Introduction
According to the human development indicators, Chad is ranked 164th among 174 countries surveyed. The predominant majority of Chadians live below poverty line. Chad’s illiteracy rate is more than 80%. The rate of students attending primary schools amounted to 57.5% in 1997, while the overall schooling rate was 27%, with significant regional disparities.

Historical Background
Since its creation in 1971, N’djamena University (NU) has had an implicit but fundamental mission of training civil servants. The predominant majority of graduates have been employed in the Chadian civil service to fill teaching positions in secondary schools or assume administrative positions. NU is composed of five schools: the School of Law and Economics (FDSE), the School of Letters and Humanities (FLSH), the School of Exact and Applied Science (FSEA), the School of Health Sciences (FSS), and the National Institute for Human Sciences (INSH).

Student Enrolment
NU is characterized by a high failure rate during final examinations, including among sophomores and juniors. Student failure rates are, in fact, due to several factors. First, the number of high school graduates is insufficient. Second, the conditions of student life are not conducive to learning: in two schools (FDSE and FLSH), the scarcity of qualified teachers leads to poor supervision; small facilities force students to attend classes and practical courses outside amphitheaters and classrooms; libraries are poorly supplied; the university has no cafeteria or collective transportation; and there is no full-fledged campus. Third, teaching methods are generally inadequate, especially for first-year students.

The distribution of female students at the NU remains quite unbalanced: women comprise 13.8% of students in FDSE, 14.9% in FLSH, 5% in FSEA, and 3.8% in FSS. The number of female students enrolled in scientific departments is particularly limited, not exceeding 15%. NU is consciously endorsing a policy to integrate women through a system of quotas at the level of each department. The policy promotes recruitment of female high school graduates with lower scores than their male counterparts. This affirmative action policy certainly has shortcomings. In fact, the resolution of this problem lies upstream in high schools.

Faculty
The faculty at NU is unequally distributed among permanent and part-time staff. In some departments, the number of temporary professors is around 50%. Similarly the teacher-to-student ratio reflects the discrepancy between schools. If we exclude the special case of FSS, where the number of students is strictly controlled, we notice that the ratio of permanent professors to student varies in considerable proportions between FDSE and FSEA.

Despite concrete improvement over the last few years, faculty qualifications remain insufficient and deserve particular attention.

Research and Publishing
The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (Ministère de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche Scientifique, MESRS) is in charge of initiating, coordinating, and evaluating research programs in science and technology and comparing findings with other ministries. The ministry has also the task of training, integrating, and promoting researchers in various specialties and publishing research findings.

Research at NU is primarily conducted by doctoral students working toward their degrees. NU has almost no well-developed or organized research at the postdoctoral level. All but one of the schools at NU have no research unit, research laboratories, or research programs. Even at the individual level, research is almost nonexistent. The FSEA, an embryonic research entity, constitutes an exception in this respect. In fact, the FSEA research laboratories emerged thanks to collective projects undertaken in cooperation with multidisciplinary groups and various departments. Inter-university agreements play an essential role in organizing research activity.

Private Higher Education Institutions
Private higher education in Chad currently involves two institutions, the Advanced Management Institute (Institut Supérieur de Géstion, ISG) and King Faiçal University (Université Roi Faiçal, URF). ISG was established in 1989 with programs oriented toward management, ranging from CAP/BEP (Certificat d’Aptitude Profesionnelle, CAP; Brevet des Etudes Professionnelles, BEP), equivalent to a high school diploma, to vocational training certificate (Brevet de Technicien Supérieur, BTS). The institute offers majors in accounting, secretarial work, and commerce. The institute also offers training modules allowing candidates without a high school degree to obtain their BEP, and short training periods in computers and advanced management modeled on the MBA.

The institute has 400 students and interns throughout its various programs. Its faculty includes five permanent professors and 30 part-timers. Most faculty members are also university professors at other institutions.

King Faiçal University (KFU) admitted its first cohort in 1991-92. The main objective of the university is to train Arab-speaking professors to teach at Arab language schools in Chad and to train senior administrators. KFU is a member of the Islamic Universities Organization in Egypt. KFU is composed of two schools: the Arabic Language School (Faculté de Langue Arabe) and the School of Education (Faculté de Sciences de l’Education).

In 1996-97, KFU had 359 students. 107 were registered at ALS, 218 were enrolled in the School of Education, and another 34 students were enrolled in the graduate Advanced Studies Program (Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies, DEA). Faculty at KFU includes 23 professors of diverse nationalities who hold PhDs from various universities. KFU is hoping to launch new specialties, especially in medicine, science and technology, agronomy, and Islamic Law (Shari‘a).

Note: For detailed account on the state of higher education in Chad, please consult: Mahamat-Ahmed Al Habo, African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook (Damtew Teferra and Philip. G. Altbach, eds., Indiana University Press, 2003), pp. 237-247.