A Policy Study On The World Bank Aid To Africa Higher Education In The Knowledge Economy Era

As the primary sites of talents training and knowledge innovation, Higher education is playing a more and more important role in economic and social development of Africa. For African countries, it is significant that African higher education can service for African social and economic development, and promote African countries to achieve poverty reduction and sustainable development. The thesis takes an international organization-the world bank as the object of the study, and tries to review the historical evolution of the world bank’s policies on African higher education aid and the policies in the knowledge economy era, and analyze the characteristics of the world bank’s aid to African higher education in the knowledge economy era. And it also provides some reference and inspirations for China’s aid to Africa aid.The first part of the thesis reviews the historical evolution of the world bank’s policies on African higher education. The world bank’s policies on African higher education have experienced four periods, including the period of emphasizing human resource planning under the theory of human capital; the period of yield orientation under the theory of social development; the period of criticism toward higher education under the theory of neoclassical theory, and the period of reflection and reconstruction of higher education. The world bank’s evolving policies on African higher education caused the African higher education a recession in the 1980s, and at the same time strengthened African countries’ dependence on the world bank.The second part explores the world bank’s three policies on African higher education aid in the knowledge economy era. First, the world bank tries to strengthen the partnership of higher education aid to Africa through three aspects:between donors, between donors and recipient countries, among recipient countries and among recipient countries’internal departments. Second, the world bank tries to improve the effectiveness of aid to African higher education by raising the subject status of the recipient countries, improving the quality evaluation system of African higher education, strengthening the ability of African higher education planning and management, and emphasizing the transparency policy of African higher education aid. Third, the world bank emphasizes the cultivation of the ability of higher education innovation and take a series of measures, including improving the mechanism of the higher education innovation fund, stimulating the link between universities and enterprises, and propelling the development of higher education science and technology human capital.The third part analyses the case study of Uganda Millennium Science Initiative Project as well as African Higher Education Centers of Excellence, which reflects the world bank’s specific practices to its Africa higher education aid policies in the knowledge economy era. the project background, objectives, project implementation and management are described respectively, and then the results achieved through the project are analyzed and evaluated. The world bank’s two projects well embodies the world bank’s latest policy development trend in higher education aid and the results and the effectiveness obtained in the knowledge economy era.The last part discusses about the characteristics of the world bank’s aid to Africa higher education in the knowledge economy era and some reference and enlightenment to our country. In knowledge economy era, the features of the world bank’s aid to African higher education policy can be summarized from the following aspects:Aid’s ideas are newly-updated; Aid’s content is wide; Aid’s ways are varied. Besides, the world bank’s policies for African higher education aid in knowledge economy era can also bring some reference and inspirations for our country’s aid to Africa.In short, the world bank promptly adjusted the aid policies to African higher education, which follow the subject of the era of knowledge economy, and are associated with today’s international social economic and cultural background. The efficiency of higher education assistance is greatly improved. Even so, it still has a long way to achieve the anticipated effect of the bank’s higher education aid policy.