MasterCard Foundation is an independent, global organisation based in Toronto, Canada. It aims to provide opportunities for all people to learn and prosper through programmes in education and access to financial services, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Investing in Africa’s youth to get quality, relevant education is necessary to meet the continent’s development challenges and to equip it for transformation in the approaching technological age.

MasterCard Foundation commissioned IPC to conduct a study on a range of higher education finance models, including a focus on TVET (Technical Education and Vocational Training) models.

IPC experts carried out desk research, carried out interviews with key stakeholders, wrote a detailed report on higher education finance models, and conducted workshops to discuss research findings. The goal of the study was to understand what worked and did not work with existing higher education finance models, as well as to better understand unique contextual factors present in a variety of countries that might affect the success of the implementation of any education finance approach by MasterCard Foundation.

The study generated lessons, insights and recommendations for MasterCard Foundation’s higher education programmes, providing guidance to the Foundation in its strategy to add value to other public and private initiatives in higher education finance in Sub-Saharan Africa.