Aid policy for universities in developing countries: A British view

Abstract

This article draws attention to the implications of recent British government policy decisions for cooperation with universities in developing countries. The writer, the former head of the Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas, suggests that the increasing amount of central government control has led to a deterioration. Traditional governmental methods of organising technical assistance are unduly expensive in terms of cost and staff time and are unsuited to the type of institution-to-institution collaboration which is essential if aid programmes are to he effectively focussed upon key universities in the Third World. There has been an unnecessary proliferation of “in-house” expertise in various government or semi-government agencies. The author calls for a return to the de-centralised policy of the late 1960s when the government helped British universities to reconstitute the Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas. The present policy of merging the activities of organisations such as the British Council and the Inter-University Council under the Overseas Development Administration is criticised and a case made for recognising that higher education should be a separate and distinct element in the programme for each country. Such activities are best handled by a single specialist agency which uses the method of facilitating direct collaboration between identified institutions.[/p]