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Tertiary education in Ghana has seen rapid advancement over the past two decades. This growth is the result of transformative policy reforms such as upgrading polytechnics into higher education status; the establishment of the University of Development Studies (UDS) in the northern part of the country; the amalgamation of existing Colleges of Education into degree awarding institutions; the creation of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to provide supplementary financial support for infrastructure, faculty research and development; expansion of distance education programs; modification of the student loan scheme; and a conducive regulatory environment that encourages private sector participation in higher education provision. In spite of these developments, the system continues to face several challenges such as limited funding to support academic programs; limited participation rates for low-income students, females, and minorities; difficulty recruiting and retaining young academic and research faculty; inadequate research capacities; limited ICT infrastructure to enhance instruction and curriculum delivery and inadequate facilities to support science and technology education; etc. This chapter focuses on the state of public higher education in Ghana with emphasis on current growth and challenges. The chapter offers descriptive analysis based on government policy reports and documents, enrollment data from universities in Ghana, and data from the Ministry of Education and the National Council for Tertiary Education in Ghana.

Academic freedom is seen as the freedom of teachers, students, and academic institutions to pursue knowledge wherever it may lead, without undue or unreasonable interference (Nelson, 2010). This chapter looks at this concept of academic freedom and argues that the centralized system of education in Cameroon constitutes an abating factor for academic freedom. That is, emphasis is placed on the health of academic freedom noting that colonialism, politics, religion, undemocratic and corrupt government, as well as the control of social media and civil liberties play a significant part in stifling academic freedom. Information is drawn from the literature in the field, recent research, and current events in the country. This chapter describes the challenges and variables at work that have led to the decline of academic freedom in the country, revealing the fact that educators who carry out research, teach or communicate ideas or facts that are inconvenient to the parents, faith organizations, and the ruling political party find themselves likely to be fired from their jobs, targeted for public defamation, and even detained in maximum security jails. It further points out that academic freedom is important to the development of a country and a country which does not allow freedom risks promoting bad, irrational, and toxic ideas (Sayer, 2017). Since the right to academic freedom is under attack, there is a danger of stifling original, beneficial, and innovative ideas from researchers, and Cameroon misses out on the benefits of the academic freedom.

This chapter explores the feasibility of establishing a consortium for the sharing of electronic resources between two libraries: the University of the West Indies at Mona and the University of Technology, Jamaica, both of which are located in Kingston. After a description of the institutional and library contexts, the two libraries are compared in terms of missions, staffing, funding, and collections and other differences and similarities including the e-resources. To analyze the feasibility of establishing a partnership/consortium, the exploration and evaluation of formation of a consortium were done using three kinds of analysis: a literature review, interviews, and a review of existing processes and documentation. The data gathering methods and results are described followed by a potential blueprint for implementation. The researchers did not interview or solicit the views of the university administrators and governing bodies or government officials as to the feasibility of such cooperation in light of the tentative nature of the investigation. The authors however worked with the premise that with the proper infrastructure, a consortium between the two universities would be viable. Other institutions considering development or formation of potential consortia might find the approach and methods in this chapter useful as a possible methodology.

This chapter discusses the social mobility and the political consequences of three education events in Hong Kong: the extension of free and compulsory schooling in 1978, the construction of universities after the Tiananmen repression amid popular unrest, and the creation of two-year degree programs after Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region. The chapter shows the repercussions of these events for civil society organizations and political parties. The chapter first reviews the historical context for state-society relations created by the current Special Administrative Region and the former British Crown Colony. It presents two alternative perspectives on the impact of higher education for civic development and social mobilization, perspectives rooted in neo-functionalist and in neo-Weberian sociologies of education. Next, the chapter discusses the actors and agents of political change in Hong Kong. Inferences are drawn about the social integration of new immigrants from Mainland China, as well as the opportunities for women and for lower-income students, based on analysis of 35 years of Hong Kong Census data (1971–2006). The chapter concludes by raising questions about the future ability of governments and parties to define the postsecondary policy agenda, an agenda that now threatens to escape from government control and become a flash-point of popular mobilization.

Through political decisions – in the North mostly willed decisions, in the South decisions forced on them by monetary institutions in the North – governments have dismantled national controls with capital movements, profits and foreign investments. By this willed or enforced political choice – the consequences of which has seldom been spelled out to the electorates – political leaders have removed those legal and administrative tools which might have protected local economic and social systems. Directed by Western interests the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have used and continue to use their creditor powers to pressure first the poor debtor countries of the South and then the collapsing members of the former Soviet Union to turn their own battered economies into the same kind of unrestricted markets. Last but not the least the World Trade Organization (WTO) has become a vehicle for assuring that practically the whole world is opened for the unhindered operations of private capital. This ideology, which I here term globalization, leads to a democratic deficit, increases income differences and forces new groups into poverty.

The chapter explores how tourism creates even more dependence as spaces become gentrified and too expensive for local occupation through colonial tropes, and accumulation models. Tourism consumes gently. In the wake of Hurricanes Irma, Maria, and Dorian, The Bahamas and Puerto Rico have experienced an accelerated strike on their natural and social resources: from land deals and tax concessions to power infrastructure and school closures. Debt has plagued the countries; the policies designed to get them out of debt prior to the natural disasters, then converted into man-made disasters, have only deepened dependence and indebtedness. In fact, both have become externalized communities where land is being accumulated through dispossession. Tourism is more than just hotels and resorts; it is now the gated communities and private islands that build on coloniality and inequalities. Tourism, disaster capitalism, and green grabbing accumulate by dispossessing locals of land in the name of improving their economic health. Economic well being seems to result in loss.

In recent years, tertiary education has been cited as a key factor in development and personal prosperity for many nations and has widely been associated with various social and private benefits in many countries. It has widely been considered to be a vehicle for individuals’ social mobility and economic prosperity, especially for students coming from poor and disadvantaged families. Despite its potential, most higher education systems have recently faced a number of challenges that have compelled them to amend their general style of functioning and ways of doing things. One of the areas affected has been the ability for educational systems to guarantee the inclusion and accessibility of the marginalized to higher education. Whereas in recent years higher education institutions have witnessed increased demands and a surge of applicants for entrance in universities; changes in the higher education systems and the emergence of trends such as privatization, cost-sharing and education budgets cuts have emerged as blockages to access for some of the students. This chapter examines trends in Tanzanian higher education and assesses the barriers to accessibility of loans and grants to students from poor families and its implications to participation and inclusion.