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This chapter explores policy matters that have arisen as a result of the impact of COVID-19 on the education sector, with a specific focus on tertiary education in one African country, namely Botswana. The terms tertiary education and higher education are used interchangeably to describe post-secondary level education. Information was sourced from the existing literature as well as tracking media reports on COVID-19 matters. COVID-19 has ushered in the new normal which has disrupted existing policies, practices and business models in the tertiary education sector. It has also given unprecedented momentum to the move towards online learning. It is argued in this chapter that these developments have led to the emergence of blended learning as the most suitable way of delivering tertiary education. The chapter highlights the need for a review of policies and strategies at both the national and institutional levels in order to respond appropriately to the challenges brought about by COVID-19 and build a foundation for a sustainable tertiary education system.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the affordability of private tertiary education for households in Malaysia.

The relevant literature is reviewed to provide an overview of the affordability of private tertiary education. Data are obtained randomly from a private university in Malaysia and the results are analyzed using the one‐sample t‐test and one‐way ANOVA.

The proxy of affordability, which is the average household income, reveals the per capita average is more than three times the national average, which points out the non‐affordability of students from low and average earning households to afford private tertiary education in Malaysia. Financial assistance of students at the tertiary level is insufficient and may warrant further policy and administrative improvements to reach deserving students. There is also difference in income and hence affordability between urban‐rural households, a perspective that demands changes in the current income distribution policies. In order to address the issues highlighted in this study, salient suggestions have been proposed.

This paper reinforces the need to address the issue of affordability of tertiary education and its significant importance, especially to developing countries.

Abandonment of construction projects is still a burning issue in Nigeria. Beside the poor financing of educational infrastructure, abandonment of construction projects remains a significant contributor to the inadequacy of facilities in Nigerian public tertiary educational institutions. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to assess the causes of abandoned projects specific to public institutions of tertiary education in Nigeria, with a view to providing empirical data that are generalizable to enhancing successful delivery of teaching and research facilities.

Primary data used for the study were obtained through questionnaires administered to 47 professionals comprising 8 architects, 12 mechanical and electrical engineers, 15 civil/structural engineers, 4 builders and 8 quantity surveyors who were involved in physical development of construction projects in public tertiary educational institutions in Osun State. The data were analyzed using mean analysis, factor analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis (K-W) test.

The factors most significant to abandonment of tertiary educational institutional projects were delayed payments, fund mismanagement, inadequate budgetary allocation, inadequacy of finance, inflation and bankruptcy of the contractor. Findings also showed that not all factors causing abandonment were significant to tertiary institutional projects. The significant factors clustered under stakeholders’ response capacity, poor financial management, inadequate planning and monitoring, and unexpected occurrences. The K-W test showed significant differences among the categories of tertiary institutions on the ranking of the most significant causes of abandoned projects.

The study was limited to public tertiary educational institutions in Osun State. Further studies could focus on public health institution projects and private tertiary educational projects to improve the body of knowledge on the subject of causative factors for project abandonment.

The study provided implications for effective contract management of public tertiary educational institutional projects, which is a significant step to improving the available teaching and research facilities in Nigerian tertiary institutions.

The study provides implications for effective contract management systems of projects for public tertiary educational institutions, thereby improving the available teaching and research facilities.

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.

Tertiary education in the Anglophone Caribbean, particularly in Jamaica, has become highly competitive and complex and increasingly influenced by global neoliberal discourses. This free-market driven development is partly evidenced by the proliferation of national, regional, and international providers. Yet, within this seemingly unrelenting international influence, one can also detect more recent approaches by regional governments in concert and individually, through policy and systems of governance to reassert their sovereignty and retain some level of regulation and ownership of tertiary education. This chapter establishes an analytical framework for understanding these tertiary education governance changes by drawing on the principles of critical educational policy analysis. The chapter scrutinizes the multiple sources of power, international, regional, and national, that shape the rapid ongoing tertiary educational changes. Ultimately, the chapter argues that Jamaica’s tertiary education governance can be categorized as a shift from the governance mechanisms of “growth driven” to “regulatory control.” The chapter further posits that future regional shifts in tertiary education governance will be shaped by the continuing postcolonial struggles to adapt to the global order while protecting regional and national interests and aspirations.

Does participation in tertiary education in Aotearoa New Zealand weaken or strengthen Samoan ethnic identity? Narratives of Pacific women graduates interviewed for a doctoral study of ethnic identity construction provide illustrations of how a process of ethnic identity formation is built up through interactions between groups and individuals within institutions where all members of society participate and come into contact with each other. Ethnic identity construction is influenced by both circumstantial situational factors and what people themselves bring into those circumstances (Cornell & Hartmann, 1998). The cultural backgrounds of this group of tertiary students are socially constructed within their families and churches. It is these backgrounds they bring with them into tertiary education contexts. The strengthening of ethnic identity, as experienced by this group of Samoan women graduate students, was unique, complex and at times contradictory.

The purpose of this paper is to provide information on development of standards in Tanzania which may be of help to training providers in other countries as they seek to improve the quality and standards of their provision.

The need to provide quality assured tertiary qualifications in Tanzania to win both national and international recognition is explained. Processes of registration of institutions capable of delivering training programmes adequately and accreditation of the same to offer awards at appropriate levels as a means to ensure quality of provision are explored. Standards of good practice in Tanzanian tertiary education are surveyed and the challenges to their achievement are discussed based on the author's direct experience in Tanzania. Relevant and recent literatures on the topic are surveyed and some lessons drawn.

Accreditation standards are useful in instilling best practices in education and training. However, education and training institutions need to understand and practice them over a period of time to bring about expected results. It is concluded that ensuring quality in education is a multifaceted phenomenon that calls for the joint efforts of all key stakeholders.

The paper illustrates that the National Council for Technical Education is one of the first regulatory bodies in Africa to introduce academic quality standards in tertiary technical institutions. Notable improvements have been recorded since its inception. The experience described is the paper is not very common, so other countries taking similar steps may find it useful.

The aim of the chapter is to investigate the changing structural position of post-secondary schools in Poland, seen from the perspective of the expansion of higher education from one side and the current reform of vocational education from the other. Do post-secondary schools enhance opportunities for those who might not otherwise consider further education, especially when we consider lower cost, open admissions and greater accessibility in comparison with higher education institutions? Or do they play a role of a ‘discounted’ and ‘undervalued’ education for those who could not manage to enter three-year-bachelor cycles in tertiary education and thus were forced to lower their initial educational aspirations? The opening up of higher education to new student populations was done by the rapid expansion of the private (paid for) sector and the fee-paying courses in the public sector. Liberal educational policy not only opened an opportunity for the privatization in higher education, but also expanded the market-driven provision at the post-secondary level. The discussion on the relevance of post-secondary vocational qualifications must be seen within the context of the continual inflation of diplomas/degrees and the unemployment of graduates after finishing higher education. Since 2010, there has been a reverse process initiated at the governmental level in Poland: reform schemes to increase the participation of young people in vocational education and training. However, the structural position and functions of post-secondary schools, as well as their role in the employability of young people, are not subject to any open discussion at the political level. This sort of status quo concerning post-secondary institutions means that their institutional identity issues are resolved and their structural position defined predominantly by market forces.

Education has become an important and frequently studied field for neo-institutional scholars. Undoubtedly, some of the oldest and now canonized neo-institutional works were written about education: clearly John Meyer's (1977) work on education as an institution, but also the work of Robert K. Merton (1938/1970) on early modern science. Our work here on global tertiary education intends to add to this now rich body of institutionalist literature on education on both empirical and theoretical grounds by studying cross-national trends in tertiary education.

In 1993, all of the six polytechnic institutions in Ghana were elevated to the status of tertiary‐level institutions. This study is an assessment of the state of polytechnic libraries in relation to their new roles as libraries of tertiary institutions. It seeks to investigate the adequacy or otherwise of personnel, finance, materials, accommodation, equipment and services in these libraries. The writers conclude that these facilities are woefully inadequate and have to be improved in order to enhance the academic performance of the students and staff of the polytechnics.