Massification in Anglophone African Higher Education

Since the early 2000s, African universities have expanded enrollment rapidly in response to rising demand.Although access has improved, these gains often come with trade-offs in quality, relevance, and strategic direction.This paper argues that interpreting massification is complicated by the continent's persistently low gross enrollment ratios and that unbalanced program offerings reinforced by fee-paying models have constrained universities' developmental potential.Examples from Anglophone Africa illustrate the need to more deliberately align expansion with national priorities.nglophone Africa's gross enrollment ratios (GERs) remain among the lowest globally, often below 10 percent and in several countries below 5 percent.However, these persistently low participation rates in tertiary education should not be taken as evidence that the region is not experiencing massification.On the contrary, significant enrollment expansion has occurred.Rapid demographic growth offsets gains in enrollment across the region, meaning that high numbers rarely translate into significant GER increases.Ghana exemplifies this paradox: enrollments have grown substantially, but the GER remains around 18-20 percent.Kenya shows a similar pattern.Massification in Anglophone Africa has been driven by rising youth populations, liberalized higher education policies, and pressure to widen access.This expansion has occurred at the institutional, rather than the sectoral, level in much of the region.Several universities (e.