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Liberia by Patrick L. N. Seyon Introduction
Liberia was founded in 1822 by the American Colonization Society to settle freed American slaves. It declared itself independent in 1847, becoming modern Africa’s oldest republic.History of Higher Education
From 1862 to the mid-1980s, higher education in Liberia centered around three institutions: Liberia College, precursor to the University of Liberia; Cuttington Collegiate College, precursor to Cutttington University College, a private college supported by the Board of Missions of the Episcopal Church in the United States; and Liberia’s second public post-secondary institution, the William V. S. Tubman College of Technology, incorporated in 1978, formerly Harper Technical College, which was founded in 1971. Four private institutions claimed junior college status by the mid-1980s. In addition, there are 2 public Rural Teacher Training Institutes, and two additional post-secondary training institutions. Since the mid-1990s, Monrovia College upgraded and renamed A. M. E. University and a new private institution, Don Bosco Technical College.Enrollment
By the close of 1989, when war broke out, enrollment in all the universities, colleges, and training institutes totaled close to 10,000 with about 7,000 enrolled at UL and Cuttington, and the rest spread among the technical and rural training institutes. By 1999, enrollment at UL had swollen to 10,000, even though most programs were operating at less than their pre-war capacity, due to shortage of faculty and lack of laboratory equipment and space. Cuttington has not reached its pre-war enrollment of more than 1,000, and most of the other colleges and institutes are closed. By 1998, the system was producing more than 800 hundred graduates, double the 1988 figure of about 400 hundred.Governance and Administration
Higher education in Liberia is decentralized. Each institution of higher education is autonomous and operates under a charter provided by the state. A board of trustees provided for under the charter governs each institution. The minister of education represents the state on each board, but has no veto power. Advising the Board is an administrative council consisting of all academic and administrative officers, 2 elected faculty representatives, and 2 elected student representatives. The council serves in an advisory capacity to the president of the university, and oversees the day-to-day operation of the institution.Funding and Resources
It is less likely that the state will fund higher education the way it did in the pre-war decades. The state provides subsidies to private and church-operated post-secondary institutions. It also provides financial aid to students attending these institutions to cover half the cost of tuition and textbooks. This policy is less likely to be continued for the reasons stated above.Student and parental contributions together have accounted for about 10% of the operating budget of the institution, even in the post-war period. As the state is hard-pressed for funds, more and more of the cost of higher education will be shifted to the students and their parents in the foreseeable future.
Research and Publishing
The state have shown little or no interest in providing funding for research and with the shortage of qualified teachers, faculty is busy with heavy teaching loads, with little or no time left for research. Before the war, UL published 2 journals, one in law and the other in the social sciences and humanities. Both have been discontinued since the war.Note: For detailed account on the state of higher education in Liberia, please consult: Patrick L. N. Seyon, African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook (Damtew Teferra and Philip. G. Altbach, eds., Indiana University Press, 2003), pp. 381-390.
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