Title: Exploring the alternative sources of revenue for funding of public higher education in least developed countries - implications for National University of Lesotho

Authors: Mosotho J. George

Addresses: Department of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Faculty of Science and Technology, National University of Lesotho, P.O. Roma 180, Lesotho

Abstract: Education is central to the development of human capacity of any country through shaping the citizenry for meaningful participation in the economy especially the knowledge-based economy. Funding of education, especially higher education, has been a subject of debates globally for quite a whilst especially since the adoption of basic education policy on 'free primary' education in many countries. Public universities in Africa continue to rely almost exclusively on grants from governments as their source of funding which depend very heavily on the will of such governments irrespective of the budgetary demands. Conceivably, these grants barely suffice the operational demands of such institutions leading to the common blame of too high a percentage of capital going to salaries with only traces going to operations. This paper is aimed at exploring the alternative sources for funding for public higher education institutions in Lesotho with emphasis on the National University of Lesotho. It concludes by providing some recommendations both at national and institutional level for higher institutions in Lesotho.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; funding sources; higher education; industry partnerships; Lesotho; technology incubation; alternative revenue sources; public universities; least developed countries.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEED.2016.082176

International Journal of Education Economics and Development, 2016 Vol.7 No.3/4, pp.198 - 213

Received: 28 Apr 2016
Accepted: 14 Oct 2016
Published online: 09 Feb 2017 *

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