Badakhshan Higher Education Institute

INTRODUCTION

Country and Sector Background

Since December 2001 and the inauguration of the Afghanistan Interim Administration (AIA) Afghanistan?s economic, social and political achievements have been extraordinary.  The AIA, and the subsequent Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan (TISA) were confronted with an economy reeling from protracted conflict and drought, more than five million people displaced as refugees in neighboring countries, economic activities steered in an informal or illicit direction by insecurity, and a state that had become virtually non functional in terms of policy making and service delivery ? although the structures and many staff remained.  The achievements ? various reforms in the government, a successful constitutional Loya Jirga, peaceful completion of the country?s first ever presidential election, and the inauguration of the new Cabinet in December 2004, just to name a few ? have been significant, and in Afghanistan?s context, remarkable. 


The achievements notwithstanding, the challenges remain enormous, including the restoration of   countrywide security, rehabilitation of key economic and social infrastructure, and the establishment of functional state institutions across the country.  One of the major bottlenecks that has affected and continues to affect the pace and scope of reconstruction is a massive skill deficit that cuts across all institutions in Afghanistan, from public administrators to teachers, from managers to skilled labor force needed for the bulk of the reconstruction work and its maintenance. 

Over the past three years, the government of Afghanistan has made notable efforts to revive the higher education sector in parallel with ongoing progress in primary and secondary education.  Eighteen higher education institutions have reopened their doors and enrollment has jumped from 4,000 students in 2001 to 37,000 in the fall of 2004.  As in primary education, the enrollment profile is skewed with approximately two-thirds of students in their first and second years.  With students returning from Pakistan and other countries and the students graduating from high schools, demand for higher education will also be on the rise, not only in terms of enrollment but also in terms of relevance of curricula and quality of teaching. 

Independent from immediate reconstruction needs, Afghan universities suffer from a large majority of the problems that typically plague public tertiary institutions in many developing countries: low quality, lack of relevance, insufficient funding, and weak governance and management.  While these problems have certainly been exacerbated by war and its negative economic consequences, they reflect deep structural dysfunctions that require careful attention.

B. PROPOSED PROGRAM

The development objective of the proposed program is to progressively restore basic operational performance at a group of core universities in Afghanistan.  This will provide an institutional base for an agenda focusing on tertiary education development, capacity building and reform. 

The proposed program is envisaged to be the first-phase in a longer-term strategy for higher education development in Afghanistan.  Moreover, it aims to act as a catalyst in attracting various resources to Afghan tertiary education with a long-term development framework.   

 Program Description

The program will support the strategic planning and implementation of the development and reform program at key higher education institutions through two major components: block grant and university partnership program.  This is complemented and supported by the higher education system reform through component 2 ?Higher Education System Development?. 

University Partnership Programs (US$ 7.5 million)

This component will facilitate and finance partnership program agreements for two universities in Kabul (Kabul Polytechnic University, Kabul University) and four regional universities (Balkh, Herat, Kandahar and Nangarhar) with established foreign universities, especially from the Region.  Financial and technical contributions from foundations will be actively sought in the process.  The partnership program would include, but not be limited t

 ?        Support for curricula revision and development

?        Support for preparing facility (including library, laboratory, IT, etc.) development plan(s)?        Visiting professorships in Afghanistan for the partner institutions

?        Fellowships and training programs for Afghan faculty members to study at partner institutions?        Joint-research and publication program(s) focused on Afghanistan?s socio, cultural and economic issues.

Specific faculties in the six Afghan universities will be given priority based on the national development needs and enhance the national identity of Afghanistan, including, engineering, management, economics/finance, IT, and literature and languages.  The decision will be taken with some consultation within the university itself and with MOHE and primarily take into account strategic development needs of the country and coordination with other development partners.  

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) including a service contract between the institution(s) in Afghanistan and a foreign university or a consortium of foreign universities will be signed for three years.  However, the annual renewal of the MOU will be subject to the satisfactory performance of the partner university.  

The partnership arrangement would ideally also provide technical assistance to the partner Afghan institution to develop prioritized bloc grant proposals. The bloc grants are envisaged as the ?hardware? aspect of this project which will steadily restore basic operational performance to the participating Afghan universities. A description of the bloc grant component can be found below.

Block Grants to Universities (US$ 31 million) 

The primary purpose of block grants is to enable universities to implement the prioritized and focused areas of the strategic plan and to restore the basic operational performance of universities.  Block grants are expected to support the installation of basic administrative systems and procedures and to improve academic programs in order to enhance the performance of universities, especially in selected key faculties.  It can also be utilized for establishing a new program such as management/administration studies.  Block grants can be used to procure goods (equipment and supplies), services (technical assistance, scholarships, training) and civil works (rehabilitation of physical facilities directly related to delivery of academic programs).   

Block grants will be provided for four years (FY 1385-1388), subject to satisfactory performance each year.  The release of the each tranche will be determined based on the benchmarks.  The proposed benchmarks are discussed in Annex 2.  The sizes of first, second, third and fourth tranches will be around 15%, 30%, 30% and 25% respectively of the total block grants to be allocated.  

The tranches of approved grants will be released to a bank account opened for implementation of the program in each of the universities.  The bank account will be in the name of the Ministry of Finance, however, three individuals from the universities will be designated as authorized signatories.

For implementation of the program, a Program Coordination Team (PCT) will be appointed in each of the universities.  Each university supported by the program will be fully authorized to use block grants according to the plans agreed upon.  Kabul University and/or Kabul Polytechnic University PCT will also be assigned to provide technical support to other universities.  This arrangement is expected to help cross-fertilization as well as effective implementation of the program. 

Support for a new governance system (US$ 0.75 million) 


Technical assistance would be made available to the Ministry of Higher Education t (i) define the relationship between the Ministry and higher education institutions and facilitate/promote the autonomy and accountability of the institutions, (ii) identify the information flow needs between universities and the MOHE, (iii) review the financing strategies of higher education, including developing funding formulae and mobilizing external resources, and (iv) institutions to implement the credit system and to address any other institutional development plans. 

Technical assistance will also be provided to advise the government on the reform of the employment structure including career paths, salary scale, promotion criteria, and incentive system (including the opportunity to consult) of the academic staff.

Support for a quality assurance, accreditation system (US$ 0.75 million)

Support would be provided for the development of an autonomous accreditation and quality assurance system for both public and private universities.  One of the options will be to link up with a regional accreditation and/or quality assurance body.

 C.        IMPLEMENTATION ARRANGEMENTS

Institutional Arrangements

The Ministry of Higher Education will be the coordinating body for overall program implementation while Program Coordination Team (PCT) at the university and faculty levels will be responsible for implementation of block grants and university partnership programs.  The university-level PCT will consist of: the chancellor, heads of academic affairs, finance and administration, male and female representatives of faculty members, male and female representatives of students, and local business leaders.  The faculty/department-level PCT will consist of: the dean, head of administration, male and female faculty representatives and male and female student representatives. 

The program would be implemented over four and a half years.  The implementation completion date will be December 31, 2009, and the grant closing date will be June 30, 2010. 

Implementation Steps

University Partnership Programs (US$ 7.5 million)

This sub-component will be coordinated by the MOHE through a steering committee and its existing departments. The MOHE, in consultation with universities has been instilling interest from foreign universities to form partnerships with Afghan universities in various fora during the past two years.  This sub-component will build upon this past effort.  After consulting with participating Afghan universities (Balkh, Herat, Kabul, Kabul Polytechnic, Kandahar and Nangarhar), the MOHE will invite, on behalf of the universities, Expressions of Interest (EOI) for partnership from universities abroad separately for each of the faculties selected for program support.  Faculties to be supported will be selected based on strategic development needs of the country and the support from other development partners.  They will include engineering, management, finance/economics, IT, language, and others.[1]  Foreign universities will be allowed to submit EOIs on their own or through a consortium with other universities.  EOIs will be evaluated by a committee comprising of representatives from MOHE and a representative of each university, and chaired by the Deputy Minister of Higher Education.  A preliminary short list of three to five universities will be prepared for each faculty based on the documentation submitted and agreed-upon selection criteria.  The short-listed universities will be invited to come to Afghanistan for further face-to-face discussions.  The universities ranked first based on the EOI and discussions for each of the disciplines will be invited to submit a combined technical and financial proposal.  Upon successful completion of negotiations, the committee with the universities will recommend the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) including a service contract.  The proposed short-list, the evaluation report and recommendation on the institution to be invited for submission of detailed program proposal, and the draft negotiated MOU and service contract will be forwarded to IDA for review and no-objection.  If negotiation with the highest ranking university fails, the university ranked second (and so on) will be invited for negotiations.  A service contract together with a MOU will be signed between the selected university and the chairperson of the evaluation committee and concerned Presidents of universities. 

Block Grants to Universities (US$ 31 million) 

The primary purpose of block grants is to enable universities to implement the prioritized and focused areas of the strategic plan and to restore the basic operational performance of universities.  Block grants are expected to support the installation of basic administrative systems and procedures and to improve academic programs in order to enhance the performance of universities, especially in selected key faculties.  It can also be utilized for establishing a new program such as management/administration studies.  Block grants can be used to procure goods (equipment and supplies), services (technical assistance, scholarships, training) and civil works (rehabilitation of physical facilities directly related to delivery of academic programs).   

Block grants will be provided for four years (FY 1385-1388), subject to satisfactory performance each year.  The release of the each tranche will be determined based on the benchmarks.  The proposed benchmarks are discussed in Annex 2.  The sizes of first, second, third and fourth tranches will be around 15%, 30%, 30% and 25% respectively of the total block grants to be allocated.  

The tranches of approved grants will be released to a bank account opened for implementation of the program in each of the universities.  The bank account will be in the name of the Ministry of Finance, however, three individuals from the universities will be designated as authorized signatories.

For implementation of the program, a Program Coordination Team (PCT) will be appointed in each of the universities.  Each university supported by the program will be fully authorized to use block grants according to the plans agreed upon.  Kabul University and/or Kabul Polytechnic University PCT will also be assigned to provide technical support to other universities.  This arrangement is expected to help cross-fertilization as well as effective implementation of the program. 

Higher Education System Development 
 

This component will be led by the MOHE in close consultation with the universities.  Support will be provided to establish a link with a regional accreditation body to develop a quality assurance mechanism in Afghanistan.  Support will also be provided to increase institutional autonomy and accountability of universities while re-defining the role of the Ministry.  Any other support to reform the higher education system will be provided under this component.