Public Private Partnership in Building ICT Infrastructure: Its Potential for Higher Learning Institutions in Developing Nations

Abstract

Abstract: Integration of ICT into the teaching-learning process of higher education is important for enhancing educational quality through facilitating access to educational materials and knowledge as well as online services. Higher learning institutions (HLIs) in developing nations have critical capacity limitations in the areas of building ICT infrastructure that supports their growing demand for providing ICT based services. This created problem of digital divide among students in higher learning institutions as compared to that of global HLIs. Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) provide significant benefits in terms of leveraging joint resources, respective competences and strengths for building and availing a shared ICT infrastructure that ensures equitable access to digital technologies and high quality educational resources. PPP models adopted for such educational initiatives differ from the models that have been used for large infrastructure projects. The purpose of this study was therefore, to identify possible areas of public private partnerships and underlying principles in building and creating equitable access to ICT infrastructure in educational institutions.