US$100m loan to boost doctoral training and research

The World Bank will give Côte d’Ivoire a loan of US$100 million over five years to support the government in the implementation of a range of reforms in higher education, including the establishment of doctoral schools to deliver PhD programmes and enhance research capacity.

The doctoral schools are regarded as a key element in achieving the country’s transition to the license-master-doctorat (LMD) system, introduced in Côte d’Ivoire in 2009, as part of regional goals to improve higher education in West Africa, and establish common standards in accordance with the Bologna system of education. The LMD equates to three, five and eight years of study following an award of a Baccalauréat, the equivalent of A-levels.

According to the World Bank project appraisal report, funds will be provided to the Ministry of Higher Education and Research to draft a national policy to define the vision and mission of the doctoral schools. The aim is to produce 250 doctoral candidates per year.

Funds will be allocated towards capacity-building of doctoral school coordinators, thesis supervisors and specialists in research innovation.

Low scientific production

According to the appraisal report released in Washington DC on 22 March, scientific production of Ivorian universities is low and of poor quality. “The country has no more than 400 scientific articles published in international journals each year, which puts Côte d’Ivoire among the least productive countries in Sub-Saharan Africa per capita,” it states.

Pierre Frank Laporte, the World Bank’s country director for Côte d’Ivoire, said the credit will be used more broadly to modernise governance in the higher education sector by setting up a national tertiary quality agency and quality assurance units in each of the country’s six public universities.

The proposed national quality assurance agency will focus on accreditation, evaluation, audit and inspection of private and public universities and higher education polytechnics.

Amid efforts to improve the relevance of tertiary education to labour market needs, plans are underway to spend US$25 million of the credit to establish Higher Institutes of Professional Training and Technology (ISFPTs), a new category of higher education for the country which will offer two-year professional diplomas and three-year professional degrees.

The ISFPT is aimed to respond to the needs of the private sector for well-qualified young graduates who have command of new technologies and the core and technical skills in demand in the labour market.

Alternative programmes for students

“The objective is to provide alternative programmes for new tertiary education students, so that they will be better prepared for work and have a pathway to move on to earn undergraduate and postgraduate degrees,” said Patrick Ramanantoanina, the task team leader.

According to the World Bank appraisal, current higher education programmes have not been responsive to labour market demands. As many as 78% of tertiary students are enrolled in humanities and social sciences, and only 15% are in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

“Reversing the current trend will require time because fewer than 3% of secondary students pass the Baccalauréat science and mathematics examination,” it states.

Besides low enrolment in STEM disciplines, there seems to be a severe disconnect between the learning outcomes of most tertiary education institutions and what the economy is demanding and university graduates are reported to have difficulty finding jobs.

Statistics from Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Higher Education and Research indicate that in 2013, 19% of graduates aged 25-34 were unemployed, and of those who were employed, only 25% had professional jobs. Taking into account that the employment situation has not improved, the number of unemployed graduates might now be higher.

Non-degree programmes

Against this background the World Bank is set to encourage tertiary institutions to mount non-degree short-duration programmes to increase graduate employment. “The component will finance a new category of short professional programmes that will be more relevant and demand-driven,” notes the report.

The project will also undertake a comprehensive review of technical diploma and degree programmes and adapt them to better respond to labour market needs and job requirements.

Towards this goal, the project has earmarked US$7 million to be distributed as grants to six universities: Félix Houphouet-Boigny University, Nangui Abrogoua University, Alassane Ouattara University, Jean Lorougnon Guédé University, Peleforo Gon Coulibaly University and University of Man. The about-to-be-established ISFPTs will benefit from a similar grant.

Enrolment rates

Attempts to improve the quality of university education in Côte d’Ivoire come against the backdrop of low but improving higher education participation rates.

Enrolment rose from 146,490 in 2005 to 192,842 in 2016, an average annual growth of 2.5%. Currently, there are 774 enrolments per 100,000 inhabitants, as compared to an average of 3,500 enrolments in low- to middle-income countries.

The main cause of low tertiary participation is rooted in low enrolment in secondary education. According to the World Bank, only about 45% of students completing upper secondary pass the Baccalauréat examinations and join universities and other tertiary institutions.

Between 2002 and 2011, delivery of higher education in Côte d’Ivoire was curtailed by armed conflict that contributed to the massive destruction of infrastructure and loss of equipment in three public universities, namely, Félix Houphouet Boigny University, Nangui Abrogoua University and Alassane Ouattara University.