42.5% of Namibians prefer to study abroad

By Finna Kahili, via News on One

University of Namibia (Unam) vice-chancellor Professor Kenneth Matengu said 42.5% of Namibians prefer to study abroad.

Matengu said this during the Higher Education Day celebration at the University of Namibia yesterday.

Matengu said despite the continent’s population of two billion, only 30 million are enrolled in higher education.

“In Africa compared to the rest of the world, you can see that Sub-Saharan is the lowest. Less than 10% of the total people who engage in higher education are in Africa” he remarked.

Matengu emphasised the importance of investing in higher education to ensure international competitiveness, promote self-reliance, and enhance citizen welfare.

“So to give you an example, the education systems that are geared towards international competitiveness globally are the United States and Israel. Their systems are made in such a way that they must always be the first. It does not matter whether someone falls off or not and that is why even their immigration policies, as far as higher education is concerned they do not care where you are from as long as you are competitive they take you” Matengu stated.

Matengu said that Namibia’s development will rise and fall depending on the excellence of its higher education system.