An
important contribution was made by higher education
to the economic and social development of African
countries, mainly by generating the human resources
required for a proper running of the public service
and of the educational system.
For the last two decades at least, the development
of higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa has been
marked by a rapid rise in the number of students and
by the lack of the public resources required in order
to guarantee quality teaching and research.
This
situation brought about several challenges, paradoxes
and contradictions which are severely hampering the
fulfillment of the missions set by higher education.
The
development of higher education in Africa has been
the subject of an in-depth analysis during the Regional
Consultation for Africa held in April 1997 in Dakar,
and during the World
Conference on Higher Education (CMES) organized
by UNESCO in October 1998 in Paris (France).
In
the next few years, the BREDA will focus its efforts
on the implementation and the follow up of the main
recommendations made at these meetings.
