policies into education sectors has been formed around certain time frames (Verspoor 1989). The time for an education project to be complete implemented varies now from 5 to circa 10 years (Website World Bank). Eventually, many years are needed in order to implement reforms within the higher education structures and most importantly to assess the outcomes of these implemented reforms. Hence there always exists the risk of a wrong evaluation; the implemented reforms may achieve their stated objectives in the near future (Salmi 1992). It is often the aspect of

15 time that key players such as national political actors and leaders of education institutions do not have. The reason behind this rationale is that these actors prefer to see rapid results, while education sectors are not improved overnight.

III.

Theory and Hypotheses

Within the field of education development, there exist two approaches on how to improve the quality of education: the technocratic approach and the institutional approach. The following two subsections will set out how these approaches differ in their definition of quality and their favored strategies to improve quality. Moreover, it is here the aim to put these approaches against each other and discuss the differences that are most relevant for the implementation process of WB’s quality-focused higher education projects in Sub-Saharan African countries. The last subsection will discuss which implication the higher education enrolment rate in a certain country can have, when it comes to the implementation of WB’s quality-focused projects.

4.1 The Technocratic approach

To reform education within the education sector has often been the focus of the technocratic approach by not paying much attention to the context in which the projects were implemented (Verspoor 1989). This focus has mainly been on developing a curriculum that fits all. Technocratic strategies entail that higher education policy makers and education actors develop policies, with a minor focus on the commitments and motivations of students and teachers. The emphasis here is on improving access that is measured by enrolment rates and output that is measured by the amount of graduates (Levine 2007).

Furthermore, the technocratic approach is about applying expertise. There exists a strong believe in experience, the so called ‘know-how’. Embedded in the higher education sector, technocratic politics have been a dominant strategy carried out by experts and agencies, offering processes and objectives as universal truths (Boyte 2000). The consequence is that general insights about education should be implemented as a set of education that fits all. In this sense, the focus is less on local educational institutions and more on technocratic manners to change the incentive structure in a quantified way, like the augmentation of teachers’ incomes and equalizing school expenses. In terms of reforms, one can think of teachers’ training, rooted in teaching programs and investments in teaching infrastructure. Ultimately, the technocratic approach is a specific way of measuring the in- and outputs of HEIs (Levine 2007). Therefore, quality improvement should be about measurement in a quantified way and not so much about the examination of the added value

16 HEIs can produce. As the WB formulates it, an example of the technocratic approach embedded in an education project would more or less entail the following description:

The Development objectives of the Higher Education Project are to: a) enhance internal efficiency and expand the output of graduates; b) improve equitable access (gender, location, and socio-economic); and c) improve the quality of the teaching-learning process and the relevance of the curriculum (World Bank 2010, p. 5).

Finally, the technocratic approach advocates a centralized strategy to implement educational reforms; which means that within the implementation process certain experts, for example a small staff of the Ministry of Education (MOE) or from a quality assurance agency (QAA) in a particular country, should be given the full autonomy to execute or to maintain the reforms. The reasoning behind this, is that the involvement of potential opponents within the implementation process of higher education reforms carries to many risks; to come to an acceptable agreement about described objectives during the reform process may take much time and hence create delays that can slow down the effectiveness of the implementation of higher education reform (The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank 2000). Eventually, technocratic politics cease to diminish the dissention and local resistance arising from ‘micro politics’ in and around the HEIs. Thus, derived from the above approach, the following two hypotheses can be formulated:

H1: WB’s quality-focused higher education projects tend to be more successful when centralized implemented.

H2: WB’s quality-focused higher education projects tend to be more successful with the presence of a QAA.

Centralized implementation

H1 sounds reasonable, because the occurrence of many different autonomous actors within the higher education sector is a confounding aspect that comes into play when it comes to the implementation of planned reform. This complexity arises, because HEIs like universities have a multi-level governance structure. Several key authorities such as students, university employees and politicians with professional capabilities, autonomy and their own agendas have to work together on different levels of organizational structure of the higher education system, which makes it not easy to implement policies meant to improve education (Salmi 1992).

However, when decision making about the project’s implementation process are concentrated with a few key actors, the problem of different interests largely disappears. For instance, if only a small group of the MOE or a QAA is responsible for the decision making concerning

17 the project’s objectives, potential conflict and differences among multi actors could be avoided. While a situation wherein many actors from different levels of the organization structure get involved might be more time consuming. Different stakeholders will appear on the negotiation table with diverse political and economic interests and strategies. That is why centralized implementation is typically to be more efficient (also in terms of communication) and is more likely to react quicker to unexpected dynamics. Lastly, a centralized implementation by a few experts create more control over the implementation, because just a few autonomous actors are in charge, the responsibility does not have to be divided between several stakeholders on different levels of the organization structure. Additional, a situation of centralized implementation generates little confusion about who is accountable for the decision-making and the implications derived from this process. In this sense, the few stakeholders involved can take full ownership of the project.

Quality Assurance Agencies

Education reforms do not happen in a governance vacuum. But even when governance structures exist in a particular country, a government’s capability and abilities of experts to implement significant reforms can be constrained by national specific governance structures and processes. Hence QAAs are needed, because they can carry out transparent and objective processes. These agencies are described as follow:

Quality assurance is a planned and systematic review process of an institution or program to determine whether or not acceptable standards of education, scholarship, and infrastructure are being met, maintained and enhanced. A tertiary institution is only as good as the quality of its teaching staff—they are the heart of the institution who produce its graduates, its research products, and its service to the institution, community, and nation (Materu 2007, p. 3).

H2 sounds reasonable, because there are plausible reasons to believe that the presence of QAAs may be necessary for a technocratic strategy to be effective. First, without a strong agency that can guarantee education programs needed for socioeconomic development, a country’s higher education sector and its institutions lack the capacity of maintaining improvements like expansion beyond the life of the implemented higher education reforms. Moreover, QAAs can, by serving as guardians of quality, enhance the same acceptable standards of quality education across all the HEIs they supervise. Finally, QAAs can play a vital role within the development of curricula by being responsible for the approval of new academic programs, the assessment of courses and the monitoring of annual performances. Moreover, they also have the mandate to manage program accreditation and the ranking of HEIs (Materu 2007; Harvey and Stensaker 2011). Therefore, implementing education projects in environments with the presence of QAAs can increase the

18 success rate of these projects. Besides, it should also be pointed out that QAAs are a recent phenomenon in Sub-Saharan African higher education sectors. During the last 25 years, less than fifteen quality assurance agencies were established. Table 5 shows an overview.

Table 5: Sub Saharan Countries with Legally Established National QA Agencies

Source: Materu 2007, p. 73-75. *: Higher Education Institutions.

Country QAA Year Created Public/Private HEIs*

1. Cameroon Council of Higher Education 1991 24 & Scientific Research (CHESR)

2. Ethiopia Quality Relevance and Assurance 2003 37 Agency (QRAA)

3. Ghana National Accreditation Board (NAB) 1993 21

4. Kenya Commission for Higher Education 1985 23 (CHE)

5. Liberia National Commission on Higher 2000 4 Education (NCHE)

6. Mauritius Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) 1997 39 7. Mozambique Ministry of Higher Education, 2003 5 Science & Technology (HEST)

8. Namibia National Council for Higher 2004 3 Education (NCHE)

9. Nigeria The National Universities Commission 1990 49 (NUC)

10. South Africa HEQC under Council on Higher 2001 26 Education (CHE)

11. Sudan Evaluation and Accreditation 2003 48 Corporation (EVAC)

12. Tanzania The Higher Education Accreditation 1995 30 Council (HEAC)

13. Uganda National Commission for Higher 2005 16 Education (NCHE)

14. Zimbabwe National Commission for Higher 2006 13 Education (NCHE)

19

4.2 The Institutional approach

The institutional approach adopts a broader implementation perspective, with a smaller emphasis on curriculum development compared to the technocratic approach. As a result, this strategy includes also the complexity of the educational implementation process (Berman and McLaughlin 1978). Moreover, this perspective sees a creation of incentives for both students and teachers as a crucial element embedded in the implementation process of educational reforms; analyzing quality education by looking what techniques work best for that purpose is not enough. Additionally, looking at the incentivescan prevent students from dropping out and possibly generates better education outcomes due students’ and teachers’ motivation. Moreover, the institutional approach stated that the governance structure and specific characteristics of an environment cannot be ignore for democratic reasons (Levine 2007). The rationale behind this is that successful implementation requires greater participation with the purpose to build consensus among several main stakeholders. Institutional consensus-building affects higher education policy and WB’s projects by making all the main stakeholders aware of the link between the reforms and their implications and creates therefore a greater commitment towards implemented objectives. In addition, to make education reform acceptable to all is a question of collaboration between main institutional actors (Kiwia 2013).

Another point is that it is more difficult for local institutions to justify accountability towards their own people, if educational reforms are embedded in the approach of imposing accountability through standardized strategies. This can put pressure on HEIs to only focus on increasing students’ cognitive skills (Levine 2007). By doing so, much responsibility will rest on a few experts, while education entails a broader area. There are many other local institutions, such as parents’ associations, school boards and youth centers, that might play a crucial role in shaping education policy; it is in these institutions that a lot of debates among the community about complementary content and methods on education arises. These insights can then be used to foster quality education. In the end, ‘the purpose of it all is not merely getting kids through a test, but also developing interests, traits of character and civic skills’ (Levine 2007, p. 21). As the WB formulates it, an example of the institutional approach embedded in an education project would more or less be described as follow:

The Post-Secondary Education Project: the two main project components will: 1) improve university undergraduate and post-graduate education, through a) institutional development grants to support basic capital expenses of eligible institutions, on a proportionate basis in accordance with the Government's new funding formula for block grants (World Bank 2010b: 4-5).

20

H3: WB’s quality-focused higher education projects tend to be more successful when there exists institutional consensus-building among several stakeholders.

Institutional Consensus-building

The fact that higher education seems to be neglected by the WB confirms that it is a sector that is difficult to reform, especially in developing countries. This due the sector’s high political salience with different interest groups. The overall complex structure governance often results in a lack of institutional consensus, poor administration and severe bureaucratization. All these factors then lead to a non-existing institutional autonomy and poor academic governance. Although other things such as low salaries for teachers are also an issue, it is the academic environment and its structure that is the most important to improve. When the education process is politicized without autonomy in the administration, financial and academic spheres, it is difficult for reforms to be successfully implemented; in an attempt to reach their targets, education reforms meet domestic political-economy constraints (Crowley and Kapur 2008).

By the above, H3 is plausible, because in overcoming the domestic political-economy constraints, institutional consensus-building can play a crucial role; agreement among different stakeholders within the higher education sector prior and during the implementation process and beyond could enforce the governance structures and processes that are needed for the education projects to achieve their stated objectives. Moreover, to involve everyone that is concerned with the higher education sector means also including possible opponents within the process of implementation. This might bring contention into the reform process. But an exclusion of actors with different interests from the process of implementation is not only less democratic, it might also cause more risks; since potential opponents with different interests could stand in the way of the reforms and externally veto the educational reforms, even after the implementation; maintaining the implemented reforms is often the biggest challenge (Afeti et al 2008; The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 2010). It is thus about toleration of the conflict of interests. Hence an existence of institutional consensus-building between several main institutional stakeholders is crucial (Kiwia 2013).

Eventually, from an institutional point of view, the translation of an educational reform from theory to reality requires institutional consensus-building combined with political commitment and an understanding for differences in interest and strategies among several main stakeholders. Although the institutional consensus-building focus will not guarantee success of the projects every time (the process of institutional consensus-building can be time-consuming and cause delays within the implementation process of the project), it is possibly the most democratic way to deal with the

21 political sensitivity of the externally formulated higher education reforms. By generating a greater participation of different stakeholders, the proposed reforms can be implemented with the awareness, support and approval of everyone involved. Subsequently, these implemented reforms are more likely to be maintained and not reversed beyond the WB’s project life (The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 2010).

3.3 Higher education enrolment

It is clear that during the last decade the access of higher education has globally expanded, even if this growth was a modest one in the Sub-Saharan African region. Instead of just a few attending HEIs, tens of millions of students have enrolled in the higher education sector (Moe and Blodget 2000). Although this is a positive development, a greater amount of enrolled students does not automatically mean a growing level of education; for instance, the civic skills or the quality of the learning environment or the institutional development. However, one could assume that WB’s quality-focused projects have a better chance at succeeding in those countries that already have improved access by generating a relatively sound higher education enrolment. Hence a fourth hypothesis can stated as follow:

H4: WB’s quality-focused higher education projects tend to be more successful where the enrolment rate is relatively already sound.

H4 sounds plausible, because Sub-Saharan African HEIs still face the dilemma of keeping the improvement of access and institutional quality improvement in balance (Capur and Crowley 2008). In other words, they struggle with the challenge to cope with the necessity to increase institutional quality and the growing social plea for greater enrolment rates. The enrolment rates remain the fundament for quality education to be accessed. For example, to foster student’s success and to generate more graduates requires not only an improvement in quality education, but also a broader access to education. Moreover, research has shown that student’s commitment to school can increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of tertiary sectors (Kuh et al 2010). However, when the participation of students in the higher education sector is low, the above cannot be accomplished is not likely to happen in reality.

Another reason why quality-focused higher education projects tend to be more successful in an environment wherein the enrolment rate is already relatively sound, is that the projects can then primarily focus on improving the other aspects of quality within the higher education system. The explanation here is that countries with low rates of enrolment in higher education choose to broaden access first by increasing the number of participants through the available opportunities. However,

22 those countries that already have realized a substantial level of students’ participation within the higher education sector have a tendency to focus on quality of education. In other words; higher education projects tend to reach their stated objectives, when they can fully concentrate on improving the institutional development and improving the enrolment rate is not their first concern to deal with.

IV.

Methodology

This section deals with the used methods in this thesis. The following subsection will first set out the used research method and its implications. The next subsection will discuss the case selection by explaining through which criteria the cases were selected. At the same time, the steps through which the main question will be answered, will be further specified. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen research method will be addressed.

4.1

Case studies

The main question of this thesis is: When do WB’s quality-focused higher education projects work in Sub-Saharan African countries (i.e. achieve their stated objectives)? This question will be answered through content analysis by exploring four case studies in depth: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mauritania and Tanzania. The use for a qualitative method is because these kind of methods are appropriate to look at the meaning of particular phenomena (Tashakkori and Teddlie 1998). As it comes to the case studies method, it is a useful tool to research causal mechanisms and the specific circumstances in which they occur (George and Bennet 2005). Furthermore, through case studies, one can investigate the causal complexity by looking at many possible significant determinants. Ultimately, the aim of case studies is to provide answers to the how and why (Yin 1998). The case study research entails the selection of some examples (the so called ‘cases’) of a certain social phenomenon. The next step is to take a closer look at the characteristics of the chosen cases and to investigate them. By intensively researching a relatively small number of cases and by comparing them with each other, one can learn about significant aspects of the phenomenon and how it might transform under different situations (Yin 1994).

The content analysis will focus on implemented WB’s quality-focused higher education projects in the four chosen cases by looking at the outcomes and details of the projects implemented in those countries. This will be done by evaluating and interpreting WB’s appraisal and information documents and Implementation Completion and Results report (ICRs): Cameroon – Higher Education Technical Training Project (World Bank 2003); Ethiopia – Post Secondary Education Project (World Bank 2010); Mauritania – Higher Education Project (World Bank 2014); and Tanzania – Science and

23 Technology Higher Education (World Bank 2016). The ICRs consist of key performance ratings for each project: i.e., Project Outcome (PO) and Risk to Development Outcome (RDO). The choice for WB’s projects and not for education projects of other international financial institutions, is simply because the WB is considered as the largest single source of multilateral external finance for education in developing countries.

4.2

Case selection

A choice for Sub-Saharan African countries is made, because there exists a slower development of the higher education sector in this region compared to other parts of the world. For instance, during the past two decades, the global trend of the higher education sector’s enlargement has started a significant increase in enrolment. Both in the developing world as in the less developed world. Between 1985-2002, for example, Sub-Saharan countries have seen a larger amount of students enroll into the higher education sector from 0.8 million to about 3 million (Materu 2006). Yet, in comparison with other regions or continents, the enrollment rates in Sub-Saharan African countries are still the lowest in the world. From 1965 to 2006, the gross enrollment ratio in the region has only grown 4 percent in 41 years, from 1 percent in 1965 (World Bank and UNESCO 2000), to only 5 percent in 2006 (Bloom, Canning and Chan 2006). The ratio has been 6 percent in 2008 (UNESCO 2010) and less than 9 percent in 2013 (Website World Bank). Moreover, the more important gap between other regions and the Sub-Saharan African region lies in the quality of education (Crowley and Kapur 2008).

24 The four chosen cases were selected from WB’s data Education Project List: containing 533 education projects targeting the primary, secondary and tertiary sector in more than 100 developing countries over the world from 1998 to 2015 (World Bank Education List 1998-2015). The selection of the four cases was based on four criteria: (1) the project targets 100 percent the higher education sector; (2) the project is completed; (3) data on the implementation results of the project are available and; (4) the project is ‘quality focused’. According to these four conditions, the following countries were selected: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mauritania, and Tanzania. WB’s quality- focused WB's higher education projects were implemented in the above countries between 1998-2015.

The main aim here is to look at the four chosen cases, compare them and ask the following question(s): do we see variation in outcome? And if we do, why? An attempt to answer this question will be done in three steps.; first, by discussing in more details the outcomes of the projects derived from the ICRs for each country. Second, providing a brief background by sketching a short overview of each country’s higher education system. Lastly, testing the hypotheses, as developed in the section III: (1) a centralized implementation; (2) the presence of a quality assurance agency or a similar agency; (3) evidence of institutional consensus-building among several key stakeholders; and (4) the existence of a relatively sound higher education enrolment rate, by examining whether or not these conditions were present in each of the countries background.

Study Number of cases Topic Data

___________________________________________________________________________________ Beyond WB’s higher 4 implemented WB’s higher education Education WB’s

Education projects in four different Sub-Saharan African Development education In the developing world countries statistics

WB’ ICRs

WB’S appraisal and information on the project documents

____________________________________________________________________________________

4.3 Strengths and weaknesses

When it comes to the strengths of the case studies method that will be used in this thesis, one of its advantages is the capability of researching cases more in depth. Therefore, this method can serve as a useful tool to discuss implications derived from descriptive investigation where the emphasis is on a specific phenomenon, such as the implementation of certain projects, operations, reforms or policy

25 (Yin 1998). Additional, this method offers the possibility and advantage of researching cases more in detail together with contexts’ specific features, especially phenomena where there may exist many variables that explain the outcome (Canhoto et al 2005).

However, the case studies method also has its weaknesses. Within this method, there is a greater chance that selection bias might occur; a selection of cases that biases the found empirical results while not including potential cases that may be opposed to the formulated theory in the research. Another limitation in terms of the case studies method is the aspect of generalizability, in particular within a research done with a small number of cases. Hence this method is not the best method to draw a statistically generalization. Practical about the same can be said as it comes to the internal validity, because this research approach does not require experimental or statistical controls (Ibidem).

V.

Analysis

This section’s main aim is an attempt to provide an answer to the following question: why is there variation in the outcomes of the four projects? (see Table 7) This will be done by first looking at all four cases separately and discuss them in more details. The next subsection will provide a brief background by sketching a short overview of each country’s higher education system. The last and main subsection will deal with the testing of the hypotheses or conditions, as developed in the section III, mainly by evaluating and interpreting WB’s Implementation Completion and Results reports (ICRs) on the selected projects. This will be done by examining whether or not these stated conditions were present in each of the countries background in order to explain why WB’s quality-focused higher education projects work in some countries and not in others.

5.1 Projects Objectives, Development and Outcomes

ICRs are WB’s tools to assess development effectiveness through evaluation of the projects’ outcomes. The ICRs are reported to the WB’s Board of Executive Directors by the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), an independent component of the WB that is accountable for the assessments of projects and operations (World Bank 2015). The Project Outcome (PO) entails ‘the extent to which the operation's major relevant objectives were achieved, or are expected to be achieved, efficiently’ (World Bank 2011b, p. 31). In terms of the evaluation process, projects’ objectives contain the same official project development objectives approved by the WB’s Board. Table 6 shows the six-point rating scale of the POs.

26 Table 6: Rating Scale PDO1

According to Table 7 below, there is in terms of the implementation of WB’s quality-focused higher education project one satisfactory outcome: Cameroon, one moderately satisfactory: Tanzania, and two rather unsatisfactory outcomes: Ethiopia and Mauritania. These results are derived from the projects’ ICRs. Furthermore, Table 9 shows the summarized projects’ main objectives.

1_{This rating scale is from the guidelines of the Implementation Completion and Results report (ICR) (World Bank}

2011b, p. 32). It can also be found in WB’s Project Performance Ratings Codebook (World Bank 2015).

6= Highly Satisfactory No shortcomings in the operation’s achievement of its objectives, in its efficiency, or in its relevance.

5= Satisfactory Minor shortcomings in the operation’s achievement of its objectives, in its efficiency, or in its relevance.

4= Moderately Satisfactory Moderate shortcomings in the operation’s achievement of its objectives, in its efficiency, or in its relevance.

3= Moderately Unsatisfactory Significant shortcomings in the operation’s achievement of its objectives, in its efficiency, or in its relevance.

2= Unsatisfactory Major shortcomings in the operation’s achievement of its objectives, in its efficiency, or in its relevance.

1= Highly Unsatisfactory Severe shortcomings in the operation’s achievement of its objectives, in its efficiency, or in its relevance.

27

2 _{The Project Development Objective (PDO) includes a set of specific objectives for the overall project; The}

six-point scale rating was applied to all the projects’ PDOs.

3 _{Between 1970-1980, WB’s POs were not actually given a codified rating; Initially, during the mid-1980s, a}

basic two-point scale of “Satisfactory” and “Unsatisfactory” was used (World Bank 2015). In 2005, a criteria of a six-point scale, ‘the Harmonized Evaluation Criteria, was announced and apply to both investment and development policy lending’ (World Bank 2011b; 2015). Now, WB’s Project Performance Ratings Codebook

‘includes basic ratings definitions, but it does not provide extensive methodological details on how evaluators reach their conclusions and rate performance’ (World Bank 2015, p. 14). Eventually, the PDO framework

focuses on the objectives to be achieved through certain indicators (World Bank 2011b).

Country Type of Project and Focus Key stated objectives2 Project Development

Outcome3 Cameroon: Higher Education Technical Training Project (2003).

Institutional Quality • Strengthen three existing

disciplines

• Developing new disciplines to strengthen existing disciplines through linkage with local enterprises

• Ensure the development and sustainability of institutional development

Satisfactory (World Bank 2003).

Ethiopia: Post- Secondary Education Project (2010).

Institutional Quality • Improve higher education,

through institutional development

• Increase the human resource development capacity through partnership with labor

market Moderate Unsatisfactory (World Bank 2010). Mauritania: Higher Education Project (2014). Technocratic/

Institutional Access/Quality • Improve qualified graduates’ skills

• Strengthen the relevance of courses in regards to the labor market • Improve institutional development in HEIs’ systems Moderate Unsatisfactory (World Bank 2014). Tanzania: Science Technology Higher Education Project (2016). Technocratic/

Institutional Access/Quality • Increase the quantity and quality of higher education graduates

• Lay the foundations for improved responsiveness of tertiary education to the labor market.

• Strengthen key higher

Moderate Satisfactory (Cao 2016).

28 Table 7: WB’s quality-focused higher education projects in 4 Sub Saharan Countries

a. WB’s higher education project in Cameroon.

According to the WB’s ICR on Cameroon (2003), the Higher Education Technical Training Project (HETTP) main objective was to improve the Cameroonian university system by introducing, developing, and testing a model of public higher technical education at the Institut Universitaire Technologique (IUT) Douala on a credit of 4,8 million dollars between 16 April 1999 and 31 January 2003. The Cameroonian higher education system had already been providing students with degree courses, however not with a strong institutional capacity and linkage towards the labor markets (World Bank 2003; World Bank 1998a, 1998b). The project would eventually serve as an example for other higher education reforms in Cameroon, if successfully implemented. The Project Development Objective (PDO) was broken down into three components:

(i) strengthening three existing disciplines by introducing new training options requested by local industries; (ii) developing new disciplines both to strengthen existing disciplines and to respond to the demands of local enterprises; and (iii) ensuring the development and sustainability of institutional development, evaluation and follow up, and the sustainability of policy initiatives (World Bank 2003: 2).

Throughout the project’s implementation process, the above components were not revised. To measure the achievement of the three components, indicators such as ‘amount students participating in internship in local businesses’, ‘amount of students studying at the university library per day’ and ‘percentage of graduates working six months after graduation’, were formulated (World Bank 2003).

Overall, the outcomes ratings were rated satisfactoryby the WB; that means that the HETTP achieved most of its stated objectives and that there were minor shortcomings in the project’s achievement of its objectives, in its efficiency and in its relevance. As to the first component, most aims were successfully obtained, even though some delays in the implementation process slowed down the effectiveness. Still, a large part of the planned construction actions was completed on time. Achievement of the second component laid the foundations for the development of cooperation between the IUT Douala and the labor market to work on a better affiliation between the courses’ content and the needs of the private sector. For instance, during the school years, every higher education student could profit from an internship program, which provided two on-the-job training periods in an enterprise, within a period of 6 months. In essence, this objective provided private

education agencies and institutions