Tertiary education in anglophone West Africa: Contextualizing challenges

Abstract

Drawing from my experience as a pioneering head of department in two Nigerian universities between 2005 and 2013, as well as considering insights derived from interviews with selected stakeholders in both private and public universities and colleges in Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, this chapter examines the policies and practices of accreditation of higher education in Anglophone West Africa. As the chapter argues, higher education markets in Anglophone West Africa are characterized by an ever-widening customer base, owned by entrepreneurs with limited financial power and serviced by an ever-contracting personnel corps. Given this atypical situation, governments in Anglophone West Africa have found a comfortable accommodation between higher education policies, aimed at ensuring quality, and accreditation politics that impinge on quality assurance.