A Study On Tertiaty Education Policies Of Botswana In The Background Of Knowledge Society

The critical factor of a country’s competitiveness is the knowledge and technology, and the talents with the advanced knowledge and technology are the source of competitiveness. Every country demands and competes for the talented persons, which make the talents cultivation particularly important in tertiary education, which is also the effective way to develop for the less developed country. In Botswana, The reform and the implementation of the tertiary education policy is the guarantee of the future development of tertiary education. This thesis takes Botswana as an example, studies the development of the "knowledge society" tertiary education policies and reviews the problems in their implementation, and obtains the appropriate thoughts.The object of this study is the "knowledge society" tertiary education policies in recent years in Botswana. This study analyzes the formulation and the implementation of these policies by using document research, historical research and comparative studies. This thesis is mainly divided into six parts. The first part is about the social context and the education development background of the "knowledge society" tertiary education policies, and then briefly introduces the development history of the tertiary education in Botswana, mainly contains four periods:the united university period, the beginning of independence, the period before the foundation of the tertiary education council (TEC) and the period after the foundation of TEC。The development history shows the rapid development process of tertiary education in Botswana. This part points out the rapid development of the tertiary education is the need of the country’s transformation, the market demand and the globalization. The poor development and the lack of the relevant policy in the beginning of the tertiary education development in Botswana also calls for the new "knowledge society" tertiary education policies. The second part mainly describes the content and the conduction of the important "knowledge society" tertiary education policies. They are tertiary education policy "Towards a knowledge society" and "The tertiary education sector strategy for NDP10"in2008, and "National human resources development strategy" in2009. The three polices mainly focus on the three aspects:human resources development, the research and innovation in tertiary education and the reform of the tertiary system and institutions. The third part detailed describes the achievements of these policy. Under the direction of these policies, the tertiary education in Botswana made considerable progress, but there are also sorts of problems in the process of implantation. The fourth part analyzes the existing problems in the conduction process of these policies, and also gives some relevant thought-provoking suggestion. The fifth part gives a whole conclusion of these policies in Botswana and ponders over the future higher education development direction in China under the background of knowledge society.