This study addresses the research question: What is the effect of higher education liberalization on the regional distribution of universities and educational attainment in Zambia? The analysis captures the transformative effects of liberalization policies on educational access and regional distribution using data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) across seven of Zambia’s ten provinces. We compare regions that established new universities with those that did not, estimating the average treatment effects on educational attainment among a total sample size of 23,065 individuals. This paper highlights the critical role of liberalization in fostering educational attainment by contextualizing the findings in Martin Trow’s Theory of Educational Expansion, which outlines transitions from elite to universal education access. The regression results demonstrate the effect of university establishment on educational attainment over a specific period, starting in 2001. The findings reveal that until 2007, new universities did not result in a statistically significant difference in educational attainment levels between the treated and non-treated regions (p = 0.237). However, by 2013, there was evidence of a small yet statistically significant positive effect (p = 0.003), which became even more pronounced by 2018. The results indicate that the establishment of new universities leads to an approximate 18% increase in educational attainment relative to the sample mean, highlighting a substantial positive impact of the intervention. The paper recommends that the government devise incentives to encourage the establishment of private universities in geographically disadvantaged areas to balance regional educational disparities by leveraging the unique geographical characteristics of these areas to attract students and enhance local educational infrastructure.
Cite this paper
Mwila, K. , Lufungulo, E. S. , Masaiti, G. and Ding, Y. (2025). Expansion Effects of Higher Education Liberalization on the Regional Distribution of Universities and Educational Attainment in Zambia. Open Access Library Journal, 12, e3501. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1113501.
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