Algerian government gives the go-ahead for private universities
2008-09-23
Algerian universities will need to accommodate over 2 million students by 2015. To address this rise in class sizes, the Algerian authorities may permit the establishment of private universities for the first time.
By Achira Mammeri for Magharebia in Algiers – 23/09/08
 [Achira Mammeri] Algeria's Higher Education Minister Rachid Harraoubia has said that private universities could relieve the burden when Algeria's state-run institutions are overwhelmed with students by 2015. |
To address the problem of overcrowding in schools, the Algerian government is taking steps to open up the higher education sector to private institutions. University education, which has historically been the exclusive domain of the state, will be opened up to the private sector under a new law, to be made public later this month.
The new law will establish a private higher education establishment under the direction of the Ministry for Higher Education and Scientific Research.
To ensure that the establishment does not overstep its bounds, the ministry will oversee syllabi, course content and teaching regimes.
The private institution must inform the authorities of the format of each teaching unit or module, whether lectures, seminars, practical exercises, or job placement, and is required to report student-teacher ratios and evaluation/examination methods.
Under the new law, private universities will also be required to "prove the availability of qualified teaching personnel to ensure that the standard of teaching provided in the establishments is at least as high as that found in state-run higher education establishments".
Any project involving co-operation with foreign institutions must also be approved by the state. To minimise the advantage of private establishments as a result of having greater room to manoeuvre, the law excludes any higher education in medical science, including medicine, dentistry and pharmacy studies.
The education ministry has offered no official explanation for the exception. Critics say it reveals a real fear among the Algerian authorities that the best lecturers in medical sciences will abandon state-run universities to find better pay in the private sector, as has happened in hospitals.
Public higher education in Algeria faces a number of problems, namely overcrowding and a severe shortage of lecturers.
According to official statistics, nearly 4,000 teachers across all levels have left the country over the past ten years.
This led Algeria to launch an international recruitment campaign for teachers of IT, economics and law in 2005. For the 2008-2009 academic year, the ministry offered 5,688 new positions for junior lecturers and teachers. The current student-teacher ratio is 29:1.
Particular attention is being paid to teacher education, with 7,040 places to be created to train lecturers and 676 more for doctoral schools. Some 420 training grants will be available to junior lecturers and part-time lecturers to complete their doctorates, along with 100 grants for the top graduates in a national competition.
Higher Education Minister Rachid Harraoubia has said that which as many as 2 million students by 2015, Algeria's forty or so state-run universities and institutions will be overwhelmed.
The hope is that private universities will fill the gaps, Harraoubia said.
Not everyone agrees, however, and a number of politicians have spoken out against the measure. Louisa Hanoune of the Workers' Party called for the law to be repealed, saying the reform will open the door to the privatisation of state universities.
Minister Harraoubia responded that the government has no intention of privatising state-run universities. The Islamist Movement of Society for Peace has said the government should work to improve state universities before opening up to the private sector.
The Algerian National Front warned that the most skilled teachers would leave state-run universities for the higher pay levels and better working conditions in private institutions.
Samir, a 23 year-old student in his fifth year of medical school, had a different opinion.
He told Magharebia that the state should encourage the creation of private universities, particularly foreign ones, in order to improve the level of scientific research in Algeria.
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ahmed/batna Posted 2008-09-24
Hello to the staff at Magharebia, At a time when Western civilisation is opening colleges specialised in the technology of the future, Algeria is opening three medieval wilaya (provincial) universities as properties belonging to multi-billionaires like Rafik Khelifa. In Egypt, doctors, teachers and professors sell their beans on the sidewalk, live in cemeteries and amuse hashish.
abdelmoumen Posted 2008-09-26
Algeria needs to follows the United Arab Emirates’ example in education and higher education. We cannot blame this country for selling out Arabic culture, because, in terms of Arab-ness and tolerance, the Algerians do not even hold a candle to it. And yet, universities from all countries flourish there, including the American, English and French universities (for example: Sorbonne’s INSEAD). Algeria and the Algerians, because of their legendary arrogance—these gentlemen know everything and know it better than anyone else—missed the boat in 1962. The chaos the followed for 50 years, wherein education was left to incompetent and fanatic people, led us to where we are nowadays, and the proof is there. We voluntarily killed off our critical mentality in our education system such that we produced monsters capable of killing our women and children. Whose fault is it? In this country of “nif” as in the countries of Asia, the ministers resign when they might be reproached with the shadow of a mistake. Do men of this tempering exist in Algeria? I doubt it.
منال Posted 2008-09-28
Oh my God, if they make private universities, there will be a higher rate of ignorance in Algeria. I mean illiteracy. Do they intend everyone, how, how? May God protect us.
hadjazi Posted 2008-12-03
Establishing private universities is not really a problem; the real problem is the way Algeria’s public universities are managed at the pedagogical, administrative and even social level (i.e., student housing). What is the interest in building big universities with a system of management that is primitive? To better explain myself, I will give you a few examples: students’ rights are not respected, the grades are not posted within the legal timeframe, the grading scale is not posted, and students risk having their grades reduced should they wish to consult the copy of their exam. What is more, the grades are catastrophic in most universities because the professor can grade however he wants, something that causes serious abuses such as extortion and bribery. Here is one more example with regards to the administrative side: do you think it is normal that Algerian students need to have several cards, e.g. a student ID, transportation pass, library card, residence card, dining hall card and so on? I would hope that I single card with an identity number would suffice for the most part. Lastly, at the social level, the situation is catastrophic in most student housing. Since the 1970s there has been only one change: now the students get 20 thousand dinars a month. Unfortunately, this is poorly hard to manage as it falls back into the pockets of the people who are allegedly the head honchos of the university transportation and dining offices.
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