 Many African students prefer Western degrees |
Every year thousands of African students are admitted to university to pursue degree courses.
University education remains a prestigious achievement in the academic life of a student.
But does a university degree guarantee a better job or life?
Which degree is worth more? A Western degree?  78.25% An African degree?  21.75% Results are indicative and may not reflect public opinion |
Nathan Mathenge, 28, graduated with a degree in Engineering from the University of Nairobi about four years ago. But today he remains unemployed. However two of Nathan's former high schoolmates who opted to study in America have since returned and secured jobs with reputable firms.
Does that mean a Western degree is superior to an African degree?
Are African universities teaching the courses that meet the continent's needs? What is your personal experience, how relevant is your qualification?
Join the BBC's Africa Live programme Wednesday, 03 September at 1630 and 1830 GMT.
Use the form to send us your comments, some of which will be published below. If you would like to take part in the discussion, e-mail us with your telephone number.
Your comments:
A University degree does help a person to discipline himself. But it is not the sole factor for him to accomplish a professional future. To accomplish a bright career, the person must have both discipline and practical knowledge. It is up to an individual to build up the practicality of his job.
Kris Vamadevan, US
I think most African universities have very bright exceptional students, because in the first place it is hard to be accepted in university in Africa for there are very few colleges and universities. I believe an African degree is more valuable than a Western one. Too bad people don't see that.
Alem, Ethiopia/Temple University in Pennysilvania, USA
 |  Truly, African universities never train you for the job  |
Yes, truly I have seen that in my country Uganda. I now live in a Western country. Don't expect them to hire an African graduate who does not know anything about customer service, working long hours and vacations. Truly African universities never train you for the job. They only give you the education.
Kenos, Uganda
It is just another example of our foolish thinking that anything Western is superior to anything African. Most degrees in Africa are equivalent if not better than degrees in Western countries because they are tailored to suit the African environment.
Robert Mmereole, US via Nigeria
Students who get degrees from African universities should be treated like any other graduate. It is our own self prejudice that holds the continent behind.
Malik, Canada
African nations need to improve and encourage technical degrees so that graduates can be self employed when they graduate. Education in Africa as a whole is less meaningful due to the lack of infrastructure and qualified teachers. The lack of sponsorship and research facilities in most universities in Africa makes certain degrees meaningless. Take the case of someone graduating in say biochemistry, but has never been to a laboratory.
Frank Abange, USA
This is a true story in our country. Many get disappointed and even think of days wasted while studying hard courses but come out to realise that there are no jobs.
Zachary Opondo, Kenya
| The problem is solely with our employers who are blindly in love with anything Western. |
The problem is solely with our employers who are blindly in love with anything Western. There is nothing wrong with universities in Africa, and if they must be criticised, they only over-stretch their students.
TJ, Ethiopia
It is not necessarily true that all who study from abroad get juicy jobs. But nowadays in Africa it is the 'technical know who'. There is no longer honesty in employment because our governments no longer care about creating jobs for graduates. In Africa it is not straight forward to get a job genuinely even if you have the qualities they may require because of corruption, political influence, nepotism etc.
Kinsula, Uganda
For me a foreign or local degree is not the issue, but is one able to compete in the global market after graduation? Being able to live up to the expectations and challenges in the market is what it takes.
Suleiman, Malaysia
When strikes by teachers, students and other labour disputes take more than 250 days in a year, how many days are left for a student to stay in the classroom and study, and especially when you take out two says of weekends. Do the mathematics.
Emmanuel, Nigeria
It is true university education is viewed as a prestigious achievement. It may not guarantee a job immediately, but someone who has it, has a better way of approaching life than one who does not have it or an equivalent.
Peter Musembi, Kenya
| If you think education is expensive, try ignorance. |
Education is the key to everything in Life. I have two university degrees. I come from a small country and what can be considered a poor family. Today, at the age of 39, I make over $100,000 a year working in Africa. Yes, I studied in the West and that helped me to get the job. Unfortunately Western degrees are seen as being superior to African degrees. However, as they say in the US, if you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Elvi, Tanzania
I am a second year engineering student at the renown Makerere University. Recently my lecturer told my class a story of one of his old students who had long graduated. He said that that graduate went to Holland to do a Masters degree course, and when he got there, he realised he knew no engineering at all! So in his (graduate) own words, he begun learning engineering from scratch at the Dutch University. And am not surprised by this at all just judging by the way we are groomed for our future professionals here.
Oker Tobias, Uganda
A Western degree is not superior to an African one. When diploma holding Africans come over to the US, they are as competitive, if not more than those educated here. The problem is jobs are hard to find, and the few that are available go to those with degrees from the West. Why? No, not because the person is better educated, but because of the inferiority complex that pervades society. For example, a number of years ago, the government of Ghana hired a number of Cuban doctors to provide health care in rural areas. The average salary of one of those doctors was more than 10 times that of the local Ghanaian doctor. Why is that?
Chie, US
It is a pity after four years of struggling to obtain a degree in African university and you are left without a job. Although we do not have all the facilities like Western universities I think we are much better than them because we go through difficult times during our studies.
Alusine Kabia, Sierra Leone In Nigeria, if you have a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from a Nigerian university, you join a bank at start up level but if you come back with the same from a Western university, you join the bank as an Assistant Branch Manager.
Imoh Essien, Nigeria
I had My Bachelor of Science degree in Ethiopia and went to Germany for my Masters. I don't think that a Western degree is superior to an African degree. But the problem is African universities lack a strong attachment to all stakeholders. They also lack a continuous curriculum revision to meet the demands of the employers.
Melkamu Bezabih, Ethiopia
As far as I am concerned, a university degree is a degree everywhere but what counts is the quality and the community need for it. The West owns majority of the companies in Africa, therefore, they prefer Africans trained in the West to those trained in Africa for better understanding and protection of their business.
Lyiani CC, Ottawa, Canada
My experience with jobless graduates includes this year's police recruitment exercise, and other job interviews I have attended. They even perform intelligence quotient (IQ) and management tests which I have passed twice, so I know I am not dumb, but, I live from hand to mouth.
Henry Odiko, Kenya
| A university degree does not guarantee one future success but it helps to broaden the horizon of the individual. |
I personally think a university degree does not guarantee one future success but it helps to broaden the horizon of the individual. African universities can equally perform and compete with Western universities provided we, the Africans, appreciate it.
Adoba Paul, Ghana I have no hesitation in pointing out the fact that close to 80% of African Universities need to be overhauled in order to produce the relevant knowledge needed in an average graduate. No thanks to mismanagement of funds and also, government's refusal to provide adequate facilities to improve tertiary education. African tertiary education is way behind, brains should be put together in bringing it to life. At present, I reckon it is in a state of coma!
Sehubo Akinyanmi, UK
I think African universities are teaching relevant courses. The problem lies mainly in corrupt governments that are not interested in the future of their countries.
Kola Taiwo, Nigeria
A University degree is not a waste of time but rather it is creating trauma for many African students.
Alieu Sannoh, Guinea
Although the education provided in an African University is as good if not better than Western Universities, the former do not have the prestige of the later. For this simple reason a Western degree is more valuable than that from Africa.
Feven Netsanet, US
Let me tell you this! I'm a Cameroonian by every measure and just completed my undergraduate program at the only Anglo-Saxon University back home, the University of Buea. I know of guys who could not complete university back here in Cameroon but they became geniuses after moving to the West. Africa is the "Grand Mother" of education and no one, absolutely no one, should give second thought to it.
Anyeh John Chibikom
In Ghana, a university degree is nothing. Getting a job depends on what we refer to in Ghana as 'the person you know' episode. University education is a formality.
Nukunu Deddy Foga, Ghana
| What the employers look for is the productivity that comes with the employee and not the prestige of their universities. |
As an African student who studies in the so called Western World, I would say that the problem is not where the degree was earned but what the ideologies and backgrounds of the employers are. There is nothing that I have learnt which my friends in Moi University (Kenya) did not learn. But it has to be remembered that what the employers look for is the productivity that comes with the employee and not the prestige of their universities.
Kuirthiy, Sudanese (Canada) I teach engineering at a US university. Two years ago I spent my sabbatical teaching engineering in Ghana. Although the Ghanian universities are significantly under-resourced, I think that the quality of the education compares very favourably with US universities. Lack of access to modern equipment means that engineering graduates from Africa will have less familiarity with current technology. However, their good comprehension of basic principles enables them to bridge the gap with relative ease, given a bit of help.
Toby Cumberbatch, USA
I feel pity for Africans whose degees are obtained locally and are not considered as equally valuable as the Western. I do not blame you but the African employers. Here in the West, they give preference to their own before considering others. Shame to the African employers. Come on let's change.
Darius Chama, Zambian in UK
Having a first degree in Africa is not as important as having connections. Appointments in important positions in the civil service are not based on qualifications but on how influential one's relationship with the hierarchy is. Secondary school drop-outs who happen to find themselves in the army earn at least twice as much as medical doctors. So where is the motivation to study?
Aka Peter, Cameroonian in Belgium
| It is not so much as to where you got the degree but what you do with it |
Yes a university degree either from Africa, mars or the US will open doors to a good job provided you possess more than just the academic aspects! You need several skills such as individual motivation and initiative, to get a good job. But even if you have a degree from Harvard and have nothing else to offer the most prestigious company apart from the paper, then you definitely won't find a JOB! It is not so much as to WHERE you got the degree but WHAT you DO with it, that matters!
Martha banda, Zambia I am currently a Masters student at Hokkaido in Japan and my major is Applied Microbiology University. I think African Universities teach courses that meet the continents needs. The major problems facing African universities are lack of facilities such as well equipped laboratories, latest textbooks and journals, internet facilities, etc. There has also been a problem in blending the academic concepts learned and the contemporary events learnt.
Ongol Martin, Uganda
As a former expat, I know positively that the African universities are good. There is a problem with the salaries. Many very good experts even would go back if this problem would be solved.
Prof.Dr.G.A.Balint, Hungary
University education should not be seen as a route to employment in the first place. It is simply an education to help broaden your experience in life. Today's survival tool in Africa is entrepreneurship. Obviously university education can help, but it is not the be-all and end-all. Many people are misguided by the status symbol surrounding it.
Guy, Johannesburg, SA
I do not agree with the notion that overseas degrees are better than those from Africa. We have so many African scholars/professionals who graduated from our local institutions working in overseas as lecturers, physicians, engineers, just to mention but few. The only advantage foreign institutions have is their conducive learning environment, while ours is hostile with strikes and civil disturbances.
Frank Abah Lagos, Nigeria
It is a waste of time. Imagine here in Botswana you possess a Masters degree, but when you are hired (by Botswana Government), it does not consider this degree, rather it pays you as a graduate not as a post-graduate. Its scheme of service is outdated, it does not have entry point of post-graduate qualification. Here, a university degree does not guarantee a better job or life.
Kabelo Kabelo, Botswana
| Poor pay for lecturers does not allow them to prepare well for their lessons. |
African universities were good in the past. But now the situation in our universities has become bad because of the many problems they are facing now: Inadequate residential accommodation and teaching infrastructure. Poor pay for lecturers does not allow them to prepare well for their lessons. They spend a greater part of their time doing consultancy work for extra income. Some of them still use lecture notes prepared 20 years ago to teach.
Ali Anankpieng, Ghana The university degree or education in Africa is in distress, the students are brilliant, willing and ambitious but the educational system has degenerated into a catastrophic failure by brain drain, irresponsible and nonchalant governments. However, the course contents of African Universities should equally be overhauled from archaic and irrelevant theories to meet the current African needs in a modern world.
Ademola Olateju, UK
Indeed African degrees seem useless. I have a bachelor of Accountancy degree from the University of Malawi but reputable companies cannot employ me because I have not joined ACCA UK. Students graduate with degrees which are not known in the industry.
Chance Zilinga Mkandawire, Malawi
| Prove to me that you can do it and I will hire you |
There is truly no difference as far as I am concerened. It only takes a good interview or an opportunity to prove that one can do the job. Period! Prove to me that you can do it and I will hire you. I don't care where you studied.
George, Cameroon (Denver-USA) University degree is not a waste of time.The problem we have is that Africa does not have many industries or companies to employ their own graduates. This has been compounded by globalisation where Western countries invest in our African countries and only prefer to employ graduates who studied in the West. Most graduates who studied in their own countries also don't know the realities of life, they choose jobs by putting their demands very high, and often, they are only taught how to pass exams and nothing else.
Paul Kogeda, Kenya
Most of our university graduates these days are certificated rather than being educated. The corruption in the schools where ordinary school certificates are obtained by dubious means has removed credibility from the whole education system.
Clement Akinbode, Nigeria
| The university degree is not an assurance to get a job, nor the answers to all your questions. |
The university degree is not an assurance to get a job, nor the answers to all your questions. It takes more than formal education to qualify for a career.
Jimmy Morchinkegem, US I graduated in Tanzania 11 years ago, and worked with International financial consulting firm for eight years before opening a local firm of three Tanzanian accountancy graduates. We all had things to share, skills and experience. I have several times taught Western graduates, and I am proud of it.
Daniel Msemo, Tanzania
I really have a feeling for the frustration and sense of desperation of Kenya's Nathan Mathenge. I also graduated in 1995 and spent three years without a job on the streets. Therefore this opinion I am going to express here is that one of a veteran street graduate. The African degree is as good as that from the West or better put, it is as worse as that from the West because I have equally seen boys and girls who have returned from the West still sharing the same frustrations when it comes to combing the streets for work. The blame squarely lies at failure of the modern education to distinguish between the real thing and symbols of education. A degree is a symbol but the real thing is applying the knowledge and being innovative with the knowledge. Why for instance, should a qualified engineer fail to know what to do yet primary leavers who weld metals seem to know better?
Katu Apolo Kasharu, Germany
Western degrees are no better or worse than African ones. I left university two years ago and my degree has not helped me get a better job. I could have started my job straight after school with no degree and would be three years further up the ladder. Unless you want to be a doctor, you are better off starting at the bottom of a company and working your way up.
Tom M, UK
| All those who think that an African university degree is as good as a Western one are fooling themselves. |
All those who think that an African university degree is as good as a Western one are fooling themselves. They do not even have enough money for food, let alone pursue higher knowledge. If I have a choice I know which one I will choose.
Ken Ng, Australia It is hard to blame employers. As a business person they hire an employee that maximizes their profit. It is not the book knowledge that makes western education better but all the intangibles that cannot be found in African Universities.
BZ, Ethiopia
The Africans are missing the point. There will always be the perception that Western degrees count more. However, this can easily be resolved if the Africans are taught entreprenual skill as part of the education. They would own the industries which in turn would hire local graduates.
BD, US
The main problem of higher education in African universities lies in their curricular. For instance in Ethiopia most college instructors have adequate knowledge of the subject matter but when it comes to tests or exams, preparation and grading - they are the worst. They ask questions which they never discussed in the classroom. The grading system is short of accuracy and consistency as there is no dependable grading scale.
Teklewold, Ethiopian in US
A university is like a brand. There are many universities and colleges that are well known regionally, but not as well known outside of the region. I am sure that African universities are just as good, but they need to sell this message first to Africans by raising the profile of the institutions and then to the rest of the world by increasing the amount of academic exchange programs that exist for example.
Andrew Cline, US
| You cannot compare the university education from a country like Niger to that of South Africa. |
It depends on which country in Africa. For example, you cannot compare the university education from a country like Niger to that of South Africa.
Joseph, US The university degree for all the good things it is. But it is not worth the trouble in Africa. People have important issues to deal with. Why waste money acquiring all the education while your family is dying of hunger. It is easy for someone with money to say, get the degree because they know they have food! Right now, degree is a luxury.
Zvondai Muchenje, Canada
I have a degree from the University of Cape Town and am very well employed and have been all my working career. I work for a US company. I do not believe the Western degree is any better than some of the South African degrees, but do believe it is how you apply it and yourself in your career.
Megan Stowe, South African in Singapore
It is always a heart breaking thing to hear anything from Africa is less valuable than from westerns. Is it true ? I do not think so. Here I am working for one of the leading communication (Qualcomm) company in the world. where did I get the education ? Ethiopia ( Nazareth technical college). How am I doing compared to my workmates? I am doing well above average. There have been times that I got awards because I have done a better job. The people in Africa have to believe in themselves and create a good working atmosphere which will lead to a better result.
Habtamu Amera, Ethiopian American
I hold degrees from both continents. Today most African universities are teaching the history of technology rather than technology itself. An engineering student cannot design a gigantic structure when he has never seen one. Western degrees do not only give one the knowledge but also the exposure of traveling. But African governments have invested more in wars and conflicts than education. Lecturers are paid peanuts hence their produce is peanuts.
Noble Banadda, Uganda
| In England a degree is not worth the paper it is written on. |
In England a degree is not worth the paper it is written on. Any old buffoon can get a degree here - I have two, which is proof enough. However we also have a similar problem in Africa, in that a degree does not guarantee a dream job, let a lone a job.
Anna, UK 
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