High university spending but poor results – Report

Although the northwest African nation of Mauritania has a proportionately higher budget for universities than most neighbouring countries, it suffers from low education quality, weak management and governance, and an aging student population.

This was the main message from an annual higher education statistical report presented by Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Sidi Ould Salem, at a 25 June meeting of the country’s council of ministers.

Mauritania is in the Maghreb region of western North Africa, with an estimated population of 4.1 million people. It has a very low higher education enrolment rate: the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2014-2015 indicated that out of 144 countries, Mauritania was ranked 128 for tertiary education enrolment.

The higher education sector

According to a 2011 publication on Education in Mauritania, the country has only seven specialised higher education institutions and the public University of Nouakchott, which has three faculties.

There is a growing number of private institutions including the University of Science, Technology and Medicine Nouakchott, which opened its doors a couple of years ago.

There are currently 19,862 students enrolled in higher education in Mauritania. Around 2,400, or 8% of the total, are over 30 years old – a higher age than regionally or internationally.

The report reveals a significant increase in university output, as the number of students awarded a bachelor degree nearly doubled from 1,737 in 1990 to 3,137 in 2000.

The failure rate of university students reached 30% in 2010 – down from 32.6% in 2003, but still nearly a third of students fail.

There are around 700 professors, with 60% of them involved both in teaching and research. This indicates that there are about 28 students per lecturer – somewhat higher than student-to-teacher ratios regionally and internationally.

Government spending

Higher education receives 18% of the overall budget for education – a percentage that is higher than most neighbouring countries. Some 60% of the allocation is dedicated to wages.

The cost of education amounts to MRO4 million (US$13,700) per student per year in the school of technology, while the cost per student at the University of Nouakchott does not exceed MRO300,000 (US$1,000) a year.

The total cost of scholarships for students to study in local higher education institutions is MRO1 billion (US$3.4 million) for more than 12,000 students, while the cost of government scholarships for 1,800 students to study at universities abroad is MRO1.4 billion (US$4.8 million).

Human capital

Despite Mauritania's proportionately high spending on higher education, the World Economic Forum's Human Capital Report 2015, published in May, lists Mauritania and Chad as having the world’s worst ratings in human capital.

The Human Capital Index measures countries’ ability to maximise and leverage their human ‘capital endowment’.

To tackle these higher education challenges, Salem revealed that the higher education sector was developing a comprehensive plan to raise the quality and value of university education and to meet market needs.