Botswana's initiative to develop their first national university actually began in 1962, four years before independence, when an agreement was made by the three High Commission Territories to develop the Pius XII Catholic University at Roma, Lesotho, into the University of Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland (UBBS). UBBS opened on January 1, 1964. With the independence of Botswana and Lesotho in 1966, it became the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (UBLS). The numbers were still very small compared to expectations, with only 188 students in 1964 and 402 in 1970, embracing also African students from outside the former High Commission Territories, including what is now Zimbabwe and South Africa. In 1975 Lesotho withdrew from the arrangement, but Botswana and Swaziland continued to work together in the University of Botswana and Swaziland (UBS) until 1982, when an Act of Parliament established the University of Botswana.

Populations have been exploding, doubling every 18 or 20 years. The expansion of primary education to near universal schooling, and the consequent development of lower and upper secondary schools, brought a growth that has expanded through the system so that in the 1990s the pressure was irresistible to politicians - though the World Bank tried to check it, controversially saying invest in primary, then secondary, as they brought greater rate of returns.

Next, the doors were opened to private tertiary institutions, and in many countries they have grown in the last decade or so from three to over 10 times the number of public tertiary institutions. Ghana, for example, has 16 public universities and 45 private ones. In Botswana, there are two public (counting BIUST) and five private universities. This pattern is found elsewhere. Many of the private universities are small compared to the public ones, enrolling often a tenth the number of students found in a nearby public university.

In the SADC countries, the explosive growth of universities has also occurred. Mauritius, the nation in the region with the highest proportion of the age group enrolled in universities, at 17 percent, had two public universities and 93 private ones. South Africa comes next with around 15 percent of the age group enrolled, had 25 pubLic universities and 80 private ones. Mozambique has 14 public and 15 private tertiary institutions, while Madagascar has six public and 50 private - but their enrolment rate was among the lowest in SADC, at one and three percent respectively. Zambia opened a third public university last year, but already has seven private universities, all opened since 2005.
These statistics, from the SADC countries are of interest in that they demonstrate that the Tertiary Education Council's initiative to endorse and encourage private university level institutions is not exceptional.

Across Africa, nations have drafted higher education strategic plans, established tertiary education councils, developed qualification frameworks and created bodies to monitor and control tertiary institutions, including systems of audit, certification and accreditation of institutions. It is recognised that higher education contributes to national development and that until the mid-1990s ,higher education was lagging seriously behind other sectors. Governments are dependent on the private sector to develop new tertiary institutions and they are now significant actors in the arena.

The rapid expansion achieved in the last 10 years in the development of public and private universities has led to a growing concern across Africa, even a "backlash", over the quality of the new and expanded institutions. In the next few issues, we will look at these concerns in greater depth, consider the "quiet revolution" that is occurring in African higher education, what can be done about brain drain, and the role of humanities in universities.