Widening University Access and Participation in the Global South: Using the Zambian Context to Inform Other Developing Nations

Key analysts of private higher education have described the unprecedented expansion of the sector as part of the global revolution in education. Globally, the private sector now enrols one in every three tertiary education students, reflecting 32.9% of the total higher education enrolment (Levy, 2018; Tamrat, 2020). Private higher education provision is often seen as a solution to increasing access to higher education in many developing countries. However, there are common assumptions about private higher education institutions focusing more on making profits rather than improving the quality of education, especially in low-income countries where they are not as prestigious as the likes of Harvard, Duke, Stanford, Yale, or Princeton in the United States. These negative assumptions have led to a limited perspective on the contributions of private universities to human development. My book, which focuses on widening university access and participation in the Global South, particularly in the Sub-Saharan region, acknowledges the contributions of non-state actors as partners in advancing development in developing countries. Using a capability approach as an analytical framework, it examines how access to higher education, enabled through private universities, can transform students’ lives and contribute to human development in low-income countries in the global south. Providing new insights into the contribution of the private higher education sector to Africa’s developmental agendas, the book offers an alternative to human capital theory by giving an expansive notion on the value of higher education —emphasising both the economic and the intrinsic societal and social benefits that come from access to university and raised aspirations. The chapters identify and discuss six specific capabilities valued by students that higher education provides. This includes epistemological access; epistemic contribution; aspiration; recognition, respect, and belonging; Ubuntu; and employability. In so doing, it illuminates the unique role of private higher education institutions in developing countries in addressing the challenges of widening university access and participation where access to public universities cannot accommodate everyone who wants to go to university.