For more than a decade, higher education and research in the French-speaking countries of Africa has been in a state of severe crisis, stemming from an increasing disparity between available resources and the requirements vital to providing high-quality education. This paper seeks to: 1) highlight the factors which have led to the development of this situation in most countries; 2) identify the conditions for creating a framework for regulating financially-sustainable higher education and research systems; and 3) identify ways of increasing funding for this sector as well as maintaining its quality.