Tertiary education is more than the capstone of the traditional education pyramid; it is a critical pillar of human development and capacity building. However, many developing countries continue to wrestle with difficulties in overcoming the long standing challenges faced by their tertiary education system. Among these unresolved challenges are the sustainable expansion of tertiary education coverage, the reduction of inequalities of access and outcomes, the improvement of educational quality and relevance, and the introduction of more effective governance structures and management practices.

The donor community has not always recognised the importance of tertiary education for development and capacity building. For a long time, most multilateral and bilateral aid agencies focused their support on basic education at the expense of tertiary education.

This seminar will focus on the recent evolution of donor support for education and tertiary education, experience with external aid to transform tertiary education, and recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of donor interventions in tertiary education.

In the past 20 years, Dr Salmi has provided policy advice to governments and university leaders in more than 70 countries in all parts of the world. As World Bank Tertiary Education Coordinator from 2006 to 2012, he was responsible for policy work on world-class universities, equity in tertiary education, rankings and league tables, financing mechanisms, and benchmarking of the performance of tertiary education systems.

This seminar is presented by the Development Policy Centre at the Crawford School of Public Policy.

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