Jan 30, 2015 - cathedral schools or monastic schools (scholae monasticae) of the 6th century, in which monks and nuns taught classes. The earliest University ...
The potential of a University to create or destroy: a presentation at the graduation ceremony of Nicholus Mwine and Alban Manishimwe, 30 th January, 2015 By: Gad Ruzaaza Ndaruhutse 1.0 Introduction Conceived from a utilitarian perspective and based on contemporary higher education theory and practice domain, this paper is poised to discuss three aspects: 1) understanding a University and its changing role(s), 2) on becoming a University graduate and 3) a University and self reliance. The author, by presenting and examining the three issues in a public forum aims at contributing to the ongoing debate regarding the essence of tertiary / University education. Specifically the presentation is intended to reward the parents of Nicholus Mwine and Alban Manishimwe with an aura of achievement, while at the same time provoking the graduates of the day that all is not yet done. Building on the seminal philosophy by the founder president and statesman of Tanzania, the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the paper concludes that unless ‘higher education for self reliance becomes a norm, rather than a reality; the tangible benefits of tertiary / University education will become illusive and even possibly contradictory’. 2.0 Understanding a University and its changing roles According to Wilkipedia, a university is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which grants academic degrees in various subjects and typically provides undergraduate education and postgraduate education. The word "university" is derived from the Latin universitas magistrorum et scholarium, which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars”. The latin meaning also connotes "a number of persons associated into one body, a society, company, community, guild or corporation. The emergence of universities is linked to guilds or clubs and associations of students and teachers during the medieval era. The earliest universities were self regulating entities, determined by qualifications. Modern usage of the word ‘university’ implies "an institution of higher education offering tuition in mainly non1
vocational subjects and typically having the power to confer degrees. The oldest Universities were in Europe: the University of Bologna of 1088, University of Paris of 1150 and the University of Oxford of 1167; emerging from higher education that took place in Christian cathedral schools or monastic schools (scholae monasticae) of the 6th century, in which monks and nuns taught classes. The earliest University in USA was Ohio University. For Africa, the first generation of African Universities stemming from the colonial period were: Fourah Bay College (Sierra Leone), Dakar (Senegal), and Makerere (Uganda). It was during the 1970s that most African countries expressed their willingness to establish development-based universities. The number of institutions grew rapidly, from 20 in 1960 to 120 in 1997 (Seddoh, 2003). Currently there are up to 40 Universities within Uganda alone, including Mbarara University of Science and Technology which begun in 1989. The African University is undergoing a changing role, with greater expectations to influence market forces and to contribute to good governance and accountability. The main elements of this change process are the increasing pace of globalization; the ‘commodification’ of knowledge and the centrality of its generation and application to social and economic development; the increased openness of national borders to flows not only of goods and services but of knowledge and information. The African university is obliged to reposition itself to (a) support the national effort to meet essential human needs in a sustainable manner; and (b) contribute to the competitiveness of the nation and its enterprises through the development and application of science, technology and other forms of knowledge appropriate to its condition (Sawyerr, 2002). The changing mandates of the African University is exerting increasing pressure to deliver optimally to its mandate, while at the same time further constraining resources, in spite of very limited funding options (Kasozi, 2003; Ndaruhutse, 2013, Onen etal, 2015).
According to a research by Pillay (2010) based on a literature review and case studies of systems in Finland, Korea and North Carolina, and macro and micro studies of higher education in eight African countries - Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, 2
Tanzania, and Uganda, there is a wide acceptance that higher education has a significant impact on economic growth, mediating through a range of factors. Available literature also reveals that higher education is a necessary but not sufficient factor for economic development. 3.0 On becoming a University graduate The article by Zeelen (2012) discusses the current dynamics at African universities concerning the quality of teaching, the role of research, the level of community outreach, and the position of higher education in the educational sector as a whole. One of the central conclusions is that the system of education in Africa in general, and higher education in particular, is highly dysfunctional, especially in terms of wasted human capacity as well as financial resources. African higher education institutions cannot close their eyes to the immense skills shortage and the frightening percentages of (youth-) unemployment.
Private higher education, most particularly has experienced spectacular growth in Africa and in 2006 accounted for 22 percent of higher education students, presenting the ‘degree mills’ scenario. Failure to control student flow would lead to training young people who lack the relevant skills to benefit from the training or to investing in and encouraging studies that will result in more unemployment or underemployment (World Bank, 2010). Africa is looking to its University graduates to carry out and support its transformation in all areas of human endeavor. Through research and increased knowledge, higher education can also help to address the challenges arising from population growth, limited arable land, endemic diseases, urbanization, energy costs, and climate change.
Whereas the degree holders are increasing, Africa still has the least per capita access to higher education in the world (100 students per 100,000 inhabitants, compared with 5,000 students per 100,000 inhabitants in the United States. Utilization of IT facilities remains lowest in Africa, with the lowest proportion of telephone connections and internet (Macgregor, 2009).
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Zeelen, (2012) denotes that African universities are predominantly teaching institutions with weak connections to the labor market and the existing lack of research culture and inadequate supervision has a negative effect on the quality of the research. Furthermore in most of the Universities, linkages with communities are under pressure, divisions are widening; and massification of higher education leads to the question as to whether the student population is at the right place. In his reconstruction of recent developments at Makarere University in Kampala, Mahmood Mamdani (2007) comes to the conclusion that we have to ask ourselves whether a substantial group of students is actually at the right place. In his opinion, a university should always be research-oriented. For many students at Makerere, vocational programmes in the context of a community college to be established separate from the university, would be much more appropriate.
4.0 The University and self reliance Spanish sociologist Castells cited by Zeelen (2012) discussed the role of a university from a historical perspective. Castells speaks of the following four functions of a university: 1) The formation and dissemination of ideology; 2) The selection of dominant elites; 3) The generation of new knowledge; and 4) The training of a skilled labour force (including contributing to the development of society). Besides these functions formulated by Castells, an additional fifth function needs consideration as well: The role of the university as a place for independent and critical thinking that challenges the status quo of the specific society where it functions.
Most African universities will continue to be the principal producers of national political officials, public administrators, business managers, secondary school teachers, and public and private health personnel. It is easy to imagine the heavy responsibilities of African universities, since they are among the main levers for national development and the open gates towards the modern world with which they should remain on the same wavelength (Seddoh, 2003). Macgregor, (2009) spells out five roles for higher education in development 4
Traditional development, with higher education seen as a producer of national manpower.
'Institutional', with the university as a self-governing institution and a ‘luxury ancillary’.
‘New instrumental', with higher education as the producer of skilled professionals, particularly scientists and engineers.
'Service enterprise', with the university embedded in markets, and meeting and responding to 'community' needs.
'Engine of development', with the university as the electricity of development in the new knowledge economy.
The implication of such an assertion is that Universities can have a much wider scope in addressing the challenges of society. But, as for my younger colleagues, Nicholus and Alban, you have already joined a multitude of mostly job seeking graduates, including Ms. Rebecca Nakiganda cited in the daily monitor news paper of Wednesday 27th January, 2016, a graduate of Kyambogo University hailing from Kitagobwa village, Wakiso district. She raised her school fees by making bricks, selling each brick at two hundred Uganda shillings only (UGX 200) on site. With her savings she has been able to support her younger sisters and brothers with school fees. 5.0 Conclusion and recommendations A recent comparative higher education review (Macgregor, 2009) focusing on Africa reveals how several countries have linked higher education to economic development with great success, including Finland and South Korea. But for Africa, a study of university systems across eight countries has unearthed contradictory notions of the role of the university. There is a great need for Africa to draw on international best practice to encourage more flexible, differentiated, networked and development-focused higher education systems better placed to support economic growth. For teachers, lecturers and professors, it is emphatic that higher education's role in and contribution to development is influenced by three inter-related factors, which are themselves influenced by local circumstances, institutional characteristics and 5
external relations: the nature of University and its stakeholders, the scope of a Universities’ activities and the nature and size of the academic core. Additionally a relevant educational process puts the student at the center. Unless ‘higher education for self reliance becomes a norm, rather than a reality; the tangible benefits of tertiary / University education will become illusive and even possibly contradictory’. African Universities, and higher education in general still grapple with efficiency, resource mobilization and this hampers their contribution to development. The case for differentiating the higher education system in order to better meet society’s needs is vital. A major challenge to all systems of higher education in today’s globalised environment is ‘mission creep’, in which all institutions seek to become ‘world-class’ universities at increasing cost to the state and to needed institutional diversity. Globally, higher education will continue to contribute to development in terms of general enlightenment, socio economic empowerment of communities, improving incomes, overcoming mythology and contributing to the general resource envelope. In a final analysis, let me take this moment to congratulate the parents of Mr. Nicholus Mwine and Mr. Alban Manishimwe for a job well-done and to welcome the graduates to the World of work where trial and error in pursuit of self reliance could unlock your optimal potential. 6.0 References Daily Monitor News paper January 27, 2016 Kasozi, A.B.K. (2003). University Education in Uganda, Challenges and Opportunities for Reform, Fountain Publishers, Kampala, Uganda MacGregor, K. 2009 Africa: Higher education and development, University World News, Global window on higher education, Issue No:96 Mamdani, M. (2007). Scholars in the Marketplace. The dilemmas of Neo-Liberal Reform at Makerere University, 1989-2005. Kampala: Fountain Publishers. 6
Ministry of Education, Department for Education and Science Policy, FIN-00023 Government, Finland (2009) www.minedu.fi Strategy for the Internationalisationof Higher Education Institutions in Finland 2009–2015, Publications of the Ministry of Education, Finland 2009:23 Ndaruhutse, R.G., (2013) Management of students’ loan scheme, the African context and Lessons for the recently inaugurated students loan scheme in Uganda, (Uganda Management Institute term paper on Education policy (assignment / work in progress) Nyerere, J. K. (1967). Education for self‐reliance. The Ecumenical Review, 19(4), 382-403. Onen, D., Ajuaba, D.B., Oceng, R.O., Ndaruhutse, R.G. (2015) Managing the Student Loan Schemes in Africa: Lessons for Younger Loan Schemes, International Journal of Education and Research, Vol. 3 No. 12 December 2015 Pillay, P. (2010) Linking higher education and economic development implications for Africa from Three successful systems, Published by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation (CHET), South Africa
Pillay, P. (2010) Towards the Establishment of a Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa, Progress Report: January 2010, CHET United Nations (2012) Realizing the Future we Want for All a report to the Secretary General Perkin, H. (2007). History of universities. In International handbook of higher education (pp. 159-205). Springer Netherlands. World Bank, (2010) Financing Higher Education in Africa, Washington DC, Library of Congress Control Number: 2010926044 Zeelen, J. 2012 Universities in Africa: Working on Excellence for Whom? Reflections on Teaching, Research, and Outreach Activities at African Universities, International Journal of Higher Education Vol. 1, No. 2; 2012, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5430 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University
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