Located in the suburbs of capital city, Gamal Abdel Nasser University of Conakry is Guinea’s largest. A majority of the country’s executives studied here. At first sight, the campus seems pleasant, but after a short walk on the premises it becomes obvious that the place is in a state of total dilapidation.

In an amphitheatre where students are attending a geometry class, all the windows are broken. The room is hot; all the ceiling fans are out of service.

It's the same story at lunch break when students converge on what serves as the cafeteria — a plot of land behind the buildings where stallholders sell food. There are no tables, no plates and just a few benches, no roof to protect them from the sun or the rain.

Today, students are crowding in front of the university’s accounting office for pay day. Scholarship students are being given 180,000 Guinean francs for two months, about half a dollar a day. For many students, that’s not enough. Most of the students have problems paying their rent, and the 50-cent pay is mean to cover the cost of transportation and a very tight food budget as well.

90% of the university’s budget is allocated to paying these scholarships, which are granted to eight students out of 10. This doesn’t leave much room for educational investments. The university has to struggle day after day to carry out its educational mission: a reality common to all French-speaking countries in Africa.