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Guinea Bissau by Julieta Mendes Introduction
Guinea Bissau a small country of about 1.2 million inhabitants, is located on the west coast of Africa. The gross national product (GNP) per capita has dropped from $240 in the 1980s to $180 in 2000.History of Higher Education
The first attempt to create a post-secondary education system in Guinea Bissau was initiated by the Ministry of Justice in 1979 with the establishment of a law school to train professionals for the administration of justice. A few years later, a school of education was established for training secondary school teachers.Student Enrollment
Guinea Bissau’s higher education caters to about 1,000 students distributed among the five centers as follows:
in Guinea Bissau (1997)Source: INDE 1997 On average, three years of training is required before a degree is awarded at the associate level. Law students study for five years, leading to a bachelor’s degree. Medical students need seven years, including an internship, to achieve a Medicina geral, which is equivalent to an MD. So far, all postgraduate studies must be undertaken abroad.
Governance and Administration
In 1999, the Government of National Unity issued a decree that placed all existing centers and every activity related to education and training under the coordination of the Ministry of Education. This is a landmark decision in the evolution of post-secondary education. In the same year, a steering committee for the creation of a national university was set up in the country at the National Institute for Research (INEP). Created in 1984, INEP hosts the only public library in the country.Financing and Resources
The schools of law and medicine, the two most important institutions of higher education, are almost completely financially dependent on foreign assistance received through bilateral cooperation arrangements with Portugal and Cuba. Guinea Bissau’s financial and technical dependency is not without its problems, including systematic delays throughout the school year.Research and Publishing
Research on social sciences is more structured and mainly conducted by INEP. INEP is the only research institution adequately structured and organized to undertake publishing. Every six months INEP publishes a magazine of Guinean studies, Soronda, but has rarely been able to meet this deadline, due to financial constraints.Note: For detailed account on the state of higher education in Algeria, please consult: Julieta Mendes, African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook (Damtew Teferra and Philip. G. Altbach, eds., Indiana University Press, 2003), pp. 355-358.
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