South Africa emerging as a regional hub for study and research
In sub-Saharan Africa, where educated professionals are desperately needed, underfunded national universities are faced with unprecedented demand from a growing population of secondary school graduates seeking higher education.
According to a new study by the UIS, New Patterns in Student Mobility in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), 5% of university students from sub-Saharan Africa go abroad in the hunt for knowledge and skills that will give them a competitive edge in the job market.
The drain of human capital from the region is one of the biggest challenges to sustainable development, but a trend is emerging in the SADC sub-region that suggests new pathways to the expansion of educational opportunities.
Students from the SADC region are the most mobile in the world, but they tend to stay close to home. In 2009, over 1.5 million SADC students were enrolled in higher education institutions, of that 89,000 studied abroad, which represents almost 6% of tertiary enrolment, compared to 2% worldwide. But, almost half of them (48%) went to South Africa, which is emerging as a regional hub for world-class study and research.
In 2009, South Africa hosted 61,000 foreign students (known as internationally mobile students), two-thirds of which came from other SADC countries, helping to retain skilled graduates in the region.
In contrast, 69% of internationally mobile students from other parts of sub-Saharan Africa opted to study in Europe or North America.
By drawing attention to the risks and opportunities of such high student mobility, the study hopes to inform the design of policies, programmes and investments tailored to the human capital needs of the SADC region.
Read the study:
New Patterns in Student Mobility in the Southern Africa Development Community.
Additional resources:
- The UIS produces a range of indicators to track trends in higher education.
- Chiao-Ling Chien, a UIS data analyst, outlines the major trends in women’s pursuit of higher education.
17/2/2012