National development does not
come in a vacuum, it has to be planned, strategised and implemented without
interruption or selfishness. At the top of this priority is university
education. It is not surprising therefore that when you look at the statistics
of countries that are making progress in terms of development; the data suggest
massive investment in quality university education.
The picture becomes clearer
when you look at the total number of international students studying in universities
in developed countries. According to another report by the OECD on the total number of students studying abroad, “In 2009, almost 3.7 million tertiary students were
enrolled outside their country of citizenship, representing an increase of more
than 6% on the previous year”, however what is important is not the total
number of students studying abroad, but the next key points in the report.
“Just over 77%
of students worldwide who study abroad do so in OECD countries…in absolute
terms, the largest numbers of international students are from China, India and
Korea. Asians account for 52% of all students studying abroad worldwide”. Said
the report. What is interesting here is the consistency in the rise of China,
India and Korea in the global economy and the huge investment made by these
countries for higher education. All the three countries are members of the G20. One more thing to note from the report is
that China leads the way by constituting 18.2% of all international students in
OECD member countries.
That is not the
only point that is important; compare this statistics with the list of the top 20 universities in the world and their location. According to the Times Higher
Education report, the best 20 universities for 2012/2013 are, California
Institute of Technology, University of Oxford, Stanford University, Harvard
University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton University,
University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University of California,
Berkeley, University of Chicago, Yale University, Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology Zurich, University of California, Los Angeles, Columbia University,
University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, University College
London, Cornell University, Northwestern University and the University of
Michigan.
The entire top
20 universities according to the criteria of Times Higher Education are in three
countries, United States, England and Switzerland. Apart from the growing
number of universities in China, India and South Korea, the bulk of these
students are studying in these top universities. You don’t need statistics to
even tell you about the effort the Chinese and the Indians are making to
develop the capacity of their citizens locally and internationally, just visit
the campuses of any of these universities, and randomly count the number of
Chinese and Indian students, you will get the answer yourself.
With the
exception of South Africa that made it to the list of top 400 universities in
the world according to Times Higher Education, I do not think these
universities are at the top simply because they are in Europe or North America. The
answer is simple, creative investment (I shall bring some data about the amount
invested by some selected universities in subsequent series God-willing in
order to buttress this point). In fact according to the analysis by the editor of the Times Higher Education, Phil Baty, in an interview with the BBC's Mishal Hussein, with the
kind of investment being made in countries like China, India, South Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, their universities will overtake the
European and American universities. Though that may not happen in the near-distant-future, with continuity it will happen eventually. According to the editor, when compared to previous rankings, the influence of US and UK universities is declining.
If African
countries are to save themselves from the current predicament, the continent
needs to strategise effectively, by making massive investment in university
education, sending Africans to the best universities around world while
simultaneously improving the ones at home.
According to the
World Population Review Africa as a continent has a projected population of 1.2
billion, and will reach 1.9 billion by 2050. China is projected to have a population of 1.35 billion according to statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China in January 2013. By 2011 China has a total of
339, 700 students studying in abroad according to figures reported by the
Chinese newspaper Global Times, mainly in the OECD countries, while Africa as
a continent has 387, 386 students in foreign countries according to a special report commissioned by Wittenborg University, France.
If you compare China
and Africa by population, Africa is not doing badly, but when you look at China
as a country with a single government, single policy, single development
strategy, and compare it with Africa comprising of over 50 different governments,
what does that say? This is not a glorification of studying in foreign land,
but about what Africa is missing in terms of development by not investing its
resources in home grown universities, and maximizing the benefit of sending its
inhabitants to the best universities around the world.
To be continued.
4.58
26.10.1434
02.09.2013
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