Introduction
Algeria is the second largest country in Africa with an estimated population of 30 million. In 1998, Algeria had a GNP of $46.5 billion, equivalent to $1,550 per capita.

History
Prior to the French invasion in 1830, Algeria enjoyed a number of institutions of higher learning that had a well-developed corpus of knowledge firmly rooted in the Islamic sciences and its ancillary subjects. Overall, this tertiary system, as well as earlier levels, was privately established through endowments and administered by a learned coterie of ulama or the learned whose professional respect was commensurate with their institutional affiliation.

The transformation caused by the French colonial power was abrupt and disruptive. The 1,000-year old Algerian educational tradition faced progressively stronger challenges, which culminated in the establishment of the University of Algiers in 1909. Subsequently, by the 1920s, the Islamic learning institutions, together with their moral authority and popularity of the ulama, began to dwindle in quantity and quality.

Just before the Algerian war of liberation there were only 1,000 Algerian university graduates, of whom 354 were lawyers and 165 medical practitioners such as doctors, pharmacist, and dentists. French public education for the indigenous population was very narrow in scope. Thus the burden of educating most Algerians was placed on the shoulders of “private“ endowed religious schools; that situation persisted until the dawn of the independence era. By then, the zaawiyahs regrettably had sunk to providing no more than rote memorization of the Koran.

Enrollment
The table below shows that there has been a spectacular and consistent increase in enrollment figures through 1999. In terms of the male and female age cohorts for that year, Algeria ranked 4th (with 14% and 9.8%, respectively), after Egypt (24.2% and 15.9%), South Africa (18.0% and 16.8%), and Tunisia (15% and 12.5%) (UNESCO 2000).

Faculty
While Algerians constituted only 10% of the faculty in 1962, this percentage soared to 98% in 1995 and has remained at that level, thus realizing nearly complete indigenization. Females constitute around 25% of faculty. Faculty retrenchment has undoubtedly affected the healthy overall student-to-faculty ratio of earlier years. In the last decade Algeria has experienced deteriorating standards due to nepotism and fraud.

During the massive exodus of Algerians escaping the country’s bloody civil strife from 1992-97, more than 400,000 Algerians, mostly Francophone professionals, including university professors, fled the country. Other faculty were either murdered by the militant Islamic groups or, if sympathizers of these groups, were detained by the government security forces.

Private Higher Education
Private higher education has so far played no role in Algerian higher education. This is mainly due to the permeating state ideology of socialism, which historically has perceived privatization as inimical to the interest of nation-building.

Funding and Resources
Higher education funding is highly centralized and is financed by the central government via the education ministry responsible for funding all aspects of education and providing free schooling for students, including internationals. For the year 1999-2000, the government’s total expenditure on higher education is estimated to be 7% of its GDP.

Research and Publishing
Educational research has received considerable support from the Algerian government. The MHESR directs much of the research and oversees formal agreements of collaboration with the individual universities and other higher education establishments to develop and carry out projects. Some research units deal with pedagogy, curricular material and textbook development, teacher and faculty training, supervision, and testing and evaluation for the purpose of improving the efficacy of internal structures and practices.

However, the government's support of research activities appears more rhetorical than substantive when one examines faculty participation in research. Despite the ministry's emphasis on the significance of research for faculty rank, salary promotion, and development, it has adopted the long-time practice of automatic faculty promotion based on years of service, thus fostering apathy and disregard for the importance of research.

Algeria has been producing students without any, or with meager, research skills, even though the country remains in dire need of academic, empirical and scientific experimentation to revitalize its weak domestic industry, improve productivity, and match its strong economic performance of the 1970s.

Governance and Structure
The government’s administrative control leads to the conclusion that there is little sharing of decision-making processes with educational authorities at the provincial and local levels. The upshot is that the whole enterprise is highly centralized, and regulated standardization is equated, at least in theory, to social equity and justice. Matters that local authorities of post-secondary institutions can determine are limited in scope and carry little weight in the large picture.
The type and structure of tertiary educational institutions fall into five categories. For several reasons, it is not possible to delineate all institutional types with any precision. This being the case, it is difficult to determine the exact number of Algerian universities. Algeria’s universities, including the University of Islamic Sciences are still strongly affected by the French model, both in structure and content. All but two, which concentrate on the hard core sciences, offer the disciplines that typify a French University core.

Algeria’s universities have three consecutive stages. The undergraduate level, is divided into two concurrent cycles, in which successful students are awarded a Diplôme d'Etudes Universitaires Appliquées (DEUA) or the more prestigious degree of Licence or Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures (LES or DES). The professional training for the Diplôme in engineering and medical sciences—for architects, engineers, dental surgeons, pharmacists, and veterinarians—require five years, while the Diplôme for medical doctors requires seven.

The second stage admits the most accomplished students with a LES or DES. It lasts at least four years and requires a thesis defense, after which students earn the Magister, which makes them eligible to apply for a university teaching post as a lecturer in their respective area of specialization. In comparison to the master's thesis at an American university, the Algerian thesis is generally a much more weighty and serious academic product, both in length and quality, with an emphasis on the establishment of new knowledge. In some cases, they are comparable to the doctoral thesis at some American universities.

The third stage, which usually takes three to five years, leads to the Doctorat d’Etat. Admitted candidates hold the Magister, and their academic activities do not entail studying specific courses.

Gender Issues
Gender figures for 1996 show that females constituted 26% of students in education, 65% in the humanities, 47% in law and the social sciences (including behavioral sciences, business administration, commerce, home economics, communication and social services), 36% in natural, engineering, and agricultural, and 50% in the medical sciences.

Note: For detailed account on the state of higher education in Algeria, please consult: Aman Attieh, African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook (Damtew Teferra and Philip. G. Altbach, eds., Indiana University Press, 2003), pp. 151-161.