I 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4392 
To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide assistance to 
expand, improve, support, and promote higher education in the countries 
of sub-Saharan Africa. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
DECEMBER 16, 2009 
Mr. PAYNE (for himself, Ms. WATSON, Mr. FATTAH, Mr. RUSH, Mr. LEWIS 
of Georgia, Ms. CLARKE, Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas, Ms. WOOLSEY, 
Ms. FUDGE, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Ms. LEE of California, and Mr. 
BISHOP of Georgia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
A BILL 
To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide 
assistance to expand, improve, support, and promote 
higher education in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘African Higher Edu-
cation Expansion and Improvement Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
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(1) The demand for higher education in Africa 
has been increasing at very high rates and is rapidly 
overtaking the capacity of current infrastructure and 
staffing capability. 
(2) Africa’s challenges in higher education are 
substantial and have important social, economic, and 
stability dimensions. 
(3) Despite increasing enrollments, sub-Saha-
ran Africa’s gross enrollment ration is just 5 percent 
as compared to 11 percent in India, 20 percent in 
China, and 70 percent in high income countries. 
(4) On average, institutions of higher education 
in Africa have only about 70 percent of the staff re-
quired by their programs; staff development, nur-
turing and retention are important elements of high-
er education programming. 
(5) In 2005, only 28 percent of African Univer-
sity graduates completed their degrees in science 
and technology (STEM) fields—agriculture, engi-
neering, health sciences, general sciences. 
(6) African higher education institutions have 
addressed many critical development challenges in 
collaboration with regional and international coun-
terparts, such as the United Nations, the Inter-
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national Agricultural Research Centres, and bilateral 
and regional assistance agencies. 
(7) Higher education has expanded to provide 
more opportunities for advanced education to grad-
uates of the secondary school systems and it has 
sought new ways to achieve university collaboration 
across national and regional boundaries. 
(8) Africa has made important strides as public 
universities have doubled from roughly 100 to 200 
from 1990 to 2007 and private tertiary institutions 
have increased from around 24 to an estimated 468 
during this same period. 
(9) 
Historically, 
sub-Saharan 
Africa 
was 
marked by several centers of excellence in higher 
education. Linked to former European sponsors, in-
stitutions such as Makerere University in Uganda, 
Kenyatta University in Kenya, Cheik Anta Diop 
University, Senegal, and the University of Ibadan in 
Nigeria graduated scholars and professionals that 
were highly prized around the globe and that served 
the interests of their respective nations well. 
(10) These universities serve as ‘‘centres of ex-
cellence’’ that also have major positive impacts on 
other universities in their respective regions, and are 
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currently making substantial progress in regaining 
their national and international prominence. 
(11) Increasing rates of higher education in de-
veloping countries is a critical component to long- 
term economic growth and stability and poverty re-
duction. 
(12) Estimates indicate that a 1-year increase 
in tertiary education stock would raise steady-state 
levels of African Gross Domestic Product per capita 
by 12.2 percent due to factor inputs, potentially 
boosting incomes by 3 percent after 5 years. 
(13) Studies of 17 countries found that individ-
uals with higher education levels were more likely to 
engage in entrepreneurial activity, and more edu-
cated entrepreneurs created larger numbers of jobs 
than less educated entrepreneurs. 
(14) Research has found a positive and statis-
tically significant correlation between higher edu-
cation enrollment rates and governance indicators, 
including absence of corruption, higher stands of 
rule of law, absence of ethnic tensions, increased bu-
reaucratic quality, low risk of repudiation of con-
tracts by governments, and low risk of appropriation 
abuse. 
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(15) A cadre of skilled, educated Africans is a 
necessary component to addressing every sector of 
development, whether it be poverty alleviation and 
economic growth, combating disease, improving gov-
ernance, or rule of law and human rights, but such 
a cadre does not currently exist in large enough 
numbers to truly effect a sea-change in these areas 
in most of the countries in the region. 
(16) Exchange programs which bring Africans 
to developed countries for training, while an essen-
tial component of building intellectual capacity in 
Africa, will not by themselves reach enough students 
and scholars to have a transformational effect on Af-
rican institutions of higher education. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that— 
(1) support for primary and secondary edu-
cation is vitally important to development in sub-Sa-
haran Africa and such support should be increased; 
(2) the United States and other donors must 
respond to the increased need for qualified teachers 
and demand for access to higher education created 
by expanded access to primary and secondary edu-
cation on the continent by providing commensurate 
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assistance to colleges and universities in sub-Saha-
ran Africa; 
(3) partnerships between United States colleges 
and universities and colleges and universities in sub- 
Saharan Africa represent an important means 
through which access to quality tertiary education; 
(4) members of the African Diaspora have a 
crucial role to play in improving the capacity of Afri-
can colleges and universities; 
(5) the international donor community must 
help build indigenous intellectual capacity in sub-Sa-
haran Africa in order to expand and enhance the 
ability of Africans to achieve economic growth, im-
prove social and political stability, and to address 
such challenges as the HIV/AIDS pandemic, climate 
change, conflict and governance; and 
(6) the United States must commit to providing 
long-term assistance to build the capacity of higher 
education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa aimed 
at improving administrative capacity, physical infra-
structure and curriculum to provide high quality 
education in fields such as the social, natural, bio-
logical, agricultural, life, computer and health 
sciences; technology; business; engineering; mathe-
matics; economics; and education; and improve the 
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ability of institutions in sub-Saharan Africa to sup-
port and produce effective research, as well as high-
er numbers of better trained undergraduate, grad-
uate and post-graduate students and professionals to 
respond to the many challenges facing the region. 
SEC. 4. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 
It is the policy of the United States to provide long- 
term assistance to expand, improve, support, and promote 
higher education in Africa by building the capacity of Afri-
can colleges and universities, through partnerships with 
colleges and universities in the United States to expand 
opportunities for students to obtain high quality 
undergraduate- and graduate-level degrees, as well as 
post-graduate training, at African colleges and univer-
sities. 
SEC. 5. ASSISTANCE TO EXPAND AND IMPROVE HIGHER 
EDUCATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA. 
Chapter 1 of part I of the Foreign Assistance Act 
of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.) is amended by inserting 
after section 105 the following new section: 
‘‘SEC. 105A. ASSISTANCE TO EXPAND AND IMPROVE HIGH-
ER EDUCATION IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA. 
‘‘(a) 
AUTHORIZATION.—The 
President, 
acting 
through the Director, is authorized to provide long-term 
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assistance to expand, improve, support, and promote high-
er education in sub-Saharan Africa. 
‘‘(b) ACTIVITIES SUPPORTED.—Assistance provided 
under subsection (a) shall, to the maximum extent prac-
ticable, be used to— 
‘‘(1) build the capacity of sub-Saharan African 
colleges and universities in the areas of— 
‘‘(A) professional and academic training 
and faculty development and technical expertise 
with particular emphasis on mentoring and re-
tention of young and new faculty; 
‘‘(B) development and strengthening of 
educational administrative capacity; 
‘‘(C) undergraduate, graduate, and grad-
uate curricula development; 
‘‘(D) improving infrastructure of academic 
facilities; and 
‘‘(E) technical capacity, especially in the 
areas of research and institutional development; 
‘‘(2) establish, expand, and promote linkages 
and partnerships between African colleges and uni-
versities and United States colleges and universities, 
with special attention to the inclusion of historically 
Black colleges and universities in the United States; 
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