Higher Education in Algeria Through the Lens of HCT and Post Colonialism

7/29/2019 Higher Education in Algeria Through the Lens of HCT and Post Colonialism

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Paul Phillips

Student Number: PHI 10084135

MA Education and International Development

Institute of Education, University of London

EID Assignment 10th September 2012

Higher Education in Algeria through the lens of HCT and Post

colonialism

Word count: 5,361 (5485 including text from tables embedded into

essay)

Module leader: Chris Yates

I confirm that I have read and understood the Institutes Code on Citing

Sources and Avoidance of Plagiarism. I confirm that this assignment is allmy own work and conforms to this code.


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INTRODUCTION

If we follow the World Banks assertion that Higher Education (HE) increases the skills necessary to

participate in the global economy, encourages innovation, bolsters social mobility, and creates

democratic and innovative leadership and citizenry (World Bank, 2009:8), it is easy to see why a

university education is attractive not only for the student but also to the society. For the majority of

young people, University is an aspiration no matter what their social and economic background. A

degree level education is considered to be the gateway to a better future with higher wages, increasedlife expectancy and more job satisfaction. In addition, some proponents argue that university graduates

will be more productive than their unqualified counterparts and will therefore be able to claim higher

salaries (Hanushek 2007). Others will instead consider university as an opportunity for individuals to set

themselves apart from their peers and signal to potential employers that they are the best qualified for

the job. However, while Kjelland (2008) sees an individuals decision to pursue higher education

depending largely on the correlation between education and earnings, few could argue that university

has also acted as the stage on which countless scientific discoveries, works of art and political

revolutions have been rehearsed and performed. From the perspective of society, it has been

demonstrated that high quality education has a positive impact on economic growth not only because

graduates are thought to be more productive and therefore able to demand higher earnings but also

because highly skilled people are more likely to produce new technologies and innovations which mayreap huge benefits for the country as a whole (Hanushek 2007). In addition, there is a suggestion that

well educated people are more likely to be civic minded and work for the greater good of the country,

including seeking out and addressing inequality. Certainly, nations often rely on the student and

academic world to shed the skin of anachronistic, apathetic or corrupt national governments and to

protect national culture from global threats like Mcdonaldisation (Ritzer 2008) and language death

(Philipson 1996)

However, is the trend of increased university participation always good for the individual and the society

or do certain social, economic and political conditions need to be right in order for HE to be beneficial to

different interests? And even if there are benefits, who benefits most and subsequently who should

bear the costs? In this paper I will analyse these questions and address some of the related issues within

the context of Algeria. Firstly I will describe the evolution of HE in Algeria since independence and

evaluate its ability to meet the demand for high quality education while analysing its effects on

employment, national productivity and contributions to the field of scientific and technological

innovation. Secondly, using Human Capital Theory (HCT) I will identify the obstacles and challenges

preventing university education from fulfilling its economic purposes and suggest solutions based on

current research and thinking. Thirdly, I will look at the Algerian HE system from a postcolonial

perspective and describe how and why it has evolved historically as some forms of globalisation take

over the mantle from European colonialism.

HIGHER EDUCATION IN ALGERIA

Since Algeria achieved independence in 1962, its University education has steadily transitioned from an

elitist venture into a real and attainable aspiration for a significant proportion of Algerian youth. From

one university and a little more than a thousand students in 1960, 50 Algerian universities now bear the

strain of over a million (EACEA 2010) and over 5% of the population are now graduates (see tables 1,2

and 6 in appendix). The growth has been spurred by numerous economic, political and social factors. For

example, the newly independent Algeria was determined to invest heavily in its people in order to rid

itself of the shadow of the French intelligencia. The key development of this was the restructuring of HE

in 1971 which sought to mobilize the full potential of Algerian universities so that they would be in a


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position to support the ambitious economic, social and cultural transformation and development of the

newly independent country (Esau 2010). This was done mainly through a process of the Arabisation and

Algerianisation of all higher education (Megnounif 2009) The reform not only revolutionised the content

of courses but also the teaching and learning methods and the organisation and management of the

universities themselves (Saad et., al. 2006).

The dual threats and opportunities of globalisation coupled with the emergence from a decade long civil

war, brought about a second education reform in 1999. This sought to charge Algerian universities withthe task of ensuring its students were able to cope with the new economic, social and political

challenges Algeria was cautiously exploring. The government wanted universities to create a more

relevant programme in tune with industry and purposed with rejuvenating their regional economies.

Links and networks between HE and industry were forged and the number of researchers grew from

5,000 in 1996 to 15,000 in 2002 (Esau 2010). However, initial analyses of the application of the 1999

reform show that, in spite of the efforts that have been made, the upturn in research has not served to

change the countrys role as an importer of goods, technology, services, know-how and scientific culture

(EACEA 2010). Scientific citations for the country are low regionally and practically insignificant globally

and more than twice as many patents are being registered by foreigners than nationals in Algeria (see

tables 3 and 4 in appendix). This has been blamed on the dominant role of the state and its centralised

and in some cases nepotistic approach together with the lack of a knowledge sharing culture and

experience of network based research. As Khelfaoui comments:

In all African states, university rectors and presidents are appointed by states without consulting

the academia, often on the basis of allegiance criteria. The appointed rectors and presidents in

turn, on the same criteria, name the senior management staff (the Deans) and intermediary

management staff (heads of departments, of courses...). The state (or rather the ruling Power) is

therefore directly the cause of most of the changes affecting higher education. (2009:27)

Throughout its post-independence reforms, the Algerian government has pursued a policy of free

university education for all. Every holder of the Baccalaureate (Equivalent to English AS levels)or an

equivalent foreign certificate is entitled to matriculate free of charge at a university institution (EACEA

2010). This system firmly ripped the mantle of the academic world from the Pied-Noir (Naylor 2000) andreturned it to the hands of the masses who could not only follow an academic career in their native

tongue but also do so without huge financial burdens. Currently, 85% of Algerian students receive grants

on top of their free tuition, and more than 50% are accommodated by the National University Student

Services Office (EACEA 2010). Now Algeria faces the challenge of balancing its desire for a system based

on equity and merit with also keeping up with an increasingly sophisticated global academia flush with

cutting edge methodology, technology and infrastructure in order to compete in increasingly globalised

markets. Algerian Universities must strive to meet an unprecedented demand, while delivering

educational programmes that are both of high standard and relevant to the job market. This is a

particularly acute problem in Algeria where the 21st century has seen average enrolments more than

double while the heavily public sector dominated job market, propped up by oil revenues, stagnates due

to a lack of investment, technological innovation, dependency on low value added products and a weakintegration into the global economy (Jaramillo 2010).

At first glance unemployment figures may seem promising for Algeria. The last decade has seen

unemployment drop from 30% to 10% (Furceri 2012), mostly due to a significant demographic transition

to low fertility which has drastically slowed population growth. However, this decrease has not been

seen across all sections of society. For Algerias educated youth, the picture is far less optimistic with

21.5% of Algerias job seekers unemployed compared to 7.6% with only primary qualifications. The

situation is equally bad for graduates and non- graduates. 20% of Degree holding Algerians are


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unemployed (see table 1). However, it should be noted that these figures are severely affected by the

tendency for Algerian women to attend university but then not enter the job market. As a

predominantly Muslim country, women are expected to look after the family rather than work which

explains why 33.3% of them remain unemployed, 50% for two years or more. What is particularly

striking is that due to a rise in more traditional Muslim practices since the civil war, the number of

unemployed female graduates is rising.

Table 1: Source Esau (2010)

While much of the blame for graduate unemployment can be put at the feet of an inflexible labour

market, research has identified a disconnect between supply and demand particularly with regards to

attempts to expand the private sector (Jaramillo 2010). As shown in table 2 (Also see tables 10 and 13 in

appendix), Algerian universities seem to produce large numbers of humanities graduates who, while

suitable for civil service jobs in the public sector are not well matched to the demands for a

technologically driven knowledge economy needed in the manufacturing and services industries,

particularly in the private sector.

Table 2: Source Esau (2010)

ALGERIAN HIGHER EDUCATION AND HUMAN CAPITAL THEORY

In contradiction to the prevailing thinking of the first part of the 20thCentury that didnt consider

differences in worker output, Human Capital Theory (HCT) suggests that education or training raises the

productivity of workers by imparting useful knowledge and skills, hence raising workers future income

by increasing their lifetime earnings (Becker, 1964). Conceived as the Solow residual the theory was

developed into HCT in the 1960s and 1970s with seminal contributions from Schultz (1961), Becker

(1964) and Mincer (1974). The theory appeared to justify the decision for private investment in

education, as the costs of tuition plus opportunity cost of not working while studying were outweighed


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by the increased wages of well qualified workers over their working lives. Furthermore, education was

found to provide societal benefits (such as technological innovation) which increased national GDP,

thereby encouraging governments to further subsidise education. However, research by Psacharopoulos

(2004) concluded that there are diminishing rates of return in a youths education with primary

providing the highest and university providing the lowest rate of return on investment. This conclusion

has influenced such global education movements as the Education for all push toward universal

primary education and the increasing impetus to lay the financial burden of tertiary education at the

feet of the student. This view though, is now considered outdated and not in line with an increasinglytechnological world which requires higher order skills not traditionally catered for at primary level

(Colclough, Kingdon and Patrinos 2009).

Since the 1960s, HCT has come under considerable criticism from those who believe the theory to be

erroneous and those who believe the theory to be too simplistic. Proponents of the Screening

hypothesis for example refute the suggestion that schooling makes workers more productive and

suggests instead that traditional forms of education and assessment simply provide a process to sort

workers by innate ability (known as ability bias) thus facilitating an efficient recruitment process.

Attempts to address these flaws in HCT research have included the introduction of an IQ measure into

Mincerian measurements (Mincer 1974). Critics have pointed to the phenomena often described as the

diploma disease (Little 2006), where the supply of highly qualified and educated workers massively

outstrips the national demand, as an example of where education can be a drain rather than a boon to

the national economy and individual livelihood. Conversely, other academics have argued that HCT

should take into account the quality of schooling rather than just the quantity (usually measured as the

number of years). The research of Hanushek/Woessman (2007) concluded that the quantity of

education has little effect on GDP without at least some quality, especially in situations where other key

factors such as an open market and quality institutions do not exist. This research questioned the merit

of providing comprehensive primary education, something previously seen as an educational holy grail

by governments and international agencies alike. Fagerlind and Saha (1997) make a series of

recommendations for developing countries in respect to university provision. They suggest measures

such as the self-financing of tertiary education through loans, the reduction in differentials between

traditional and modern sector jobs and the tying of wage structures to occupational requirements

rather than educational attainments, would help to reduce the burden on governments to providetertiary education and would curtail the spread of the diploma disease.

In terms of human capital, for HE in Algeria to be deemed effective and efficient the costs of putting a

student through university (however it may be funded) should be outweighed by the increase in his long

term earnings. We should find that the more students that enrol in university the higher the national

GDP. An increase in student numbers should also cause an upturn in research leading to technical

innovation and subsequent financial benefits. However, the statistics seem to suggest that Algerian

graduates are actually less employable than their unqualified counterparts. The huge rise in student

numbers has not nearly been met with a relative increase in investment in the HE system. In fact,

investment actually halved in the 1990s (Chemingui; Ayadi 2003) and has only begun to improve in the

last decade (see table 7 in appendix). Since the 1980s Universities have struggled to maintain qualitywith class sizes often reaching 100 students per professor and campuses without suitable library,

computing and scientific equipment. They leave university having received not only a poor education

but also one that doesnt match with the needs of the new modern economy, leading researchers to

offer this damming assessment:

The current situation of formal education and human capital formation in Algeria leaves much

to be desired. Despite tremendous efforts in recent years, educational attainment remains low,

investments in education are inadequate and the quality of acquired skills is poor, with the


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resultant decline and sometimes negative returns to education. The educational and training

programs in Algeria are not producing workers with the skills needed by the private sector.

(Chemingui and Ayadi 2003:p16)

Those that do find employment, often in the public sector, are tied in to centralised salary controls that

curtail the motivation for innovation and rapid development. Those that dont, return to university for

further degrees, increasing the burden on the state and reducing the chance the student has of ever

repaying the costs incurred through increased labour productivity. Finally, huge numbers of graduates,mostly women (see table 11 in appendix), finish their degrees but never enter the labour market at all.

While attending university may create positive externalities for women and their societies such as

reduced infant mortality, their economic inactivity inevitably causes a huge loss of productivity. The

knock on effect is clear, in Algeria, economic growth during the 1990s has only averaged 1.9% by year,

which represents only 50% of its labour force growth rate (Jaramillo 2011). Basically, you only need to

consider that the cost of sending an Algerian to university is six times greater than per capita GDP

(compared to 2.5 times less as an OECD average) to understand that Algeria is not getting out what its

putting in (see table 8). By looking more closely at the main causes of these problems, it may be possible

to identify solutions and find a way forward.

Table 3. Source: Kosaraju and Zaafrane (Taken from Jaramillo 2011)

As stated previously, HE is offered free to all Algerians who pass the Baccalaureate exam and this

presents an uncomfortable set of economic realities. Firstly, ever increasing numbers of young Algerians

are seeing university as an economically viable option to working after leaving school. Therefore the

numbers of young people being productive and paying tax is decreasing while those being unproductive

and requiring assistance from the state are increasing. In addition, rather than choosing their

programmes of study based on a desire to become economically productive in the future, there is astrong tendency for a number of young Algerians to select their degree through aspirational ideas of

professional achievement and social standing. As Khelfaoui notes Algerian students do not

automatically associate education with occupation do not solely reduce access to knowledge to

its economic returns (2004:31). This has caused Algerians to choose longer degrees usually within the

humanities rather than going for less prestigious shorter vocational courses which are more likely to

provide the knowledge and skills needed for productive employment in the private sector.


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Kjelland (2008) makes the point that both HCT and the Signalling hypothesis are likely to positively affect

a persons decision to attend university. Potential students will see both an increase in skills and a way

of getting the attention of employers as being valuable and worth investing in. Conversely, while a

skilled workforce may benefit a state, that can only be the case if there exists a suitable labour market to

absorb the supply and similarly, the value of signalling can only be felt if employers find the skills of the

graduates useful. Therefore, as a year on year increase in enrolment over the last fifty years has not yet

realised a significant return on investment it would seem prudent to find alternative ways of financing

tertiary education.

One possible solution would be to increase the student contributions to his or her education. This could

be done through a loan scheme so as to not exclude poorer people from the opportunity to study. The

advantage of this system in terms of return on investment would be many. Firstly, young Algerians

would think more carefully about whether university was a better option than working or studying

through vocational training and apprenticeship. They may also perceive the outcomes of their education

in more economic terms if they have to pay for it and universities can provide shorter more specific and

relevant programmes that can be taken throughout a career rather than before it has started. In

addition certain programmes that provide highly desirable skills and knowledge for Algerias economy

can be incentivised through scholarships and partnerships with the private sector. The fact that students

pay for their education would also make them more discerning and insistent on quality. This could in

turn encourage universities to improve standards and use the additional funds from students and the

streamlining of their programmes to offer higher quality. A key element to this would be the

decentralising of universities, allowing them greater freedoms in hiring and training of faculty and

innovation in course development and management. It would also permit them to forge stronger links

with industry and begin to produce greater numbers of graduates with skills in line with the needs of the

Algerian economy.

ALGERIAN HIGHER EDUCATION AND POST COLONIALISM

Post colonialism can be regarded as a lens through which the continuing legacy of the colonial

encounter can be viewed as both the developing and developed worlds residents struggle to try to find

paths to freedom, development and equality. An intellectual movement, it can be found in literature

and cultural studies and is critical not only of colonialism itself, but also of the (so called) developed

worlds continual insistence on seeing itself as different from the former colonies. A champion of Post

colonialism is Edward Said whose pioneering work on Orientalism critiques the colonial discourse of

self and other that has shaped knowledge and social practices in the cultural, economic and political

spheres. As Said (1979) argues, to exert power over the colonised, the coloniser has produced an

essentialised knowledge of the colonised subjects as uncivilised and inferior. (Shin and Kubota 2008)

Spivak (1990) goes further by describing how colonialism has been used to destroy non-western ways of

looking at the world, something he referred to as epistemic violence, and the resultant dominance of

western thinking and understanding which has not only outlived colonialism but thrived ever since.

Furthermore, proponents of post colonialism accuse the western world of stifling the attempt by formercolonies to regain control of their own destinies by manipulating economic markets, seducing political

elite and providing development assistance in order to maintain the hegemonic status quo of benefactor

and dependant (Pennycook 1998). They call for an end to neo-colonialism and encourage the

developing world to rise up and forge their own identities through the reinforcement of their own

languages and cultures (Phillipson 1990)

Postcolonial theorists have been quick to point out that Postcolonialism as a term is a slight misnomer

being that, in their opinion, colonialism has never really ended. It has been referred to as a gradual


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process of disengagement with the colonial experience rather than the advent of a distinctively new era

(Crossley and Tikly 2004:148). However, others would insist that traditional notions of state and culture

are become increasingly blurred by the rapidly interconnecting web of ever more tangled interests. The

hegemonic cultures of the West have forsaken physical dominance with a more subliminal kind,

insidiously creeping through a myriad of global messages each promising its eager audience something

better. As Smith (1999) puts it Under the new world order, of contemporary society, the manifestations

of colonialism are often disguised under the name of globalization. No longer forcing its ideas through

subjugation, the West is seen to be selling its cultures and technologies to a developing world seeminglyaddicted to foreign products. And the transfer is still largely a one way street. Taking Africa as an

example, its part as vendor in the global market is incredibly small, less than 1 percent (Shin and Kabota

2008) yet as Copans noted If African societies have remained largely local, their official institutions and

the elites are among the most globalized, drawing all their referents from the global context. (2001:51-

52).

Algerias colonial past still casts a shadow which haunts every contemporary political decision. When

Algeria achieved independence in 1962, it immediately sought to free itself from its former colonial

rulers, both economically and politically, and reappropriate knowledge and history (Khelfaoui 2004). It

saw education and in particular HE as the key to not only providing the know how to develop a modern

economy capable of competing with Europe, but also to rehabilitate a culture and identity torn apart by

150 years of colonial rule. As Shivji wrote Through the academia, we affirm our right to think, the basis

of the right to self-determination (2005:3). One of the key tenets was the reinstating of Arabic as the

national language across all fields. Philipson (1990) argues that being educated in a foreign language is

one of the key reasons why developing nations have struggled to achieve any real independence from

the West. However, while the government was successful in reintroducing Arabic as the dominant

language in most areas of civil society and education, HE remained stubborn, particularly in the scientific

and technical fields where Arabic was seen as being ill equipped to be an effective medium for such a

globalised field. Since its insertion, this language policy has been hugely controversial not least because

it has created a divide between a largely Francophone over 40s population and a predominantly Arabic

speaking youth. Those in the middle are currently being referred to as a lost generation as business

leaders lament young peoples inability to work effectively in industry because of their language skills.

As one businessman put it "it takes one to two years to re-educate an Algerian graduate in specializedvocabulary and international standards for technical and scientific work in particularthey are triliterate

illiterates (Daughton 2011). Indeed, it is telling that while Algerias contribution to global scientific

research increased in the 1990s, it was the French language, and to a lesser extent English, that was

used as the vehicle of Algerias academic thought (Esau 2010). One doubtless boon to the Arabisation

process was the shift in the proportion of Algerian academic staff which increased from 54% in 1970 to

99% in 2000 (see table 14 in appendix).

Another objective of this reconstruction was to break down the former elitism that prevailed under

colonial rule where only a tiny minority was lucky enough to attend university, and begin the mammoth

task of giving access to the broader Algerian community. Under increasingly socialist rule, the student

population became the champions of social justice and played an active role in the denunciation of

ideologies aimed at legitimizing academically, the knowledge and assumptions that supported the social

order (Lander 2004:51). Foreign experts still attended every decision but more as technicians, offering

to fill the skills gap for reasons of international solidarity (Khelfaoui 2004). The two decades after

independence brought an unprecedented rise in investment in HE and the number of universities and

students exploded exponentially (see tables 1 and 2 in appendix). A major post-independence objective

in Algeria was to create the ability to emulate research efforts in successfully industrialised countries

with the view to quickly catch up with them and rapidly close the technological gap (Esau 2010).Academically, Algeria was riding high, or seen another way was high on the democratisation of HE, and


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looking forward to a bright future as one ofAfricas leading lights. However, like many countries in Africa

and elsewhere around the developing world, such optimism was soon to be dashed by the financial

crisis at the start of the eighties. In addition to Algerias own woes ofcorruption, mismanagement, and

the inability to reduce its dependence on oil resources that were losing value, the government was

forced to accept crippling structural adjustment programmes and a curtailment of public spending, a

move which started a downward spiral for HE in Algeria. Without the funds to support an ever growing

student population that would reach 19.6% of the population by 2004 (Esau 2010), or the freedom to

reinvent itself and seek alternative sources of revenue, the university system began to deteriorate withpoor facilities and living conditions for students, out dated scientific and technical equipment and,

perhaps most painfully, an exodus of senior staff to France or Canada causing a brain drain in both

teaching and research. At the turn of the century, Algerias social revolution in Education was being

suffocated by external debt, which had reached 71% of GDP in 1996 (AEO 2012), and the vice like grip of

foreign banks. In addition, university programmes of the mono-disciplinary classical approach were

considered to be out of step with producing the multi-skilled workers necessary in the new information

age. It was clear that the situation couldnt continue and reforms were needed. However, the

government was unable to look to their own academic elite for answers, as they had become

increasingly marginalised, disillusioned or self-exiled. Instead, the government turned to its former

colonial masters for help and like many others in African countries, eagerly accepted a European

solution.The Bologna process, which attempts to standardise the programmes between member countries in

order to increase student mobility, improve cooperation and attract the best students and professors

from around the world was initiated in 1998 and is already integrated into 46 countries of the European

Union. Known as the LMD Licence-Master-Doctorat in francophone countries, it was also offered to

African governments as a turnkey product (Khelfaoui 2004)(see table 12 in appendix). This was

obviously an attractive proposition to a country suffering from financial and academic impotence and it

was accepted as the main educational model for HE as part of the 10 year reform strategy implemented

in 2004 (Megnounif 2009). It was hoped that the reform would bring Algerian universities into line with

the developed world, make the system more efficient, increase student mobility and produce learning

outcomes more attuned to the needs of labour markets (Clark 2006). However, many in Algeria are

suspicious of the wholesale adoption of a foreign system which has not been around long enough for itsimpact to be assessed. As Khelfaoui notes it is particularly rare for a state to accept the importation of a

reform, which implies such scope and challenge, even before it has been proven in countries for which

and in which it was conceived (2004:21). The promised benefits of the reforms are also dubious.

Though it may create increased mobility for students, it seems likely that the migration will be one way:

that is out of Africa. The increased exodus of Algerian students to Europe would not be the only loss to

Algeria. In 2003, Algeria played host to 600 thousand foreign students (Clark 2006), mostly from Sub

Saharan Africa. One wonders how that number will be affected by Africas mimicking of the European

system. As Khelfaoui points out:

African countries emulate for themselves the academic characteristics of European countries

(generally those of the country they mostly depend on) without serious consideration ofmobility opportunities for students and academics within Africa. mobility is essentially

understood only in the Africa-Europe sense (2004:30)

What worries Khelfaoui most is how this alignment will affect Algeria, and Africa, in terms of the socio-

cultural development of its own knowledges, languages and competencies across the whole educational

spectrum. For example, how will Arabic be able to compete as a language of HE in Algeria when

universities will be under pressure to open up their programmes to all nationalities? The rapid rise of HE

in Algeria since independence coupled with the increasingly omnipresent technologies that connect


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everyone with everywhere have gifted the West powers of spreading their hegemony unimaginable in

colonial times. Where once the Algerian elite would travel to France to study and return Francophone

leaders in waiting. Now, the educated masses can be indoctrinated into European ways of thinking

without even leaving their shores. For Khelfaoui, this could define a return to colonialism as the Bologna

Process appears to be the completion of a slow process of exclusion of states and societies from the

definition of their own public policies. The considerable work of postcolonial reconfiguration of

educational systems is severely challenged by a new paradigm of domination carried by the agents of

globalization (2004:24).

Conclusion

As with all entities, Algerias HE system is a product of its own environment and history. That history has

been inextricably linked with Algerias struggle to find its place in the world, to shake off its colonial

shackles by reinventing itself linguistically and academically. That environment has been an Educational

infrastructure that booms or busts along with its oil revenues, often accused of succumbing to political

changes rather than provoking them. However, one constant thing that successive Algerian

governments seem to have found since 1962 is that true independence is neither possible nor ultimately

desirable in this modern globalised world. By adopting the LMD system Algeria has taken a gamble on

whether this bold step will lessen or deepen their dependency on the West and to what extent it will

generate employment and wealth for its increasingly youthful population (over 70% are under 35 AEO

2012). Algeria still has a long way to go to fully embrace the knowledge economy (see table 5 in

appendix) and the adoption of the LMD system recognises a need to make its university programmes

not only more relevant to Algerian industries, but the main engine and driver of the Algerian economy

as it seeks to diversify away from its reliance on hydrocarbons and into technology and innovation.

Globalists will see this as an irresistible and inevitable move which will not only bring higher

international standards to programmes but also encourage the Algerian government to decentralise HE

thus improving the competitiveness of Algerian Universities and fostering an environment of market

linked innovation while reducing the burden on domestic capacity. Conversely, sceptics will warn of a

return to a colonial situation where Algerian Universities are controlled and legislated by a Europeansystem, once again reliant of foreign expertise in the development of Algerian HE and at risk of reversing

the development of Arabic as a language of learning. Whichever is the case, it is clear that with one in

five of Algerias graduates unemployed, something must be done to make HE in Algeria more relevant to

the needs of its people, its industries and its countries ambitions.


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Appendix: Tables

1, Number of Undergraduate Students in Algerian Universities.

2, Number of post graduate Students in Algerian Universities.

3, Number of Scientific citations per 100,000 inhabitants.

4, Patent applications filed in Algeria (1997 2004)


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5, Knowledge economy index in MENA (Jaramillo 2011)

6, Proportion of the population (25+ with a tertiary degree)

7, Total Spending on graduate as percentage of GDP


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8, Unemployment rate by duration Statistics 2010 (Esau 2011)

9, Evolution of total unemployment vs youth unemployment over time (Esau 2011).


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10, Share of firms indicating labour skill level as a major constraint to business creation

11, Ratio of female to male attainment in tertiary education (Jaramillo 2011).


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12, The higher education system in Algeria (EACEA 2011)

13, Enrollment in HE by sectors in MENA (Source UNESCO)

Table 14: Number of Algerian Academic staff at university. Source: Esau (2011).

Documents

Higher Education in Algeria Through the Lens of HCT and Post Colonialism