Alternative Path of Increasing the Intake Capacity of Higher Education in Ethiopia: Challenges and Direction

Abstract

Ethiopia must substantially increase higher education student intake and improve access. To fulfill this national demand there must be a common understanding that the public higher education institutes do not have an exclusive responsibility for higher education performance and private sector must also play a role. This paper examines student intake situation of Ethiopian higher education. The key argument of this paper is that higher education in Ethiopia is being in reality privatized. However, day to day activity of higher education system has remained the same like the old days. Instead of bringing a comprehensive education reform, the public higher education institution initiative remains hostage to the discretionary actions of the state. The state policy should focus on the linkage between higher education and society and use the linkage to create condition for society to have equal access in both private and public HEIs through formulation of policy guideline. The possible policy postures could be: Central-planning or Market-competitiveness. Central-planning, is one where private institutions are treated by the state much like the public with respect to enrollment through creation of the University of Affiliation; whereas in market-competitiveness both private and public HEIs will compete to have better enrollment of students. The state encourages only the competition by gathering and disseminating comparative information about institutions characteristics and performance.