**6. Current funding modalities of public higher education in sub-Saharan Africa**

Advantages and Limitations:

In general, there are three (3) major ways to fund public higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa.


## **6.1 Government funding modality**

At least in the context of African higher education institutions, there are two general models for supporting higher education: the public model and the marketbased model. All other types are organized in a continuum. The funding for the public model comes from the central government. This model allows individual agencies and government funds to be allocated according to the budget provided by the government and government policy priorities [23]. Higher education institutions can obtain: a) Unspecified amount of funds available for each institution, including lump-sum funds for research funds, education and institutional elements [23] and b) funds designated for specific purposes. These components vary by country.

## **Limitations of the government model:**


#### **6.2 Donor support modality**

Due to the lack of government investment in R&D, donor support is the main alternative funding model for R&D in most African public universities. As mentioned above, despite the African Union Commission's commitment to invest 1% of GDP in R&D activities, African governments invest less than 1% of GDP in R&D. The aid aspect of donors of financial aid for public higher education operates on a donor aid model, in which public universities in Africa are beneficiaries and funders of research and development activities are de facto donors, now called dossiers and politicians. "Partners for development". The advantage of the donor support

model is mainly to determine the research agenda of the donors (mainly northern universities and research institutions and universities) through unequal contacts and research cooperation, thus determining the research results or outcomes of the research of the African public universities. With its unique internationalization capabilities. A major limitation in donor support is the loss of institutional autonomy and ownership of the research agenda. Therefore, researchers in African public universities do not have research tasks or research results. The extension of the above restriction is that researchers from African public universities conduct self-censorship to obtain more research funds to buy portable cars, office air conditioners, overseas travel seminars, etc. It is important to improve the working conditions of researchers in public universities in Africa. It is usually related to improving research productivity, but it is funded by the African government [24].
