Africa’s Position in the Global Private Higher Education Sphere: Progress and Trajectories

This chapter seeks to examine the place of Africa within the global PHE landscape. The contents of the chapters indicate that African PHE shares most of the features of private higher education outlined in the extant literature. It can be seen that the history of PHE in the continent has been influenced by Africa’s colonial and post-colonial history. Influenced by the ‘public-good’ model in which public universities were conceived as national symbols and drivers of national development and modernization, the establishment of private universities in the continent has been delayed compared to the rest of the world. However, the internal and external pressures that necessitated the growth of PHE in the continent have led to a condition whereby PHEIs began to proliferate in the 1980s and beyond. Current realities indicate that PHE is the fastest-growing segment in the African higher education milieu However, the sector is also influenced by a variety of challenges leading to the dwindling rate of private participation in some countries. The future of PHE in Africa appears to depend on addressing the variety of challenges and concerns in an organized and planned manner.