Policy, Finance and Governance
Dr Tristan McCowan is a researcher at the Institute of Education, University College London. He was the expert adviser for the latest HEART topic guide on Higher Education. The topic guide looks at building the capacity of higher education (HE) systems and enabling structures in low-income countries. It also looks at how effective partnerships can… Read more
DFID believes that PBR is an innovative delivery mechanism which can, in the right circumstances, be used to sharpen incentives for suppliers, and partner governments, to perform. Where it works best, PBR can shift the focus of commissioners and suppliers from inputs to outcomes – leading to real, tangible, measurable improvements in the areas which… Read more
Officially, pregnant girls in Kenya are allowed to stay in school as long as they think they can. However, there are cases where school authorities bar pregnant girls from attending school or girls leave school early to avoid stigma. There is no education provision whilst girls are on maternity leave unless parents are able to… Read more
This report presents a series of data highlighting the tremendous financial commitment of African governments and the international community to achieve Education for All (EFA). Since 2001, real expenditure on education has risen by 6% annually across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), according to the report. As a result of these investments, remarkable progress has been made in educational… Read more
This study focuses on institutional autonomy and the role it plays in governance and management towards enhancing the overall effectiveness of higher education systems. It addresses in particular the effect of autonomy on academic programmes, staff appointments, student admissions, administration, and financing. The study is based on case studies taken from five countries in Asia:… Read more
Recent years have seen an expansion and broadening of the private sector‘s role in the financing and provision of education services in many countries. A key trend has been the emergence of more sophisticated forms of non-state involvement in education through Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). These PPPs – or multi-stakeholder partnerships for education (MSPEs) – pull… Read more
Many countries remain stuck in conditions of low productivity that many call “poverty traps.” Economic growth is only one aspect of development; another key dimension of development is the expansion of the administrative capability of the state, the capability of governments to affect the course of events by implementing policies and programs. In this paper,… Read more
This helpdesk report provides a rapid analysis of evidence of the role of large-scale learning assessments (LSEAs) in education systems in low- and middle-income countries. It is divided into five principal sections, each associated with one of the 5 sub-queries set out above. The information and analysis is supplemented by a number of Annexes detailing… Read more
This paper is concerned with the way that governments plan and direct their tertiary education sectors. The term “governance” is used to describe all those structures, processes and activities that are involved in the planning and direction of the institutions and people working in tertiary education. It also looks at some aspects of the internal governance of… Read more
This report is a follow-up to the 2008 study published by the World Bank, Accelerating Catch Up—Tertiary Education for Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa, which spelled out the case for more knowledge-intensive growth in Africa and described the critical role of higher education in this endeavor. It examines current practices in financing higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa, taking… Read more
Rwanda’s national development strategy relies heavily on expanding access to higher education, largely due to an assumption that a university education encourages the ability to think critically about problems and to use evidence when making decisions. This study empirically investigated this assumption by administering a performance-task-based test of critical thinking, adapted for use in Rwanda,… Read more