Joseph Stiglitz, The Origins of Inequality and Policies To Contain It , Oxford University Press, 2025, 880 pages

Half a century after their creation, the higher education systems of French-speaking West Africa are subject to strong pressures, as evidenced by the examples of Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal: pressure of numbers, since they must welcome ever more students; and financial pressure, since states, which remain their main donors, are struggling to keep funding growing at the rate of enrollment. They are therefore faced with a triple challenge: the challenge of equity with regard to the social origin of the students benefiting from public funds; the challenge of efficiency, and in particular of the suitability of training to the needs of the job market; and the challenge of financing and of the search for solutions to reduce the contributions of states and to diversify the resources of schools and universities.