New initiatives to boost higher education and research

Mauritania is to set up a national council for higher education and research and will develop a monitoring and evaluation system and performance indicators as part of efforts to promote a knowledge-based economy.

The new initiatives were approved at a 29 April meeting of Mauritania's council of ministers, as first steps in implementing a higher education plan in 2015, which has been declared as a ‘year of education’.

The National Council for Higher Education and Scientific Research will act as a supportive and consultative body for the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

It will set higher education and science priorities and give expert opinions on universities and research centre matters including curricula, courses, certification and the assessment of applications for new higher education institutions.

The board of the new council will be comprised of 16 experts headed by the minister of higher education and scientific research.

The monitoring and evaluation system will review the higher education and research sector and will prepare, manage, analyse and publish performance indicators for it.

It will also be a repository for higher education, science, technology and innovation data and provide analysis to support evidence-based education policy-making in Mauritania.

The graduate unemployment problem

The government is also planning to set up a school of mining and new fast-track technical specialties in higher education, according to the country notes for Mauritania in African Economic Outlook.

The main aim is to redirect students from literature to science and skilled trades, with the goal of having 30% of students enrolled in these subjects by 2020 – up from less than 10% in 2011.

Youth unemployment is a major problem in Mauritania, affecting 50.8% of men and 69% of women between the ages of 15 and 24 years who are in towns. Overall urban unemployment tops 35%.

“Surprisingly, better education does not guarantee easier access to a job. The unemployment rate is higher among better educated people, which could reflect skills mismatches and low quality of education,” said a report published earlier this year by the International Monetary Fund.

More than 80% of university graduates have degrees in the humanities, creating a gap between their qualifications and the needs of an economy centred on mining, fisheries and construction.

The higher education sector

Mauritania has a public University of Nouakchott with faculties of arts and humanities, law and economics, science and technology and medicine. Established in 1981, it has some 8,000 students.

With an agricultural research centre in Rosso, a mining school and specialised institutes in the capital, the country is continuing its slow move towards training for more of the skills needed for development.

The new University of Science, Technology and Medicine Nouakchott, located on the Nouakchott-Nouadhibou axis, is almost complete. The university will offer training in areas of “techniques and immediate use”, explained Mauritania's President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz at the launch of the project in November 2013.

Despite boasting rich industries in fishing, mining, agriculture and oil, Mauritania has failed to create attractive jobs for young adults fresh out of universities, who have mostly specialised in the humanities, literature, law and translation. Only a small number study mathematics, medicine and engineering, according to a 2013 Arab Today report.

A high percentage of unemployment among university graduates is also a result of weak higher education performance indicators as outlined in the World Economic Forum’s 2014-15 Global Competitiveness Report .

Out of 144 countries, Mauritania was ranked number 123 for the quality of maths and science education, 123 for technological readiness, 124 for the quality of research institutions, 128 for the quality of education, 131 for innovation capacity, 139 for the availability of scientists and engineers, and 141 each for university-industry collaboration and for higher education and training.