Higher education trends, challenges and recommendations

Southern African countries must urgently develop and implement higher education policies aimed at expanding student enrolments, strengthening quality and the qualifications of academics, at least doubling the production of postgraduates, developing research capability and changing how universities work including improving governance and planning.

Although there is an increasing demand for higher education, levels of provision and enrolment rates in Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries are among the lowest in the world.

While the SADC region’s tertiary enrolment was on a par with other parts of the world in the 1970s, by 2010 enrolment in those regions had risen by more than 20% and Southern Africa was falling behind.

If SADC countries continue along their current higher education trajectory without making significant changes, the region is projected to achieve a 16.3% higher education enrolment rate by 2050.

This progress is insufficient when compared to the current global gross tertiary enrolment ratio of 30%, and will erode the future of higher education institutions in the region.

The SADC region has invested heavily in education since 1970. SADC countries spend between 4.5% and 5% of gross domestic product annually on education, which is on a par with UNESCO’s recommendation of 6% of GDP.

By 2010, the SADC region was spending more on education than any other region in the world. SADC also invests more per student than other countries that have a similar level of educational achievement and income.

However, an analysis of government spending going to education, rather than education spending as a percentage of GDP overall, shows that most of the investment went towards primary education with less going to higher education.

As a result, higher education enrolment outcomes reflect poorly on the education investment made. Because increased demand for higher education has not been matched by increased levels of funding, the quality of higher education in the SADC region has deteriorated and the number of academic staff has declined.

Higher education systems in SADC are elite systems in which demand has outstripped capacity and registrations in the fields of science, engineering and technology are relatively low.

Unless the SADC region changes its higher education strategy, by 2050 SADC countries will fall even further behind other regions in Africa and the world in respect of tertiary enrolment rates.

Imperatives for change

Four imperatives emerge for achieving a step-change in higher education development in SADC:

• • Adopt a strategic, targeted and differentiated approach to the expansion of higher education enrolments at all levels of the higher education pipeline – undergraduate as well as postgraduate study.
  
• • Strengthen the quality of teaching and learning in higher education institutions by increasing the qualifications of faculty, producing at least double the number of masters and doctoral graduates, and retaining these skills within the universities.
  
• • Change how universities work in two respects: the first is to strengthen governance, leadership and management, and introduce management information systems to improve the effectiveness of higher education planning and expenditure; the second is to strengthen scholarship through interdisciplinary practice and collaboration for innovation.
  
• • Plan how universities develop their research capability. Will they develop research activities in order to achieve a good mix of applied research, a focus on direct technology transfer as well as basic research with long-term potential for innovation? Will they explicitly link postgraduate and doctoral education to research?
  
  Ten strategies
  
  SARUA’s research and consultations held with higher education leaders and policy-makers throughout the region have produced a number of findings, insights and recommendations for revitalising and strengthening higher education in SADC countries.
  
  These may be crystallised into 10 strategies for expanding and transforming higher education, along with recommendations for education ministers.
  
  1- Scale up and modernise the higher education system through ICT infrastructure. Recommendation: Champion and resource the formation of a National Research and Education Network (NREN) in each country and work closely with counterparts in telecommunications who control resources such as network capacities and licences.
  
  2- Increase the effectiveness of higher education planning. Recommendation: Prioritise the building of institutional research capacity and management information systems to support higher education planning in-country and across the region.
  
  3- Develop academic quality. Recommendation: Strengthen investment in postgraduate education to increase the doctoral qualifications of academics.
  
  4- Increase mobility of staff and students across the region. Recommendation: Create a scholarship fund to strengthen and deepen collaboration between countries and institutions for the development and sharing of academic resources and capacities through innovative staff exchanges, twinning or co-badging of programmes, co-supervision, sandwich courses and joint degrees.
  
  5- Increase the output of doctoral graduates. Recommendation: Set targets for increasing doctoral graduates significantly and expand funding for PhD programmes; draw on external doctoral education support programmes; strengthen relationships between universities and industry and science councils; develop centres of excellence; strengthen doctoral supervision; and develop research benchmarks and involve postgraduate students in meeting these.
  
  6- Strengthen regional cooperation through sector-crossing integration strategies based on agreed objectives, supported by funding schemes. Recommendation: Fast-track the establishment of a SADC Qualifications Framework and implement strategies (listed below) to foster regional cooperation.
  
  7- Foster innovation through networks for reflective learning, staff exchange and sharing good practices. Recommendation: Build research capacity in universities and research hubs, develop entrepreneurial education (and other soft skills) and intensify links between the public and private sectors.
  
  8- Shift the emphasis towards knowledge diversity, interdisciplinary knowledge practices and southern scholarship. Recommendation: Establish a Regional Research and Development Fund to foster collaboration between institutions around the region, centred on transnational research projects in areas of high regional relevance. This will build R&D capacity and networks in critical areas and support the drive for indigenous knowledge production.
  
  9- Develop a funding focus for higher education. Recommendation: Taking into consideration issues of higher education supply, capacity and demand, develop a funding focus and long-term policy support for higher education.
  
  10- Strengthen governance, leadership and management in higher education. Support leaders and work closely with the ‘quadruple helix’ for change: government leaders, higher education leaders, business leaders and community to roll out a regional strategy for higher education.
  
  A five-point plan
  
  SARUA also developed a five-point action plan for revitalising higher education in the SADC region.
  
  First, a funding strategy should be developed that harnesses public funds as well as private sector and donor funding to increase the level of resourcing available for foundational collaborative projects designed to strengthen higher education systems and infrastructure in the SADC region.
  
  Second, focus on four clear priorities for action for education ministers within the framework of a three-year plan to revitalise higher education:
  • • Plan the roll-out of high-speed bandwidth throughout the region.
    
  • • Plan for plant expansion – classrooms, residences, laboratories, computer labs, administration facilities – through matching funding sought on the basis of plans tabled and funds committed by governments.
    
  • • Set up the Regional Research and Development Fund proposed by SARUA.
    
  • • Put in place mechanisms for increased mobility through seed funding for the human resources and infrastructure required to coordinate mobility at all levels of the system.
  Third, plan a regional higher education donor conference at which four to five proposals are showcased and submitted for donor consideration.
  
  Fourth, set up country teams to develop proposals for implementing a strategy to expand and revitalise high education in the region:
  • • Define the roles of the different countries in the creation of a multi-polar structure of centres of excellence or specialisation that find synergies and share resources.
    
  • • Link the work of all country teams to dedicated innovation sites and support networks.
  Fifth, what is required is institutionalised and sustainable funding for a regional coordination body to bring together key higher education players at the highest level – ministries, vice-chancellors, donors and private sector leaders – to foster south-south agenda formation and multi-country collaboration across the Anglophone, Lusophone and Francophone higher education systems in Southern Africa.
  
  * Piyushi Kotecha is CEO of the Southern African Regional Universities Association, SARUA, a research and advisory body representing public higher education institutions across the region.
  
  * This article is part of a paper, “Higher Education in the Southern African Region: Current trends, challenges, and recommendations”, presented at an extraordinary meeting of education ministers held in Johannesburg last week as a contribution to the development of a regional strategic plan for revitalising and strengthening higher education in SADC.
  
  * Click here to read the full paper.