My Beauty Best Teacher

The dwindling funding for Tertiary Education in Sub-Saharan Africa has reached crisis proportions .The challenge is for institutions to formulate alternative sources of income so as to reduce their almost complete reliance on state funding. Makere University's successful Private Students Scheme implemented is an example of one such creative partial solution.M. K. Mayanja wrote:
"...Makerere University formulated its first strategic plan (1996-–2000) to promote this new entrepreneurial approach and adjust its administrative design to enhance the innovative process. The admission of private students, which started in a tentative way, was followed by initiatives such as the introduction of the semester system and an updated curriculum to make courses more marketable. Other changes included the decentralization of authority—including the area of finance...The private students scheme has regenerated Makerere University in record time about 10 years. In order for this process to continue, the university should move quickly to implement the new Universities and Tertiary Education Act, which enhances its autonomy and puts it in control of its own affairs. Furthermore, the university as a whole and the schools, institutes, colleges need to become more cost conscious and adopt a business planning approach in course design and determining fees...",Boston College.

Walter Russell Mead gives some great advice to students going back to school. The whole article is filled with advice and suggestions, but for the sake of brevity, here are some of the best parts:

The real world does not work like school. Life in school is life in bureaucracy. You follow the rules, do what you are told, and rewards follow. That’s the old system; the new one won’t work that way. Creativity, integrity and entrepreneurial initiative will pay off; following the old rules and hoping for the old rewards is a road to frustration. You have to fight the tendency of the educational system to turn you into a timeserving baby bureaucrat, following the rules and waiting for the inevitable promotion.

Most of your elders know very little about the world into which you are headed. Most faculty members, especially the tenured ones, have worked and lived in a world that is passing away. In many cases it’s hard for them to imagine the kind of lives you will live, and you need to keep this in mind.

You are going to have to work much, much harder than you probably expect. Your competition is working hard, damned hard, and is deadly serious about learning. There’s nothing written in the stars that guarantees Americans a higher standard of living than other people. Those of you who spend your college years goofing off in the traditional American way are going to pay a much higher price for this than you think.

Choosing the right courses is more important than choosing the right college. Your generation can’t afford to throw these four years away; choose your courses carefully and seriously.

Get a traditional liberal education; it is the only thing that will do you any good. However, in times of rapid change, it is paradoxically more useful to immerse yourself in the basics and the classics than to try to keep up with the latest developments and hottest trends.
 
Character counts; so do good habits. Character and spiritual grounding are going to count much more in the tumultuous, uncertain environment that is approaching than in the more stable and bureaucratic world of the past. But in a world in which employment is less secure, competition tougher, and your reputation for integrity and productivity are the most important assets you have, character is going to count.

Echoing some aspects of earlier posts on entrepreneurial ability and entrepreneurial vs political careers, Ryan Baebler at Next Billion writes about his visit to Sewale:

Almost everyone whom I spoke to in Sewale wanted to know "what are you going to do for us?" We met with the village headman who wanted my four colleagues and me to build a village meeting house. When we met with the chief's cabinet, they told us that they were "ready to be developed." But we had not introduced ourselves as a development organization; we had introduced ourselves as students....this community had been habituated into accepting government and aid handouts. There would not have been anything wrong with the question of "What can you do for us?" if it had been prefaced with "This is what we have to offer." Their feeling overwhelmed coupled with the consistent aid from outside of the community had led many of them to the conclusion that they could not realistically help themselves. This disempowered mindset had proven to be cancerous as even in situations where the community had the capacity to help themselves if they worked together – some would not lift a finger

From Changemakers:

Welcome to the “Champions of Quality Education in Africa” collaborative competition. We are building a network of innovative education entrepreneurs who are focused on improving the learning of African students. We are looking for entrepreneurial African educators and organizations who are working to ensure that pupils in Africa are learning the reading, writing, math, and critical thinking skills that they need to succeed. If you are a successful and innovative teacher, administrator, or education organization, we invite you to apply...[continue reading]