Title page
Contents
Acknowledgments 6
Abbreviations 7
FAQs - Answering Key Questions on Tertiary Education 9
Executive Summary 12
TERTIARY EDUCATION PRODUCES ADVANCED SKILLS AND INNOVATION THAT ARE ESSENTIAL TO GROWTH AND SOCIAL COHESION 12
BENEFITS OF INVESTING IN TERTIARY EDUCATION ARE HIGH FOR INDIVIDUALS AND SOCIETIES, ALTHOUGH RETURNS ARE HETEROGENEOUS 13
THE TERTIARY EDUCATION SECTOR HAS EXPERIENCED DRAMATIC CHANGES 14
A FRAMEWORK FOR STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS IN TERTIARY EDUCATION 15
Section 1. Introduction 19
BEYOND COVID-19: GLOBAL MEGATRENDS AND THE NEED FOR ADVANCED SKILLS 21
TERTIARY EDUCATION CONTINUES ITS EXPONENTIAL GROWTH 23
BUT WHAT ABOUT AFRICA? 24
ADVANCED SKILLS AND HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY ARE ESSENTIAL IN RAPIDLY CHANGING DEMOGRAPHIC ENVIRONMENTS 25
TO ENSURE THE DEVELOPMENT OF ADVANCED (INCLUDING GREEN) SKILLS AND RESEARCH AND INNOVATION, COUNTRIES NEED TO STEER 26
Section 2. Tertiary education: A vital investment for economic development and poverty reduction 28
TERTIARY EDUCATION SYSTEMS NEED TO DIVERSIFY FOR RELEVANCE, EFFICIENCY, AND RESILIENCE 31
Section 3. STEERing Tertiary Education Systems 34
STRATEGICALLY DIVERSIFIED SYSTEMS 36
TECHNOLOGY 40
EQUITY 46
EFFICIENCY 51
RESILIENCE 60
Section 4. Moving forward 64
Annex 1. The World Bank's portfolio on tertiary education 67
Annex 2. Review of World Bank literature on tertiary education 73
Annex 3. Tertiary education and human capital 80
References 85
Table 2.1. Benefits of tertiary education 30
Table 3.1. Total affected tertiary education students, by region and income level 60
Table 3.2. Conventional governance compared to adaptive governance for systems resilience 63
Figure 1.1. Projections of share of 25 - 34-year-olds with tertiary education, 2013, 2030, selected countries 23
Figure 2.1. Routes of economic and social benefits via tertiary education 29
Figure 2.2. Gross Enrolment Ratio in tertiary education, 1970-2019 32
Figure 3.1. STEERing Tertiary Education 35
Figure 3.2. An effective, diversified, and articulated tertiary education system 36
Figure 3.3. Skilled labor force by income, average for 1992-2012 54
Boxes
Box 1.1. Sub-Saharan Africa strives to catch up 24
Box 3.1. India's plan to build the biggest tertiary education system in the world 37
Box 3.2. Benchmarking university governance in the Middle East and North Africa: A tool for addressing challenges within the tertiary education sector in the region and beyond 39
Box 3.3. Tracking graduates - A powerful evidence base for the employability discourse in Bangladesh 40
Box 3.4. Evoke - Using technology to develop 21st century skills at Uniminuto University, Colombia 41
Box 3.5. Strengthening NRENs to improve technological resilience for tertiary education in Africa 43
Box 3.6. Afghanistan: Promoting gender equity in tertiary education 47
Box 3.7. The Quality Improvement Program in Tunisia: An innovative funding mechanism to improve the employability of graduates 52
Box 3.8. Higher education funding reforms in Latvia - Focus on performance 53
Box 3.9. The Student Loan Facility at Duoc UC, Chile 55
Box 3.10. The PASET Regional Benchmarking Initiative - Improving the quality and relevance of programs in Sub-Saharan Africa 56
Box 3.11. Africa Higher Education Centers of Excellence Projects 59
Box Tables
Table B1.1.1. Educational rates of return, by region 25
Box Figures
Figure B1.1.1. Gross tertiary enrollment rates, by region 24
Figure B3.5.1. Connectivity in Sub-Saharan Africa using NRENs 43
Figure B3.8.1. The Three-Pillar System-Level Higher Education Funding Model in Latvia 53
Annex Tables
Table A1.1. Education sector portfolio summary, fiscal years 2015-2021 67
Table A1.2. World Bank higher education projects by region and thematic area 68
Table A1.3. Education sector ASAs by number of activities, fiscal years 2015-21 69
Table A1.4. Active tertiary education Reimbursable Advisory Services 69
Table A1.5. Subsector commitment as percentage of total education sector commitment for lending operations (FY2015-FY2021) 70
Table A1.6. List of World Bank tertiary education projects with a commitment of US$100 million or more, approved between FY2015 and FY2021 71
Table A2.1. Key messages from World Bank policy frameworks on tertiary education 79
Annex Boxes
BOX A3.1. Tertiary education sector reform and societal change in Vietnam 82
BOX A3.2. The Human Capital Project and Tertiary Education 83