MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROJECT

Phase One

African Higher Education in a Globalizing World

NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR HIGHER EDUCATION,UGANDA

2011

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TABLE OF CONTENTSINTRODUCTION 3

PART 1 4GLOBALIZATION 1.1 WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?1.2 OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION1.3 WHATS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GLOBALIZATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION?1.4 HOW DOES GLOBAL POWER RELATIONS INFLUENCE HIGHER EDUCATION?1.5 SUMMING UP

PART 2 10INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION 2.1 INTRODUCTION2.2 EFFECTS OF THESE ELEMENTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING NATIONS

1. The explosion in higher education2. The growth in the importance of the English language3. The need for internet and other forms of ICT4. The emphasis on research and publications5. Cross-border higher education6. Concern with the ranking of universities

2.4 WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF INTERNATIONALIZATION? 2.5 THE CHANGING UNDERSTANDING OF HIGHER EDUCATION2.6 SUMMING UP

PART 3 23IMPLICATION OF GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATIONALIZATION ON HE SYSTEMS 3.1 INTRODUCTION3.2 POLICY MAKING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 3.3 THE ARRIVAL OF NON-TRADITIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION PROVIDERS3.4 THE GATS AND BORDERLESS EDUCATION3.5 HORSE TRADING3.6 PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION – A FOLLOWER OF MARKET FORCES.3.7 EMERGENCE OF PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION PROVISION IN UGANDA3.6 SUMMING UP

PART 4 33UNIVERSITIES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY4.1 PERSPECTIVES ON TEACHING AND LEARNING4.2 LIFELONG LEARNING AND ADULT EXPERIENCE4.3 LEARNING AND WORK

1. Adult learners in higher education2. Vocationalisation3. Outcomes-based, or competency-based, curricula

4.4 SUMMING UP

APPENDIX 44HIGHER EDUCATION IN UGANDA: THE SUB-SECTOR IN 2007 AT A GLANCE.

REFERENCES 47

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INTRODUCTION

In this module, you will be introduced to globalization and two other related concepts; internationalization and cross border education whose influence in Higher Education has been enormous in the 21st Century. As a university manager, you need to understand and plan to exploit the benefits as well as mitigate the challenges that come with globalization.

AIM:To enable participants gain an understanding of globalization and its influence on nation states generally and Higher Education in particular.

MODULE OBJECTIVES:By the end of module, you will be able to:

Explain the concepts of globalization, internationalization and cross border education

Analyze the influence of globalization on developing nations Discuss the opportunities and challenges of globalization in relation to their

institutions Evaluate the impact of internationalization on institutions of Higher Learning in

developing countries. Analyze the ways in which globalization enhances the interests of powerful

nations. Appreciate the ways in which curricula in institutions of Higher Learning have

been affected by global influences.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:At the end of the module, you will demonstrate ability to:

Describe the characteristics of globalization Describe the relations between globalization and liberalization Analyse the socio-political forces defining liberalization of higher education Outline the advantages and disadvantages of globalization Appreciate the important contribution that globalization and internationalization

have on higher education.

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PART 1

GLOBALIZATION

In the first part of this module, we will see what is meant by ‘globalization’, especially in terms of its influence on the development of higher education. The focus here is very much on understanding globalization as a new force or power in the world that presents opportunities - as well as ‘challenges’ to those who manage universities.

By the end of Part 1 of this module, you will be able to: Explain the concept of globalization Discuss the opportunities and challenges of globalization

on nation states and universities, and Analyze the relationship between globalization and higher

education.

1.1 WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?

The term “Globalization” has attracted enormous interests from various scholars for a long period of time. Enders and Fulton (2002) for example, state that, “Globalization is primarily the processes of increasing interdependence, and ultimately convergence, economies, and to the liberalization of trade and markets. In addition and as an observable consequence, globalization has a strong cultural component, which tends to encourage the establishment of a usually (Western) global-brand culture, although in principle it can also support the diffusion of more indigenous traditions”. Ifeany (2011) argues that, “globalization is the process by which more emphases are laid on economic, political and cultural relations among the diverse and different peoples of the world whereby trade barriers are broken down and market integration encouraged among different nations of the world”. Other scholars such as Ohuabunwa (1999), views globalization as, an evolution which is systematically restructuring interactive phases among nations by breaking down barriers in the area of culture, commerce, communication and several other fields of endeavor. Globalization is thus a process of interaction and integration amongst people, institutions, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in, societies around the world.

Irrespective of how one puts it, the term globalization is not a new phenomenon in the world scenery, as documented by Hirst (1997). For thousands of years, people have been traveling and exploring new vistas. Indeed, only in recent years have we learned about the great Chinese explorers who found their way to the shores of East Africa in the 15 th century. In earlier times, the term ‘Internationalization’ was used instead to refer to relations across national borders. It referred, for example, to relations of state – or in the sphere of higher education - of visiting students and scholars, exchange programmes where students and staff travelled to other lands in order to study. Internationalization is an older form of institutional connectedness but with very

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limited aims, areas and purposes. It does not refer to the emerging concentrated integration of peoples, communities and ideas which characterize globalization.

Policy and technological developments of the past few decades have spurred increases in migration, among other things, so large that many observers believe the world has entered a qualitatively new phase in its social, political and economic development. Since 1950, for example, the volume of world trade has increased by 20 times, and from just 1997 to 1999 flows of foreign investment nearly doubled, from $468 billion to $827 billion. Distinguishing this current wave of globalization from earlier ones, author Thomas Friedman has said that today globalization is “farther, faster, cheaper, and deeper.”

While there are many positive aspects to the “farther, faster, cheaper, and deeper” world order, there is also an aspect that some choose to ignore. It is market forces and nation states acting in combination that drive globalization. Powerful nations in combination with their strong corporations, institutions and agencies, drive globalization. In the economic sphere, globalization is enhanced/created by the production of both private and public goods exhibited in two major components:

the creation of a worldwide integrated global market sustained by corporations, located in powerful nations operating globally across borders using a partially integrated

financial system.

These are utilizing an emerging global system of communications, knowledge, culture and language; all sustained by a global market. Territorial empires where powerful nations controlled the political and economic states of weaker nations are no longer necessary. Conditions of a globalized world enhance the interests of powerful nations.

1.2OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES OF GLOBALIZATION

Globalization is viewed as a phenomenon that presents a number of opportunities to countries because of its constructs that provides independence in or geographic location. This is important since nations can strategize and diversify on its developmental opportunities. Companies or organizations are also able to compete internationally without any restrictions. According Pologeorgis (2010) globalization brings the reorganization of production, international trade and the integration of financial markets, thus affecting capitalist economic and social relations via multilateralism microeconomic phenomena, such as business competitiveness, at the global level. It is worth noting that globalization has fostered and transformed the world into a global village because of increased interconnectedness and interdependent. This is because technology has transformed peoples’ abilities to communicate in ways that would have been unimaginable several years ago. According to Burande (2011), globalization increases the economic prosperity and opportunity in the developing world. The civil liberties are enhanced and there is a more efficient use of resources. All the countries involved in the free trade are at a profit. As a result, there are lower prices, more employment and a better standard of life in these developing nations. It is feared that some developing regions progress at the expense of other developed regions. However, such doubts are

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futile as globalization is a positive-sum chance in which skills and technologies enable the increase of living standards throughout the world. Liberals look at globalization as an efficient tool to eliminate penury and allow the poor people a firm foothold in the global economy.

There is a general consensus among scholars on the challenges of globalization on nations, especially the developing ones. It is fair to state that globalization has a number of drawbacks and they tend to affect each country in a different way due to such a nation’s individual history, traditions, culture and priorities. Research studies have highlighted a number of factors that can be viewed as the downside of globalization such as:

1. Insecurity: Security concerns, terrorism and high crime levels have to a large extent been attributed to the forces of globalization. The implications of this notion is such that many countries who feel threatened by the new inhabitants within their countries, have to adopt strategic policies to combat such threats including:

a. countries are forced to spend quite substantial amounts of money on security initiatives;

b. Countries become tough on their immigration laws that have consequences on the number of students/staff entering their countries. In this instance, the consequence can be huge to both the developed country and the developing nations, in that the developed nation will miss out on some of the best brains who would have done high-level research in that country. While developing nations also suffer when their students are denied the opportunity to attend renown learning centers.

2. Globalization has also been blamed for undermining institutional authority and stability. For example, the destruction of traditional values and morals as technology relays new lifestyles without much control. The resultant effect on the communities is the erosion of traditions as people adopt new ways of doing things. Ironically, within the developing nations, not everyone is able to access the necessary services due to income inequalities.

1.3 WHAT’S THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GLOBALIZATION AND HIGHER EDUCATION?

The relationship between higher education and globalization is intimate. An OECD publication summarizes globalization and higher education as follows:

Higher Education drives and is driven by globalization. Higher education trains the highly skilled workers and contributes to the research base and capacity for innovation that determine competitiveness in the knowledge-based global economy. It facilitates international collaboration and cross-cultural exchange. Cross-border flows of ideas, students, faculty and financing, coupled with developments in information and communication technology, are changing the

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environment where higher education institutions function. Cooperation and competition are intensifying simultaneously under the growing influence of market forces and the emergence of new players. (Summary of the OECD, 2009, p.13).

Elsewhere in the OECD document, it says: “Globalization breaks down national barriers and connects universities to one another across the world, facilitates knowledge flows, values and culture. Universities are thus major agents of globalization.” It goes onto describe higher education as the “core to emerging systems of knowledge, culture/language and trains mobile labour force in business, professions and science.”

With globalization, policy formation has shifted from being made only internally by the state and higher education institutions to a triple source: university + state + global. As a new generation university manager you must take this into account as you make your strategic plans. In addition you must also take note of the following:

I. Universities are not only victims of globalization, they are also its agents. They are linked to various knowledge and production centres of the world;

II. Globalization in higher education does not manifest or affect institutions in a uniform way. However, no university, weak or powerful can seal itself from the influences and impact of globalization. While powerful institutions from powerful nations can exert curricula and knowledge supply influence, small weak ones cannot escape consuming global ware from institutional giants.

III. Globalization affects state/university relations by linking the university to the international supply of knowledge, labour and way of conducting business. National governments cannot, without lowering the quality of universities, sideline the demands of globalization. Universities have to compete globally and therefore must respond to global forces. In this way, globalization can enhance institutional autonomy or the chains of the state.

IV. The nation state is still the context in which the university is located. Governments may devolve but cannot legislate themselves out of higher education regulation. While in the past they managed, globalization has forced states to regulate rather than administer, higher education. Moreover, international agreements such as WTO/GATS that influence higher education are signed by states. Nations have to fund basic research, the bottom-line of knowledge production. Managers of institutions of higher learning must carefully cultivate the symbiotic relationship of states and university institutions.

1.4HOW DOES GLOBAL POWER RELATIONS INFLUENCE HIGHER EDUCATION?

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Power is the determinant of levels of global influence on higher education systems. Minor universities in weaker nation lose all the above through economic asset transfers, brain drain and consumption of out of date knowledge. The ability of institutions to benefit from globalization depends, very much, on size and wealth of the economy, the resources at the disposal of the government, culture and language, skills of the people, the GDP and GDP per capita. This is exemplified by “the hegemonic role played by American higher education, led by the powerful American research/doctoral giving universities” (see: Marginson and der Wender, p.34).

The United States of America has 17 of the World’s top 20 research universities and 53 percent of the top 100 universities. The USA attracts doctoral students, researchers, academics and funding not only from within the USA but also from all over the world. In fact, some writers have asserted that globalization in higher education could be referred to as Americanization, or an Anglo-American process.

The points to note are: American dominance of global higher education is driven by American private,

and not public universities or the American state; Although these top universities are private, they receive massive government

research funds; These universities are institutionally very free from external powers: the freer the

university the more the chances of attaining quality; These institutions are brain gainers from all over the globe; (i.e. in 2001, 41

percent of USA doctoral students were foreigners; in 2005, the USA had 41 percent of citations in the world scientific output. It is estimated that 70 percent of foreign doctoral students stay on in the USA to work.); and

The rise of the European Higher Education Area, China and India as competitors in global higher education supply might change global higher education relations for instance: China now accounts for 50 percent of Research and Development expenditure of non-OECD countries.

1.5SUMMING UP

Globalization is a fact of life that has had, and is having, a very strong influence on the shaping of universities. We cannot escape from it. In developing countries the influence of globalization, while not so obvious to many around, is as strong as that in developed countries. How we respond to the influence of globalization, and ‘react’, will determine the future of universities in the region.

REFLECTION QUESTION

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Reflecting on your institution, how can you do the following: produce cutting edge knowledge, retain their best academics, convince their governments to allocate more resources to research and position their institutions to compete?

Notes(1) Figures from Shangai Jiao Tong University Institute of Higher Education, (SJTUIHE,

2007). The (SJTUIHE) annually publishes data from 500 top research universities. American universities dominate the top. For example in 2005, the USA housed 4031 of HiCi researchers compared to Germany 260, 258 Japan, 185 Canada etc (Table 7).

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PART 2

INTERNATIONALIZATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION

In the second part of this module, the concept of internationalization in higher education will be considered. This is contextualized under six signs:

1) The explosion in higher education; 2) The growth in the importance of the English language; 3) The need Internet and other forms of it; 4) The emphasis on research and publications; 5) Cross-border higher education; and 6) Concern with the ranking of universities. In so far as we can, we will

illustrate some of these signs of globalization in reference current developments in higher education in Uganda.

Specific ObjectivesBy the end of Part 2 of this module, you will be able to:

Explain internationalization, Differentiate between internationalization and globalization,

and Discuss the impact of internationalization on nation states

and higher education institutions in developing countries.

2.1INTRODUCTION

Internationalization of higher education is becoming one of the most critical facets of the 21st Century. With it, comes the movement of students, lecturers and programmes across nations. Salient to this phenomenon is also the notion of proliferation of nontraditional providers such as: corporations operations, publishing houses think-tanks, professional associations, research institutes amongst others. According to OECD (2004), Higher education has become increasingly international in the past decade as more and more students choose to study aboard, enroll in foreign educational programmes and institutions in their home country, or simply use the Internet to take courses at college or university in other countries. Kishun (2004) asserts that the ‘market’ for international students is one of the most dynamic of all world markets. The statement is supported by Kemp (2007), who confers that the last ten years has seen such unprecedented growth in international students that governments from a range of countries now prioritize involvement in this market through their own Ministries of Education or dedicated international education promotional agencies.

Internationalization of higher education can therefore be viewed as a strategic area of an institution’s future planning, and is of greater and growing importance to higher education leaders. To this effect, the notion of internationalization of higher education

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needs to be taken in a holistic view and should embody a number of factors. A number of students are now moving in search of new knowledge both

regionally and across the globe. Lecturers or teaching staff, have also been involved in the game where they have

moved internationally in search of better teaching facilities and rewards. Many educational providers have also adopted a strategy of starting training

programmes in various international destinations. Finally, nontraditional providers such as corporations,, publishing houses think-

tanks, professional institutions and research institutes amongst others, have all joined the bandwagon.

2.2EFFECTS OF THESE ELEMENTS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING NATIONS

First, students will opt to move from their home countries to those countries they deem will provide quality education. Unfortunately, the socio-political landscape in most African States experienced a great deal of turmoil for several decades, although in the past decade or so, the situation seems to have come to normalcy. The consequences of these endless periods of wars meant that, most of the African States were not able to focus on the developmental issues such as the construction of roads, schools and hospitals. As a result, Africa would not be a preferred destination for students in search of quality education. However, in the East African region, statistics show that Uganda has attracted one of the highest numbers of foreign students in the last decade.

As students leave their homelands and move to other states, the eventual the host country benefits due to the student contribution in terms of fees and payment towards their living costs. Conversely, the host nations’ socio-economic structures such as hospital services tend to be burdened as a result of this influx. It should also be pointed out that when students arrive in their intended places of study, they in most cases, experience a number of problems such as the differentiation in cultures. To this effect, there is no substanaical literature or research highlighting this subject.

Secondly, when staff moves in search of greener pastures, they surely leave their respective home nations with a shortfall of the needed intellectual capital. According to Woldetensae (2007), massive brain drain has posed serious challenges to African higher education and socio-economic development. On the contrary Meyer (2003) observes that brain drain and brain circulation pose major consequences for public policy, namely that mobility of highly skilled manpower should be seen as a normal process that should not be stopped, and that the real challenge is therefore to manage it as well as possible.

Thirdly, institutions of higher learning have adopted the idea of shifting programmes from their host nations to such places where their demand is high. In other words, programmes are now tailored to suit the forces of demand and supply across nations. One of the key implications of this kind of arrangement is the determination of quality in the provision of higher education. A fundamental challenge presented is the sanction of

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regulatory measures to ensure quality.

Fourthly, there is the proliferation of nontraditional educational providers such as, cooperation’s, publishing houses, think-tanks, professional associations and research institutes into the higher education market driven by the assumed economic benefits. The inevitable challenges paused by this new phenomena can be catalogued as ethical, professional and to a large extent operational. When a think-tank suddenly begins to package itself as a training provider, the role and identity of the concept of what a traditional university is raises all sorts of questions. However, the onus is on the practitioners of higher education to recognize this paradigm shift and refocus their strategy to design policies relevant for the 21st Century.

1. The explosion in higher educationIn order to appreciate the effect of internationalization of higher education, a brief background of the evolution of higher education in recent times can be presented thus follows. In 1999, there were 93.1 million higher education students, (of whom 44.2 were females). By 2006, there were 114.1 million students, (of whom 71.9 were females), a growth of 51 million (GUNI 2009). In 1980, there were some 32,000 degree-awarding institutions in the USA. In 2004 there were 42,000 with an enrolment of sixteen million (Manicas, 2005). In India in 1950 there were 370 colleges and 27 universities. By 2002, there were 8,737 colleges and 272 universities. (www.ugc.ac.in). The greatest enrolments have been in Asia. China’s massification illustrates these phenomena. In 1949, there were 205 higher learning institutions in China of which 123 were universities (Wanng Yibing, 2009). The total registration was 120,000 students. By 1965, there were 434 institutions with 680,000 students. From 1999 to 2002, enrolments increased from 8.79 to 16 million students. By 2007 the figure had reached 27 million students. The growth rate of enrolment was 32 percent. China is now the largest higher education centre in the world. The massive growth in the demand for universities has also affected Africa. In this continent, there were 20 universities in 1960 but, by 1996, there were some 60 institutions. More than 100 hundred private universities now operate in Africa. Student enrolment grew more than ten-fold in Africa from 120,000 students in 1960 to over two million in 1995, (Reddy, 2000, World Bank, 200). By 2008, registered students in the African tertiary sector had reached four million, (Harvard Africa Higher Student Project: www.arp.harvard.edu). Despite these growth in numbers, the tertiary gross enrolment ratio (GER) is still 6 percent and. Although it is the lowest amongst continents, the number of registered students in tertiary institutions doubles every five years in Africa.

In Uganda itself, the growth rate of enrolment between 2001 and 2006 was 14 percent per year, slightly less than the sub-Saharan average of 15 percent. However, with resources not growing at the same rate as population growth, the Uganda state was not able to increase funding to higher education to match growing numbers due to lack of money, commitment of SAPs and the subtle influence of donors who considered higher education a luxury. Since 2001, the state has spent no more than 0.30 percent as a percentage of GDP each year on its public universities and 0.38 percent on the whole tertiary sub-sector. Worse, the state has not been funding basic research making universities operate

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like high schools: teaching institutions. The sub-sector has received least funding from the Ministry of Education and Sports in comparison with the other two levels of education. Further, funds were released to universities according to government procedures, financial capacity of the treasury, and timing, all of which were not necessarily in harmony with universities needs and behaviour. Many stakeholders have called for the tapping of sources, other than government, to supplement state funding of Ugandan universities (Eisemon et al., 1993, Mayanja, 1998, Kajubi, 1992).

2. The growth in the importance of the English languageAs the movement of students and instructors increase, the need for a common language to facilitate communication among peoples becomes paramount, thus the growth of English language.

English has become the global language of science, research and academic publications. Indeed, “English stands at the very centre of the global knowledge system”, (Held et al, 1999). The Anglo-America bloc within the world economy enhances the utility of the English language. Other facilitators of English are:

The Anglo based cultural industries (cinema, movies etc); The Internet, whose major medium is English; and The power of American, British, Canadian, Indian and Australian universities

whose communication is English.

English is spreading as a medium of instruction in non-English speaking nations such as China and Europe. Although more people speak other languages such as Chinese, the geographic spread of English enhances its use. However this is not to say that it will remain so in the future, as the following table indicates:

Table 1: Spoken languages with more than 100 million voices worldwideLanguage/language group Number of voices (millions)EnglishPutonghua (“Mandarin”)Hindu/UrduSpanish/PortugueseRussianArabicBengaliMalay-IndonesianJapaneseFrenchGerman

1,0001,000900450/200320250250160130125125

Source: Linguasphere Observatory (2006)

3. The need for internet and other forms of ICTHigher education institutions are now believed to be more networked than other social institutions. However, the ability of an institution to connect is conditioned by the size and efficiency of the national economy and social organization. Access to the web has improved student-centered learning where students can study by themselves any topic the lecturer advises them to do so. Many teachers now create class webs where both teachers and students can upload and download information – one outcome of this is the rise in the

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use of problem-based learning. Table 2 indicates the connectivity levels around the world:

Table 2: World Internet usage and population statisticsWorld Regions Population

( 2010 Est.)Internet UsersDec. 31, 2000

Internet UsersLatest Data

Penetration% (Population)

Growth 2000-2010

Users %of Table

Africa 1,013,779,050 4,514,400 110,931,700 10.9 % 2,357.3 % 5.6 %

Asia 3,834,792,852 114,304,000 825,094,396 21.5 % 621.8 % 42.0 %

Europe 813,319,511 105,096,093 475,069,448 58.4 % 352.0 % 24.2 %

Middle East 212,336,924 3,284,800 63,240,946 29.8 % 1,825.3 % 3.2 %

North America 344,124,450 108,096,800 266,224,500 77.4 % 146.3 % 13.5 %

Latin America/Caribbean 592,556,972 18,068,919 204,689,836 34.5 % 1,032.8 % 10.4 %

Oceania / Australia 34,700,201 7,620,480 21,263,990 61.3 % 179.0 % 1.1 %

WORLD TOTAL 6,845,609,960 360,985,492 1,966,514,816 28.7 % 444.8 % 100.0 %

As can be seen from the respective internet users listed above for each continent, Africa is by far the poorest. This has had a knock-on effect on the quality of research and level of publications issued by African universities – an issue we will now turn to.

4. The emphasis on research and publicationsGlobally, higher education is seen not only as a transmitter of knowledge, but most vitally, as a producer of knowledge. Starting in the US, universities are seen as the major producers of knowledge and leaders of national innovation systems. Indeed, almost all major ranking of universities are based on research output. Global ranking of universities enhances this trend. It is therefore important for university managers to come to terms with global change. Teaching is a major component of university academic management but research is taking priority.

HiCi ResearchersThe number of high citation (HiCi) researchers, that is, researchers in the top 250-300 in their fields as indicated by citations is used as measure of research capacity. This is reflected in the Thomson-151- measured citation performance. Universities that dominate research also dominate the knowledge market. Their ideas are imported into universities all over the world as the basis of curriculum content causing what is almost ‘intellectual imperialism’.

There is an undeniable relationship between economic power and university research capacity. American universities dominate HiCi basic research, reflecting the size of the American economy. In a recent ranking, the USA has 17 of the top 20, 54 of the top 100 and 167 of the top 500 global research universities with Harvard in the first place, (Margison p.20). The USA is the home of university-based research projects, and houses 3876 out of 4,472 HiCi World researchers, as the Table 3 and chart shows:

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Table 3: Researchers with citations in the top 250-300 in their field, Thomson-ISI, 2007

USA 3876 Russia 6 Brunei 0Japan 249 China 4 Indonesia 0Canada 179 Singapore 4 Malaysia 0Australia 106 Chile 3 Papua New Guinea 0New Zealand 17 Mexico 3 Peru 0China Hong Kong 14 Korea 3 Thailand 0Chinese Taipei 9 Philippines 1 Vietnam 0

Where to find the HiCi researchers

As shown in Table 3, Africa produces the least knowledge. It produces only 0.3 percent of global science knowledge and spends only 0.4 percent of world GDP on research, (Teferra, Damtew (2003).

Most of the knowledge cited in Africa is produced elsewhere because Africa is peripheral to global knowledge production, (Altbach 2003). Virtually all-African scholars agree on the need to have African-centered knowledge produced by scholars with a knowledge and experience of the African condition. External conceptual models that are said to be applicable to all nations and transferred to Africa without scrutiny are believed to be one of the major causes of the slow development of Africa, (Okolie, 2003). African farmers, for example, can embrace only agricultural technologies consistent with their beliefs and way of life, that are affordable (in most cases small scale), safe for sustainable food production, and applicable to local weather patterns. But most of the curricula in our agricultural faculties and colleges are based on Western agricultural practice (often

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mechanized, large-scale and commercial farming). The agricultural experts we produce are afraid of soiling their hands.

It is within this context, as well as the dearth of funding, that Ugandan low research outputs can be understood. In Uganda, science-based and technology faculties of public universities are at Makerere University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology. Gulu and Kyambogo are building foundations for research but have not yet taken off. Makerere University Business School has not broken deep ground in research except consultancy researches. Bidemi Carrol (2005: 176) lists a number of citations by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) which show that 95 percent of the citations from Uganda were: 1,019 citations for science, 151 for social sciences and 2 for Arts/Humanities. External support of science-based faculties and the focus on money driven teaching by Humanities/Arts based faculties are given as the major cases of research outputs from the sciences and lack of it respectively.

5. Cross-border higher educationCross-border tertiary education is the “movement of people, programmes, providers, curricula, projects, research and services in tertiary (or higher) education across national jurisdictional borders”, (Jane Knight 2007). Cross-border tertiary education has been increased by globalization – increased interconnectedness of the globe. Cross-border education has the following components:

1. The movement of people, (students, professors, scholars, or experts). Students can take whole degrees in another country, become involved in exchange programmes, or simply register for a semester abroad; and staff can teach, research or visit academic institutions abroad.

2. The movement of university programmes themselves. A programme can be delivered by distance, face-to-face or mixed mode; franchised out to another country, or take all delivery responsibilities and reward their own degrees using someone’s programme. In some cases, an arrangement can be made where providers in different countries collaborate to offer programmes that students from both countries can receive qualifications from each provider or joint award from collaborating countries.

3. The education providers: when universities deliver higher education outside of their own country. The delivering institution, in question, can either establish a ‘branch campus’ or they affiliate a local institution so that it can award degrees in their name. They might also use distance-learning modes to connect with their overseas’ students. Such providers can include private and public, for-profit or non-profit educational or commercial institutions.

It is important to note here that the growth in the number of ‘rogue providers’ and ‘degree mill’. While established institutions are accredited by their source nations, there are many fly-by-the night providers that are not accredited by their home nations, and give sub-standard education to foreign students across borders. (Rogue providers are often accredited by self-accrediting groups and they rarely participate in research activities.

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Another thing to look out for a so-called ‘study centres’ or ‘teaching sites’, purporting to represent a foreign university. Most of these are in Uganda illegally. Here an institution establishes a learning site not an institution, either in a home country or in a different country or – as in Uganda in a different region of the same country. The study center almost always lack the facilities under which university education should be given. They are a disgrace to higher education.

4. The mobility of students: the Global Student Mobility Report predicts the demand for international education to increase from 1.8 billion in 2000 to 7.2 billion in 2025, (Bohm, A. Davis; D. Mears and D. Pearce, (2002).

Table 4: Cross-border student flows: Exports and imports, tertiary education (includes non-degree), 2004, OECD

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Students in EXPORTS

Students out IMPORTS

Korea 10,778 98,103Japan 117.903 61,437United States 572,509 46,547Malaysia 30,407 42,054Canada 132,982 39.278Russia 75,786 38362Mexico 1892 24,498Australia 166,955 9377Chile 5207 7668

New Zealand 68,904 6604

Comparable export data not available for:

Students out EXPORTS

China 381,330China Hong Kong 36,816Indonesia 33,877Thailand 24,677Singapore 21,163Vietnam 17,089Peru 12,213Philippines 8161Brunei 2016Papua NG 940

6. Concern with the ranking of universitiesRanking of universities is a global trend and is done globally but has impact on virtually all university institutions. The following have been the most known ranking organizations in the last ten years:

1) Shangai Jiao Tong Institute of Higher Education, (SJTUIHE)2) The Times3) Newsweek

International students choosing foreign universities, policy makers, the media, universities themselves and funding agencies, all pay attention to these rankings. Every university wants to lift its league position in global ranking and to prove its worth.

The Jiao Tong (SJTUIHE) ranking methods are now considered the most credible. Jiao Tong ranking are based on research, publications, citations and noble prizes and Fields Medals in Mathematics. The weighting are given as illustrated in Table 6:

Table 6: Jiao Tong rankings: weightingsCriterion WeightingAlumini of institution: Nobel Prizes and field medals 10%Staff of institution: Nobel prizes and field medals 20%High citation (HiCi) researchers 20%Articles in Nature and Science 20%Articles in citation indexes in science, social science, humanities 20%Research performance (compiled as above) per head of staff 10%Total 100%

Source Marginson, 2007

Rankings, economic capacity and investment in research and developmentOne global factor that is evident in being at the top of the league is the relationship between the economic capacity of nations, their universities, the ability and levels of investments in research and development and the ability of institutions to exploit opportunities. Universities located in countries with massive economic power, good investment in research and development, and traditional of giving institutional autonomy to their universities make it to the top in global rankings. In 2007, the United States had 54 of the SJTIHE top 100 research universities, led by Harvard. The UK with eleven (including Oxford and Cambridge) was number two, Canada (four), number three and Australia (two) number four. Al these institutions were from the English speaking world indicating the rise of English as a global language of communication research and science. Table 7 shows the relationship between global economic power and institutional ranking:

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Table 7: Countries share of the top 500 and 100 research universities as measured by SJTUIHE compared to their share of world economic capacity

Gross National Income (GNI)

Popu-lation

Gross National Income (GNI) per head

Share of world economic capacity

Share of top 500 research universities

Share of top 100 research universities

2006 2006 2006 2006 2007 2007USD.PPP (billion)

Millions

USD PPP % % %

United StatesUKGermanyJapanCanadaFranceSwedenSwitzerlandAustraliaNetherlandsItalyIsraelAustriaFinlandDenmarkNorwayRussian FederationChinaSpainKoreaBelgiumChina Hong Kong

13.195.72,037.22,692.34195.91,184.41,974.9311.7305.9702.5620.01,704.9168.1298.4174.7196.7233.31814.96119.11,244.21113.0357268.9

299.460.682.4127.832.661.39.17.520.716.358.87.08.35.35.44.7142.51311.844.148.410.56.9

44.07033.65032.68032.84036.28032.24034,31040840339403794028970238403604033170361905007012740466028200229903386039200

41.14.86.29.73.04.50.80.91.71.73.50.30.80.40.50.81.62.02.51.80.90.7

32.98.37.96.54.44.62.21.63.42.44.01.41.41.00.80.80.42.81.81.61.41.0

53.510.95.95.94.04.04.03.02.02.00.01.00.01.01.01.01.00.0

X=included in another row*=China Hong Kong is listed separately**=population and GNI data include Chinese TaipeiWorld economic capacity is measured as an aggregate of the individual nations’ economic capacity, defined as GNI multiplied by GNI per head. All nations without any top 500 research universities are treated as one unit.Source: Marginson and der Wende.

2.4WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF INTERNATIONALIZATION?

It is clear that, globally, we are moving towards a new concept of university in the world today. Many of the signs of change we have considered are signs that 21st Century societies expect universities to provide in terms of supply and demand. We might disagree with some of these things that people want, but universities have also to see themselves as ‘service providers’ and our students as ‘customers’. In summing up those changes in higher education - from the demand side, as well as the impact of globalization, (remembering that globalization affects all), the key ‘facts’ to take note of are as follows:

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mass higher education (HE) in developed societies is already with us and universal HE in the twenty-first century will be the norm;

knowledge workers have emerged as crucial players in economic performance and well-being;

the ‘graduate job’ is disappearing, and nearly all worthwhile jobs will soon demand high level skills and qualifications;

lifelong learning is about investment in personal learning and growth, and this is compatible with corporate investment and growth;

older divisions such as the academic versus the vocational are dissolving as are distinctions between further and higher education institutions;

local and global divisions are dissolving in many instances – a common culture of knowledge with shared aspirations is emerging;

part-time and work-related learning opportunities are moving from the periphery to the centre of concern for many individuals and their employers, and for the providers of education.

2.5THE CHANGING UNDERSTANDING OF HIGHER EDUCATION

In different parts of the world, for different reasons, we are witnessing a breakdown of traditional continuity; what some have call a ‘disembedding’ of personal life from social life and roles and the emergence of a world of ‘multiple authorities’ where traditional commonalties and structures break down.

Whichever perspective we adopt, it is increasingly clear that learning is becoming ever more central to the growth and health of modern economies and social systems. Continuous or lifelong learning, it will be argued, joins the personal needs experienced by each one of us with the imperatives of the labour market and makes nonsense of the old divisions which separated life, learning and work into compartmentalised spheres and phrases of existence. Conditions of change are demanding a more holistic response from learners, from teachers and from providers of the whole range of educational services and opportunities in those societies which have adopted mass further and higher education.

A central question to be addressed is – what kinds of knowledge and learning are emerging from innovatory sites at which education is delivered? The focus of the answer is on how across time and geographical space, personal learning, previously strongly connected with personal development, is now beginning to be seen in the growing demand for universities to provide a wider more professional learning, that is related to the workplace.

A fundamental theme within this focus concerns change in what may be termed the construction of the authority of knowledge. What counts as learning and knowing can be seen as contested terrain and is subject to challenge over time. This theme has become significant in relation to key developments in open learning and ‘action learning’ applied

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to non-traditional and emergent sites of learning which have in recent times come to include the workplace. (An example of this trend is seen in the fact that several universities in Uganda now offer degree courses in microfinance studies.)

Fundamentally, two contrasting viewpoints can be outlined with respect to how we think about knowledge:

Older view: Cognitive and foundational understandings of knowledge assume both the objectivity and externality of knowledge. External reality and objective facts exist and are complemented by a second cognitive entity that we commonly call the subjective self or the inner world.

Newer view: This relies on the assumption that knowledge has no absolute foundations, internal or external. People construct knowledge out of the paradigms or languages available to them whether they are spoken languages or symbolic languages such as algebra or computer languages or paralinguistic forms such as music and dance. Knowledge is seen as neither absolute nor universal; it is local, historically changing and has to be re-constructed time after time on the basis of lived, individual and social experience. Knowledge is understood therefore to be constructed and the ‘wheel of knowledge’, as it were, has to be re-invented by every generation wishing to use it.

The implications for learning and teaching are significant. For example, if we assume education or learning is ‘given’ to people, teachers help students to assimilate and absorb knowledge. Students perform to arrive at pre-determined answers which are validated by the disciplinary paradigm or knowledge community to which the teacher belongs.

On the other hand, if we assume teachers help students to construct or re-construct knowledge, there are no pre-determined answers. Learners, therefore, can begin to break the dependency on received wisdom and a received curriculum.

This has profound implications for how we conceive lifelong learning. It must now be re-connected with experience and the curriculum must reflect the ‘real time’ and ‘real place’ and ‘real problems’ and needs of learners. Students must be trusted to perform in ways not determined ahead of time by teachers. Their knowledge must not be disconnected from experience.

It is the argument of this part of the module that such experience can be characterized as moving historically from closed to open systems and from a monopoly of knowledge (held by the academic disciplines and their practitioners) to a shared and collaborative system of knowledge production.

Adult learning opportunities have historically been focused on content-laden, closed and ‘objectivist’ views of what counts as learning, and have later come to be focused more on the processes of learning, on multiple levels of experience, on open systems of access and on the recognition of learning achievement whenever and wherever it occurs.

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The sub themes through which this account evolves are descriptively framed and embrace a number of initiatives and perspectives, ranging from teacher views of pedagogy to the growth of ‘access’ courses with their emphasis on adult experience as the fulcrum on which learning turns. Modular schemes and qualification frameworks are becoming more widespread and influential in terms of their impact on the wider learning culture and growth of mass higher education.

2.6SUMMING UP

This part of the module has explored the concept of internationalization in higher education from six different perspectives: 1. The explosion in higher education; 2. The growth in the importance of the English language; 3. The need Internet and other forms of it; 4. The emphasis on research and publications; 5. Cross-border higher education; and 6. Concern with the ranking of universities – and how, each has had an impact on higher education institutions in developing countries.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. Which of the ‘signs of change’ are, in your view, signs that higher education is getting better in the overall sense of the word?

2. Which of the ’signs’ listed do you feel are ominous, regarding the future of HE in Uganda?

3. Regarding the emergence of a ‘learning society’ that expects different things of HE in the 21st century, do you think this is as evident in the developing world, as that of the world’s leading economic nations?

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PART 3

IMPLICATION OF GLOBALIZATION AND INTERNATIONALIZATION ON HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEMS

The third part of the module explores the impact of globalization and internationalization on higher education systems from the perspective of policy-making in developing countries; the arrival of non-traditional higher education providers; the GATS agreement and borderless education; and the very real pressure of market forces.

Specific Objectives:By the end of Part 3 of this module, you should be able to:

Discuss the importance of a clear education policy in setting a pace for educational development in a country;

Examine the opportunities and challenges of the entry of non traditional players in education provision; and

Analyze the implications of the GATS agreement on higher education in developing countries;

Examine the impact of some of the above in terms of the current situation of higher education in Uganda.

3.1INTRODUCTION

Globalization and Internationalization are two related phenomena, which have profound effects on higher education both in developed and developing countries. For the developed countries, they occurred in the eighties and nineties but with stable national higher education systems, which were, generally speaking, better prepared to deal with the resulting challenges and problems. Globalization, as earlier said, is a process which assumes the occurrence of qualitative changes towards a system in which national education systems must be taken up and re-articulated with the global system through international processes and transactions. The general implication, therefore, has been a re-definition of higher education systems with its diverse institutions in order to respond effectively to the pressures imposed on them by the global forces.

The story in developing countries has been very different. First of all, most countries most especially those found in Africa do not have stable higher education systems upon which to build and respond effectively and efficiently to global forces. Higher Education institutions remain fragile and suffer from chronic under-funding, which threatens to wipe some of them completely. Second, even the general school system from the elementary to high school is unstable and for over 40 years since the attainment of formal

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independence, the struggle everywhere has been to carry out reforms, which have remained elusive.

Thirdly, higher education in developing countries is mainly supported by peasant economies, which continue to be marginalized in the growing international trade. The revenues from agricultural exports cannot fetch significant amounts of money required to finance higher education and other services needed by a rapidly growing population.

Given this situation, the key question is whether, or not, it makes sense for these countries and their higher education institutions to aspire to be “competitive” in a world economy dominated by industrialized countries. In Africa, the national education agenda for many countries is still unclear and there is no consensus among the different stakeholders on the direction which education ought to take in order to achieve national development and social harmony.

It is quite different in developed countries which over the years have been able to establish strong national identities and regional cultures that are able to provide adequate funding to support research in higher education systems.

Then there is the dilemma, which arises from the relationship between education “experts” from the industrialized countries moving around developing countries with development derived from their own experience different from what is obtained in Africa. The issue, therefore, is how to establish a balance between Globalization and the needs of indigenous populations and their institutions. Decision-making, therefore, remains a complex matter conducted under rapidly changing conditions and where economic conditions are deteriorating fast.

3.2POLICY MAKING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

There is no doubt that any country that fails to provide a high education policy, which captures the realities the population is doomed to fail in mitigating poverty and underdevelopment. We need policy to inform the actions to be undertaken by the different stakeholders in the higher education sector. Without a good policy, confusion with regard to aims and goals for higher education and how it to be provided could easily arise and, therefore, every government must see to it that there is one in place, which is understood by all. A good policy also ensures that scarce resources are wisely invested to achieve the goals of national development.

The first thing a country must be clear about in order to make a sound policy in higher education is its goals and aims. In Uganda, as in many other African countries, there does not seem to be a shared understanding of the contribution which higher education is supposed to make to national development. Policy-makers make often conflicting statements especially when problems such as unemployment are noted. What do universities exist for and why should they be supported by the state?

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According to most governments, public expenditure on higher education is defended on the grounds that we need university graduates for economic prosperity. It is not clear however whether education can lead to economic prosperity.

Historically, it has been the other way round; a nation gets rich then uses some of those riches to endow more universities not as engines of economic growth but as centres of piety, learning and thought. This was the case in the United Kingdom- the nation became wealthy then encouraged the expansion of higher education. In other words, do we need more education in order to get our GDP growing or can we grow it by some other means rather than higher education?

Thus, what is the justification for the rapid growth in higher education in this country? According to the higher education policy, ‘Higher education is a good investment for stocking the economy with highly productive workers.’ But can we get any evidence to suggest that university graduates are more productive than non-graduates? Do people with degrees contribute more to the GDP than those without?Then there is the question of how we can know whether education makes people more productive or not. In what ways does a degree earned in Hospitality Studies or Cosmetology make the holder more productive?

We bringing forward such questions in order to demonstrate the importance of a national consensus on what constitute education, its aims and goals for the different players.

A clear policy framework is important for another reason. It serves as a guide to those who work in universities in terms of providing them the basis for sound strategic planning which today has become the norm. They need to know the aims and goals of higher education, how it is to be funded, what are prescribed as ways of training graduates for the economy and other issues of a general nature, which are pertinent for good governance of the institutions. Without a clear policy framework, universities would be grappling in the dark not knowing how to move forward in an uncertain environment.

The strategic plans that would be generated would then be used by faculties and departments which generate academic programmes.

Reflect on your university in regard to the following questions?

Is the Strategic Plan of the Ministry of Education as well as that of university synchronized and are they part of your induction after the first appointment?

How regularly is the Strategic Plan of your university reviewed and discussed in faculty and departmental meetings?

How much collaboration is evident between your university and others in the selection of students and utilization of staff?

Is there a systematic policy guiding the development of academic programmes in your university to avoid duplication and poor programmes?

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Is there a policy on teaching and research, which is closely adhered to and monitored? Between and within faculties and departments?

Are there other sources of funding apart from fees contributed by students? Does your university have Intercultural/International Education programmes to

cater for the needs of the diverse composition of students?

All the above questions require that there are policies at institutional level to guide the various activities. Important as they are, they can only be accomplished if the institutions know and understand the role played by sound policy ensuring that resource are utilized well to achieve the goals of the institutions.

In summing up, although policies might exist at the national level, they may not reflect in the plans of individual universities. This may be partly because academics choose to pay little attention to them especially if they are opposed to them. It may also be that institutional constraints such as lack of funding may force institutions to deviate from the agreed policies in which case the goals are not achieved.

Since many private providers have arrived in the higher education scene, national governments must state their stand on how they can provide higher education. In what follows, an account about these institutions is provided.

3.3THE ARRIVAL OF NON-TRADITIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION PROVIDERS

Following the liberalization of higher education, there has been significant proliferation of different providers including non-traditional ones which today offer stiff competition to traditional universities. In the North, Apollo Group own Phoenix University and universities in Netherlands, Germany, and Brazil. Sylvan operates on a similar basis in Europe but is also active in Chile and Mexico where it has bought several private universities. Adtech is a major player in South Africa whilst Annet has a major operation in China. There are also corporations which offer partial services to universities such as IT capability e.g. Skillsoft and so forth.

In addition there are professional associations such as the Association of Certified and Cost Accountants, The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS), The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA) plus many others which are active throughout the globe.

There are also think-tanks constituted by a few individuals, research Institutes, consultancies and major publishing houses that have joined in the competition with traditional universities.

There are three clear trends emerging from these developments:

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The notion of the “public good” which has been the driving force for the existence of universities for many years has clearly come under attack.

This global trend where universities are moving to offer educational services outside their countries of origin is escalating under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) which has decreed education as a commodity to be traded globally, and global corporations and others which are turning this claim into reality.

The development of e-learning technologies is greatly assisting the process.

What does the entry of non-traditional providers mean for universities? First, their appearance on the scene has introduced competition with the traditional universities in the generation of knowledge, which according to the GATS, ought to to traded globally. It has also placed a demand on universities to provide a definition of its mission in these changing times. For example, since knowledge is now seen as a commodity, a university that formerly was viewed as “in society” carrying out its business as desired is now increasingly viewed as being “of society” which is keen to scrutinize all its operations. Therefore, there is no hiding place for traditional universities as they must subscribe to increasing scrutiny by students, parents and national governments for the continued support they are receiving.

The arrival of non-traditional providers has also posed problems to Quality Assurance Agencies which, in the context of Africa, have weak regulatory mechanisms and are poorly funded. This issue will be discussed in detail later under the GATS. And finally, in the last few years, traditional universities that have seen their mission to be that of promoting academic thought increasingly have seen vocation/technical education sitting side by side with academic programmes. Today, a Professor of Tourism or Beauty Studies must sit side by side with one of Physics and History which was not the case before in traditional universities. As will be shown later, the proliferation of programmes of vocational nature has in part been prompted by the inability of most institutions of higher learning to generate sufficient funding.

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3.4THE GATS AND BORDERLESS EDUCATION

The World Trade Organization (WTO), was established on January 1, 1995 replacing GATTS at the Uruguay Round. In 1995, the WTO, through its General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) recognized education as a commodity.

This agreement is an instrument of business which has two components: (1) The framework of agreements contains 29 articles and (2) a number of annexes, Ministerial Decisions etc., as well as the schedules of commitments undertaken by each Member government which bind them to allow market access and remove any existing restrictions to market access. This agreement in general covers all services including Education. It is a multilateral agreement with enforceable rights to trade in alls services. Only the services provided entirely by government do not fall under the GATS rule.

As a Member of WTO, Uganda is definitely bound by the agreements and as result, we are asked to accept to view that education is a commodity to be traded in the open market. In terms of regulation especially of higher education, we cannot restrict entry of any private provider who chooses to come over to provide education services in the country.

Consequently, the idea of the “public good” introduced earlier is beginning to disappear and education is subjected to the pressures of the marketplace. This development is likely, therefore, to affect higher education at several levels, for example:

The higher education policy, programmes and its implementation The structure, functions and structure-function relations The accreditation and assessment of higher education

This calls for the restructuring the entire higher education to cater for both the new set of international regulations as well as the international market place. This essentially means that countries are to guarantee market access to educational products and institutions of all kinds. The WTO is expected to facilitate academic institutions and other providers without controls to set up branches in countries other than their own, export degree programmes, award degrees and certificates with almost no restrictions, and establish educational institutions and training programmes through the distance mode of learning.

Copyright, patents, and licensing regulations would be strengthened to become the avenue through which educational products can be exported. The international tribunals would also become useful for those who wish to take part in exporting such products. It is likely to become very difficult for regulatory bodies like the National Council for Higher Education to regulate higher education. It is not clear yet what the reactions of academics, students groups and others to such development in higher education will be.

3.5

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HORSE TRADING

While some will criticize the increased access that cross border education guarantees, many are worried that “horse trading” education will have disastrous consequences. All round the world, academics, student groups and national governments have expressed their worries about the GATS, which is fast gaining ground in the field of education. In Iberia and Latin America, where the Porto Alegre Declaration was signed in 2002, academics there allege that it will lead to deregulation of the education sector with the removal of the legal, political, and fiscal quality controls and fear drastic public financial support cutbacks. For the British Association of University teachers, it will threaten job security, professional autonomy and status, academic quality, and will have a negative impact on academic freedom, intellectual property rights and access to education.

Other critics around the world charge that treating students as consumers which is at the bottom of the GATS, negates the importance of education as a social tool and runs counter to the notion of a knowledge-based economy with democratic, tolerant and active citizenship. It is also likely to exacerbate social inequalities.

Many national governments in Africa are fearful that once universities are regulated by WTO, they would be swamped by foreign institutions and programmes aimed at earning profits and not achieving the objectives of national development. They fear that what has already happened in Asia where Australian universities have a very high presence offering higher education through “offshore campuses” will also come here. The major reason for this advance into Asian countries, most notably China, India, South Korea and Malaysia has been purely to make money for domestic universities, which limping economically and cannot run their affairs smoothly. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2009 international education activity for Australia contributed $17.2 billion in export income, up 23.2 percent percent from the previous financial year, making education services the largest services export industry ahead of personal travel services which contributed 11.7 billion.

3.6 PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION – A FOLLOWER OF MARKET FORCES.

Global forces based on increased belief and implementation of free market ideologies accelerated private higher education. The general impact of privatization was (i) the reduction of state funding to university institutions; (ii) privatization of components of public institutions; and (iii) emergence of non-profit and for-profit institutions. These developments impacted on management of institutions of higher learning and altered the purposes for which higher education was delivered and sought.

Private higher education refers to education provided by private sources as opposed to government provision. It includes the marketization of formerly publicly delivered

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services such as education or health. Whole institutions or parts of them could be privatized. Privatization therefore leads to the application of private sector or market principles in the operation and management of institutions of higher education” that could still be either in government hands or sold off to entrepreneurs (Varghese, 2004).

Private institutions are therefore those entities owned and controlled by individuals or organizations other than the government. Although governments may fund private institutions, as is done in many OECD countries, through research grants, tuition from state-funded students, endowments or tax waivers to donors supporting education, an education institution is private as long as non-government owners control and determine the policies of the institution and have the power to appoint officers who manage that institution. In many countries, including Uganda, private higher education institutions generate their own funds through fees, donations, endowments or income from business outlays.

At the global level, a “two-tier” higher education market has developed (see Marginson 2007, p3). It consists of:

(i) A “super-league” of universities such as Harvard and Oxford, mostly in the USA but also a few in the UK. They are wealthy institutions but they compete on the basis of prestige, for leadership in research and doctoral training, not on a commercial basis. Almost all of these institutions are non-profit in the sense that dividends or profits are deposited with the institutions.

(ii) “The commercial market in vocational degrees which include both non-profit and for-profit institutions, ranging from the university of Phoenix and commercial e-learning to the Malaysia private sector and the British and Australian universities. In Asia full price tuition constitutes the main form of international” education.

In most countries, for-profit institutions can transfer profits and dividends to their owners (or other second parties). The non-profit institutions reinvest or use their profits or dividends for the benefit of their subject institutions. By 2005, the For-profit industry in the USA was valued at $15.4 billion and registered 8 percent of the 20 million students then enrolled in 6000 degree awarding institutions, (Chronicle of Higher Education, January 2007)

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3.7 EMERGENCE OF PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION PROVISION IN UGANDA

Up to 1988, when the Islamic University in Uganda was founded, and 1992/3 when private fee-paying students were admitted at Makerere University, the state was the only provider of university education. With the exception of religious training institutes like seminaries, most of the non-university tertiary institutions were also owned and maintained, by government.

However, by 2005/6, the government owned only five out of the twenty-seven licensed universities and less than 30 percent of the more than 100 non-university tertiary institutions. Private universities enrolled almost 40 percent. Government sponsored (or paid-for) students constituted only 19.8 percent (11,786) of the 59,592 students in public universities. The rest, 80.2 percent (47,806), were privately sponsored (i.e. paid for by non-government sources). Government contribution to the running of public universities for the last ten years was a mere 0.3 percent as a percentage of the GDP. Decreasing contribution of the state means decreasing government influence. The number of students participating in online and cross-border higher education was increasing, but the exact figures are difficult to compute. By all means, this was a phenomenal growth of private higher education in a period of only twenty years. Despite the market, the state will stay but its power over public and private universities has been moderated by global forces. Institutions are engaged with the state and global arena.

The impact of market forces and higher education can be best illustrated by the case of Makerere University and it’s marriage with these forces. Much has been written about the consequences of Makerere’s innovation or reform in attracting private monies (Court, 1999; Musisi and Muwanga, 2003; Carrol, 2005; Mamdani, 2007). Court, Musisi and Muwanga have listed the positive outcomes of the exercise. Makerere was able to fund new buildings, finance research, staff development programmes, top-up staff salaries and boost the morale of staff. Further, the ability of the University to raise private monies impressed Western funding, agencies, who began to finance Makerere’s various projects (Coleman and Court, 1993, Court 2000, World Bank, 2002). However, Carrol and Mamdani demonstrate that the unplanned way the private-entry scheme was implemented undermined quality, research and the values for which universities have stood: teaching, the disinterested search for the truth, and community service.

They further show that the uncontrolled market in the academy led to the expansion of student numbers beyond the ability of staff to teach and facilities to offer a learning environment. The privatization at the institution was not controlled nor entirely understood. It was limited to fees and a few money-generating areas. Student housing, health and other welfare components that other privatized institutions usually abandon are still the responsibility of the university. Mbarara University of Science and Technology, which did not admit as many students as would exceed its staff and facilities capacity, has maintained a high level of respect in the privatization exercise.

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3.6SUMMING UP

The third part of the module explored the impact of globalization and internationalization on higher education systems from the perspective of policy-making in developing countries; the arrival of non-traditional higher education providers; the GATS agreement and borderless education; and the very real pressure of market forces. We saw that the landscape, in terms of the development of higher education in countries such as Uganda, is fraught with challenges as well as opportunities.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. What is the value of a clear education policy in setting a pace for educational development in a country?

2. Do you believe that the entry of non-traditional players in education provision is, in the main, a good thing for a developing country?

3. What are some of the challenges and opportunities regarding the GATS agreement on higher education in developing countries?

4. How can a country, such as Uganda, retain a commitment to providing quality higher education when market forces seem so strong an influence on the growth of university provision?

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PART 4

UNIVERSITIES FOR THE 21ST CENTURYThe fourth, and final, part of the module will deal with the application of the challenges posed by Globalization to universities, as seen in the emergence of need for a dynamic curriculum, capable of meeting and defining the learning needs of a new century and new generations of learners. (1)

Specific ObjectivesBy the end of Part 4 of this module, you will be able to:

Understand what is meant by paradigms for teaching and learning;

Appreciate the growing importance of lifelong learning and adult experience in terms of constructing university programmes;

Discuss the impact of ‘vocationalization’ and competency-based approaches to curriculum development in higher education institutions.

4.1PERSPECTIVES ON TEACHING AND LEARNING

Our list of starting points suggests a plethora of fruitful themes which are contributing to the shaping of the modern university. However, to grasp how lifelong learning is beginning to be a reality for a mass population of learners who will be prepared for the new and ever evolving communications technologies, we need to briefly explore how open learning and open systems of knowledge are merging. It is these open systems and the kind of knowledge they sponsor which are at the heart of the transformation of teaching and learning.

For lifelong education, debates covering the validity and nature of knowledge and how it is to be transmitted have had profound implications for the curriculum. This has been especially the case where formal, classroom-based, didactic methods have been challenged by self-managed, action learning paradigms. The characteristics of one of these conceptions of teaching have been variously described as ‘student centred’, ‘progressive’, or as ‘open’ pedagogy. (The term ‘pedagogy’ refers here to the principles and methods of teaching – the ways in which a teacher carries out the task of presenting new knowledge and experience and generally manages the learning environment.)

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Paradigms For Teaching And Learning: The Closed And The OpenTwo contrasting perspectives or paradigms can be identified and used to inform debate on this issue. The traditional paradigm has fundamentally an objectivist orientation which focuses on the products of learning. The second paradigm is much more orientated to the subjectivity of the student and focuses on the processes of learning. In their organizational forms they are sometimes described as ‘closed’ and ‘open’ types of pedagogy.

These concepts refer not simply to the classroom structure in which learning takes place, but also to the boundaries between subjects and areas of teaching responsibility. In other words, they have contrasting perspectives as to what constitutes the ‘proper’ basis for the curriculum and for what counts as knowledge.

Underlying each of the paradigms are different psychological assumptions, different conceptions of curricular knowledge and different vocabularies and beliefs about the status of the student in the interaction of the classroom. They contain different conceptions of teaching and learning. They also offer very different possibilities for learner identity.

The Closed or Conventional ParadigmWithin this paradigm, ability is viewed as the result of a number of prior ‘factors’ in the genetic make-up and personality of individuals. What these are is not really known, but their effects it was thought could be ‘scientifically’ measured through intelligence (IQ, intelligence quotient) tests which, it is provide an ‘objective’ supposed, measure of ability. An IQ is not necessarily static, it is generally conceded and it may vary over a limited range.

Under the premises of this paradigm, achievement is defined in terms of mastery of specific bodies of knowledge which are mapped out to coincide with particular stages of the learning career. It is the task of the teacher to arrange and present these bodies of knowledge to his/her students. The focus of interest of the teaching tends to be in the products of learning – not in the process. Learning is thought to be most effective when a teacher-expert who knows the subject matter and its structures of knowledge imparts it to those who do not. The higher status of the teacher is maintained during interaction by a teacher’s taken-for-granted definition of what shall count as ‘worthwhile knowledge’ and the right to exclude what is not.

The classroom interaction which embodies the principles of this paradigm reflects an ‘objective’ view of both knowledge and the student. The teacher imparts knowledge to recipient learners. Learning is collective in the sense that a nominal pace, sequence and structure for the subject content of a lesson are imposed on all the students in the group together.

The Open ParadigmIn opposition there has emerged a different paradigm, one version of which is rooted in the social sciences and takes as its central concern the power of the mind to organize

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experience and meaning. This paradigm emphasises an active rather than a static notion of the mind. The processes of thought are not taken to be reducible simply to the possession of ‘intelligence’, nor to the performance of standardised routines characteristic of, for example, IQ tests. They are, instead, seen to be part of a highly complex personal system of interpretations, intentions and recollections. This paradigm upholds a view that cognition is a growth process and that the mind is capable of unlimited development.

The main focus of the open paradigm is on the processes of knowing and the learner’s organization of meaning into larger schemes of knowledge and experience. This kind of enquiry has led to a view of learning in which the structuring of knowledge and the processes by which it is acquired are seen to be fundamental to the development of understanding. For the teacher, the essential problem is to understand the logic of the learner’s processes of knowing – to understand how the learner interprets and accommodates new knowledge. The relationship between the structures of meaning which the learner habitually uses and the structures which are presented by the teacher is critical.

Implications of an Open and Learner-Centred PerspectiveThe learning and teaching interaction which follows from an acceptance of a broadly conceived ‘phenomenological’ paradigm is likely to allow the learner more control over structuring the learning process and experience than is the case with the alternative ‘closed’ paradigm. The teacher is more of a guide than an instructor. Expertise is seen to reside in the ability to stimulate learning rather than communicating the body of knowledge. Thus, the individual is given or takes increased responsibility for his/her own learning.

Applying The ‘Open’ ParadigmThe belief that alternative methods of teaching and learning were particularly appropriate to adult learners has found expression in several different yet related contexts. The work of Malcolm Knowles and Carl Rogers focused on adult learners’ own projects for learning; R. Spady developed the criteria for understanding what is known as ‘outcomes-based education’; the British Open University gave impetus and organizational form to mass ‘open’ higher education; and the concept of independent learning connected with the notion of ‘access’ emerged. This wide process, embracing many streams of change, involved essentially a de-constructed curriculum which questioned the authority of traditional knowledge and asserted that knowledge was something to be constructed interdependently, between learners and teachers. Above all, these developments chart the recognition of the fact that there is now in existence what is now referred to as the ‘dynamic curriculum’.

This curriculum embraces the open paradigm; its pedagogy is similarly open to student experience and it insists that knowledge is crafted from learning experiences, wherever they may be acquired. Lived experience and critical reflection upon it figures ever more centrally in accessing and applying lifelong learning.

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4.2LIFELONG LEARNING AND ADULT EXPERIENCE

Having briefly reviewed open and closed pedagogies and learning styles, we would argue that an alternative and radical view of adult learning associated with the concept of ‘andragogy’, is required to take forward our thinking on educational change and innovation.

There are of course a great number of theories claiming to explore and analyse the nature and processes of adult learning. Gagne and Wilson have evaluated those theorists who seek to ascribe learning processes to biological factors and mechanical ‘conditioning’. Others such as Bruner have concentrated on the manner in which learners organise their conceptual, cognitive and perceptual experiences and there are other schools of thought which focus on personality and social pressures as critical to learning.

In addressing a specifically adult context of learning it may be valid to suggest that all of the above viewpoints are valid as orientations giving different emphases rather than yielding distant categories of learning. It seems clear that adult learning can be viewed as a process whereby groups and individuals are able to assess the realities they experience and change their behaviour or experience or perceptions as a result. Adult learning is, therefore, concerned with questions of social and individual change.

Following Knowles’ work we can identify four major assumptions which distinguish adult learning from childhood learning:

1. Adults have strong needs to be self-directing. As we get older the self concept moves from dependency on others to self-direction and autonomy.

2. Maturity brings experience, which is a resource for learning.3. As life proceeds readiness to learn becomes associated with a person’s social role.

We, therefore, internalise learning needs in response to our need to know – not because we are told to learn.

4. As a person grows older and matures problem or project-centred learning takes over from subject-centred learning.

The concept of knowledge embodied, therefore, in adult and lifelong learning insists that:1. thinking and understanding develop as people interact, consciously and critically

in their social context. 2. there is no fixed or final stage of development and that the teacher-learner

relationship is changed within an andragogical approach to learning.

There are thus hugely significant implications for continuing learning and higher education when we consider that knowledge quickly becomes out-dated and that the context in which it applies rapidly changes. Where there is continuous change, there must also be continuous learning and the learning society which is emerging will enjoin us, actively and consciously, to lead these developments, as subjects in the process, rather than as objects in a process beyond and outside our understanding and control. If the

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learning society is to deliver its promise in full, it must surely do so through an open and innovative set of values and practices which are of concrete use and value to learners.

What follows attempts to chart the changes which are shaping what can be learned, what is needed in a learning society and how it is being delivered. The themes concern learning and work, the emergence of a learning framework and the need for lifelong learning competence.

4.3LEARNING AND WORK

The important and far reaching factors which have brought about change in the learning opportunities for adults within higher education are dealt with in this section. Under that rubric, three specific sub-themes of change are explored as a contextual underpinning of what is turning out to be a general re-assessment of the position, role and function of adult learners within universities. This involves:

understanding the exponential growth of lifelong learning, secondly, charting the vocationalisation of learning opportunities and increasing our understanding of the changing nature of work in relation to

education.

1. Adult learners in higher educationThe requirements of provision by higher education institutions have been the subject of much speculation in many countries, including Uganda, What is not in doubt, however, is the fact that participation by adults in all types of higher education has risen and has been matched by a rise in attainments and in the legitimate expectations of mature adult students for both qualifications and quality of provision.

A key objective has been an improved social result, by which is meant an increase in the range and quality of students successfully entering institutions from all sections of the community, but in particular from targeted groups such as mature students, women, and employees needing re-training in the context of change in the organisation and availability of work.

The higher education system is now able to offer a variety of contexts from which adults can potentially benefit. Educational variety through an increased diversity of academic programmes is available by subject, award, mode of study and location. Broader learning programmes based on generic skills as well as academic subject knowledge are available, as is a variety of staged awards achieved by students demonstrating effective performance rather than by length of the period of study. Continuing education offers opportunities for flexible and accessible study, more and more linked to accredited courses. Educational mobility and exchange are now realities offering transfer between levels of achievement and across the learning experiences of differing sectors of provision and institutions and even, as we have already seen, across national boundaries.

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This means a radical change for many higher education institutions which must reshape and re-conceptualise even their conventional courses. The current situation which universities need to take cognizance such facts as:

The number of students in African universities has doubled in recent years; Private universities far outnumber public ones and must operate on a business

model if they are to remain open; The proportion of older people wishing to complete a degree programme in ways

other than by attending full-time study courses is growing.

The important question is how the current system, founded on rationed supply and selective entry, can be adapted to meet the growing demands of students and society alike, while preserving what is good about existing provisions.

Unless there are significant reforms – embracing among other issues those of course content and qualifications, student funding, research and staffing and the provision of continuing education – there can be no successful transition to a mass system, let alone to a universal system of higher education, towards which the most advanced industrial societies appear to be moving.

The response of universities in developing countries has been varied. Among some of the signs, (some of which we have already referred to) of this shift in identity are:

the de facto mainstreaming of adult and continuing education is an acknowledged reality;

the emergence of the university’s role as a centre of recurrent learning and teaching;

the variable pacing of study and range of flexibility in course provision it offers to its students;

the widening of entry provision via ‘access’ schemes; the development of credit accumulation and transfer (CATS); the modularization of courses enabling greater student choice; and the onset of new technologically based learning systems such as that offered by

the Internet.

All of this has occurred in the context of new inter-institutional consortia and franchising of higher education courses to the vocationally oriented further education sector.

Both the rise in attainments and the legitimate expectations of mature adult students have been matched by a growth in the number of students requiring qualifications and/or other formal recognition of their learning achievements.

Many such students, in the world of continuing education, are almost exclusively off-campus in terms of their physical or geographical location, studying in local neighbourhood centres and have, up to very recently, been viewed as a marginal cohort of university students.

2. Vocationalisation

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Can there be any doubt that the awareness of need for greater social and economic advancement through educational opportunity has been a major factor in forcing through educational change? Following the American experience in the 1960s and 1970s, higher education in Britain in the 1990s has come to be regarded as a fundamental entitlement for a mass client group rather than as a select privilege for a few. As in the American case, however, we cannot be certain that the promises of achievement and success can be met and the hopes of minorities and disadvantaged groups fully realised.

The changes we are now experiencing in higher education exemplify the assertion that general and liberal education is no longer at the centre of our higher education system. Rather, academic specialisation and technical training hold the centre stage.

This is of course no new development and the correspondences with an earlier epoch, such as the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century which led to the appearance of the first modern departmentalized research-based universities.

The agenda for change has been set in relation to the increasing value placed on science, technology and the growth of specialist expertise in education and in work. These concerns have been at the centre of recent curriculum-led changes and can be understood as indirectly related to the same socioeconomic forces which produced specialization and vocationalisation in higher and further education.

The process is of course part of a larger and longer term shift of profound character in our social life with more and more of the world’s population living in cities, as well as the inexorable growth of science and technology as part of modern social life - most clearly seen in the popularity of the mobile phone.

In relation to the question of how we understand educational change, the growth of a mass entry high education sector stretching across post-compulsory institutions is an expansion based on increasing vocationalism and specialisation. As such, it is one that challenges previous conceptions of the university’s role. It does this by incorporating a broad range of learners at several levels of previous education and thereby brings into question the idea of binary divisions between providers; one that has already been seriously eroded by government policy.This new provision is for people well beyond the traditional age and qualifications categories. This is a response which corresponds to the changing nature of employment, leisure and social patterns which are themselves contingent on the evolving division of labour and our understanding of the nature of work and its availability. The arena of work and education is of course a contentious one. We most frequently mean paid work when referring to work but if we were to use the term to encompass the more general notion of productive life it would be possible, arguably, to view work as ‘a potentially progressive principle for curricula’. The argument here is that the tendency to ‘vocationalise’ the curriculum and favour traditional subject specialities in schools and colleges has led to a narrowing of the academic curriculum and a stress on vocational training. This is an education and training emphasising standards, discipline, attitudes and dispositions compatible with employers’ views of the proper characteristics workers and employees

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should possess. This vocationalisation of learning opportunity has become part of new divisions of certification and at the higher levels of attainment has undermined the liberal approach to higher education which favoured general and humanistic approaches or those associated with an ‘open’ pedagogy. Our understanding of the developing needs of employers and employees may, therefore, be enhanced if we can incorporate into this discourse a real sense of the changes occurring in the relationship of work and education.

These changes demand new responses from educators; a flexible relationship between work and education is called for which is more creative and less divisive than the vocationalist perspective prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s. The imperatives of modernization imply the coming together of education for personal growth and education for work, since it is work which connects us with so many aspects of market-oriented, consumer-driven society with its emphasis on personal satisfactions and life chances. Academic and specialist subjects as we know them cannot, therefore, be the exclusive basis for future routes to higher education since they no longer correspond to the needs of the wider reality, including the economic ones. People must therefore prepare themselves for a life of change and less for specific occupations and jobs. Vocation must come to denote the acquisition of more than technical skill and knowledge; individuals must also acquire critical thinking skills and knowledge to enable them to survive the inevitable changes in technical production which can simply obliterate functional occupational skills acquired in the past.

3. Outcomes-based, or competency-based, curriculaIn connection with the vocalization of university education, has been the increasing use of outcomes-based (OBE) or competency-based understanding of education - in terms of designing curricula around a ‘national qualification framework’ (NQF) The justification for designing a course around the intended outcomes, or competencies, expected of the learner is because education is increasingly being understood at aimed at creating teaching and learning environments that would bring about desired changes in learners - whether to be more knowledgeable, better skilled or to influence their attitudes and values positively. The essence of teaching and learning, according to OBE advocates, is to plan teaching events (contents, strategies, etc) and to ascertain to what extent learners have acquired the intended competences.

There is a good deal of common sense about this approach to organizing learning around the notion of ouotcomes or competencies. Uncertainty about the desired learning outcomes and failure to assess outcomes properly could end in a situation where learners only attained pseudoknowledge, pseudo-skills, pseudo-attitudes and pseudo-values. On completion of their studies these learners are awarded a certificate inherently implying that they have attained certain competences whereas in fact they have not. (Malan: 2000: 22)

Outcomes -based education [OBE] is currently favoured internationally to promote educational renewal and has been implemented in countries such as Canada, the United States and New Zealand. In essence, a course is designed around six conditions that must be fulfilled – if it is to have intended competency outcomes. They are as follows:

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1. Explicit learning outcomes with respect to the required skills and concomitant proficiency (standards for assessment)

2. A flexible time frame to master these skills3. A variety of instructional activities to facilitate learning4. Criterion-referenced testing of the required outcomes5. Certification based on demonstrated learning outcomes 6. Adaptable programmes to ensure optimum learner guidance

William Spady is regarded as OBE's leading advocate and a few points he makes would suffice. Spady (1994:1) defines OBE as a:

… comprehensive approach to organizing and operating an education system that is focused on and defined by the successful demonstrations of learning sought from each student. Outcomes are … clear learning results that we want students to demonstrate at the end of significant learning experiences … and … are actions and performances that embody and reflect learner competence in using content, information, ideas, and tools successfully (Spady, 1994:2).

Regarding the OBE paradigm, Spady (1994:8) states:

… WHAT and WHETHER students learn successfully is more important than WHEN and HOW they learn something.

Among the benefits in adopting such a perspective when designing courses around outcomes and competencies, we can list the following:

The benefits for learners are: Credit achieved can be used to access programmes leading to desired

qualifications. Credit achieved can be used as part of the total credit required for a

particular award Recognition of learning from experience, and the process of reflection

required often lead to increased confidence among learners. It helps develop independent study skills needed in rapidly changing

environment. Reflection of experiential learning improves the link between theory and

practice.

The Benefits of APL for employers/managers are: Accelerated path to qualification, those less time taken away from work. Less costly than fees for taught modules.

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The process of reflection on practice could lead to innovation at the workplace.

The Benefits for universities are: Encourages curriculum innovation as new assessment techniques are

developed. The process encourages study to be relevant to work, life and personal

development. Claims are made on the basis of recent experience and thus, often provide

opportunities for discussion and can stimulate research partnership between universities and employers.

Where does Uganda stand with regard to the above issues? To be honest, educators, students, employers and the general public are seriously lacking in awareness on the forces which are impacting on the design of higher education courses and programmes, the consequences of these changes for their lives and study options, the concept of OBE, and most other issues which are being discussed passionately abroad about the direction education ought to be taking. Those who show a degree of awareness are few and scattered and often dismissed by the more powerful players in the institutional bureaucracies. It does not help the situation that certificates, diplomas and advanced diploma given under the British National Qualifications Framework are frowned upon for admission to university degrees as result of lack of awareness and failure to comprehend the growing linkages between professional vocational qualifications and those offered by universities.

4.4SUMMING UP

The movement from universities to ‘universe cities’ can be summed up as follows:

1. The university itself should have an organizational structure which sponsors the continuous development of its students’ core competences. The core modules which define competence could be combined according to each student’s needs and be complemented by a customised cluster of competences for each client or client group.

2. To meet the challenges outlined so far, it has been argued that new tasks and new ways of operating require new skills on the part of teachers and learners. It is no longer enough to be an expert in a subject discipline and thus students must be multi-skilled as well as possessing a range of core skills and competences.

3. There is a growing acceptance of the concept of open learning systems which seek to offer learning opportunities at all ages and stages of life. Continuous learning is the focus of discourse rather than the language of phases and stages. Learning experience is sought as opposed to immersion in a sequence of taught lessons.

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REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1. ‘At the heart of this enterprise is the concern to match the needs of students to a new set of possibilities for learning and personal achievement.’ Explain what is meant by this.

2. What is meant by the term the ‘vocationalisation of higher education’?3. What are the signs of the shift taking place from universities being ‘teaching’ to

‘learning organisations’?4. What are your views on outcome-based, or competency-based, education forming

the basis for redesigning university curricula in Uganda? Should it be a nationally agreed project, or left up the universities themselves to implement?

Notes(1) Much of the material in this part of the module is derived from the article: ‘ The Virtual University: A Learning University’ by David Davies; Journal of Workplace Learning , Volume 10 · Number 4 · 1998, 175–213).

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APPENDIXHIGHER EDUCATION IN UGANDA: THE SUB-SECTOR IN 2007 AT A GLANCE

Although 2007 saw no dramatic changes in the higher education sub-sector, there were continuities and changes that policy makers need to make note of especially the ICT sector as well as enrolments in science and technology. In addition, there was continuing under-funding of higher education inputs that continued to adversely impact on the delivery of quality higher education, reductions in middle level institutions in favour of un-facilitated universities and a continuing loss of academic staff through brain drain and early retirement. In 2007, National Council noted the following:

1. Institutions:The total number of institutions was 145 up from 139 from that of 2005/6. Their distribution by region was in the same proportion as in the previous academic year 2005/6: the central region (48%), western (25%), eastern (19%) northern (9%).

2. EnrolmentThe total enrollment in 2006/7 was 154,023 which represented an increase of 12.3% over the 2005/6 academic year when the number of students was 137,190. The gross enrolment ratio improved from 4.57% in 2005/6 to 4.97% in 2006/7.

The enrolment in all Universities (both public and private including affiliated colleges) was 107,728 or 69.5% of total enrolment in institutions of higher learning. This number was higher than that of the previous year of 92,605 by 15,123 reflecting a 14.0% increase of students into universities. This time, Public Universities alone had 53,845 (34.7%) enrolment lower than in 2005/6.

3. Enrolment by genderOverall, there were 87,954 male and 66,254 female students constituting 57% and 43% of all students. In the universities alone, there were 59,976 (55.7%) male and 47,752 (44.3%) female students of all the 107,728 students. The enrolment in all “Other Tertiary” (non-university institutions) was 46,295 comprising 27,793 (60%) males and 18,502 (40%) females. In Technical Colleges alone there were 1,960, which is only 1.3% of the total enrolment. This is a sad state of affairs that need government intervention.

4. International studentsThere were 8,287 (5.3%) international students composing 4,839 (3.1%) male and 3,448 (2.2%) female students of all 155,082 enrolled students. These numbers were lower than in 2005/6 when 12,930 (9.4%) foreign students composed of 8,150 (5.9%) male and 4,780 (3.5%) female students of all 137,190 students enrolled. Uganda is gradually losing its competitive edge in the region due to the inferior quality of its higher education.

5. Enrolment in illegal institutionsThe number of students in illegal institutions was 4,145 which are 2.7% of the total enrolment. The National Council for Higher Education is not funded sufficiently to clean up the system. Lack of staff and other facilities has led to inability to eliminate all illegal institutions and programmes. 6. Programme relevanceThe phenomenon of duplication of programmes still persists and has not been squarely addressed although through self-evaluation, it is hoped that institutions will address this question. The programmes offered do not place Uganda on the

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international market and do not make higher education a sustainable export product for Uganda. The relevance of programmes offered is still questionable and too many of are theoretical. Memorisation rather than problem solving was the preferred and widespread method of education delivery in 2006/7. Serious efforts to have field attachments with the labour market and practical training in the world of work will have to be made if the relevance is to be enhanced.

It is imperative for higher education institutions and the economy to develop mechanisms for continuous and sustainable interface between institutions, R&D and the market. Tracer studies were not being done by the institutions to establish what is marketable and to adjust programmes accordingly. Business and industry were not fully participating in training because current laws are believed not to favour those who host internship students.

7. Research and PublicationsMost of the research was linked with the pursuance of higher degrees and not many people pursued disinterested research in the higher education system. Generally, the level of research was low across the higher education spectrum, partly because of inadequate funding. Institutions have not fully fulfilling their knowledge creation functions. Most of the Uganda’s universities are, unfortunately, teaching institutions for little knowledge is created due to lack of research funds.

8. Academic staffThe number of academic staff grew faster in 2006/7 than in 2005/6 but still remained below the NCHE standards. From 6,465 in 2005/6 staff increased to 7,645 in 2006/7, which represents a growth of 1,180 individuals or 18.3%. The staff/student ratio of 1:201 was an improvement compared to 1:24 in the previous academic year. It is vital that quality and sufficiency of the academic staff match the expected outcomes of an institution of higher learning.

The number of full-time staff dropped from 2999 in 2006 to 4022 in 2007. This current staff figure represents only 52.6% of the total number of academic staff needed in the sub-sector. The number of part-time staff was 3623 or 47.4% of the total staff. Part-time staff represent too high a figure and often they do not participate in core activities of institutions which is sad. Training of more academic staff in the sub-sector is not impressive. Only 433 academic staff were reported to be on training programmes of different types.

9. InfrastructureIn 2007, there was no marked improvement in the physical infrastructure of most institutions, especially public ones. Public universities are using colonial-built infrastructure which is no longer adequate for the masses of students currently registered. Non-university institutions saw an improvement but this was due to the fact that a number of them either closed or had low enrolment leaving ample space unused. Unfortunately in most public institutions, the lecture, laboratory and dormitory spaces are inadequate and too old to create an environment conducive to learning.

10. Education facilitiesSince 2005, access to computer facilities, books and other learning materials has improved but are still far from reaching ratios comparable to world standards. In absolute figures, it is noted that the number of individuals in the sub-sector accessing computers has risen from 5511 in 2005/6 to 8202 in 2006/7. The student/textbook

1 We have however note some cases of double counting where some staff appear as academic staff in more than one institution which can only be isolated if detailed staff lists are obtained for all institutions.

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ratio dropped from 19 to 13 but one should not forget the possibility of accessing electronic reading materials which has indirectly brought greater access to reading materials. A serious anomaly rests in the welfare components of education taking more funds than core academic items or infrastructural developments.

11. Financing of higher educationHigher education in Uganda is financed by the government, the parents (students), the private sector and donor agencies. Government institutions have access to international donor and lender agencies while private institutions derive most of their income from fees. Although public and private institutions have improved in allocating priorities of their funds and in transparency in financial management, a lot more needs to be done. Financial managers were not using modern methods of accounting thus creating a situation where mischief could occur. Further, many institutions have not calculated unit costs to know the gap between received income and the cost.

12. Statutory obligations and waiversPublic and private universities are not protected against certain statutory obligations which in other countries these institutions are. For example non-profit universities should not pay corporation taxes and waiver of tax on donations is not in place.

13. GovernanceGenerally, governance of institutions is improving and the role of National Council is becoming more accepted and the Secretariat was always in a better position to advise institutions on this matter. But there were a number of governance disruptions in form of strikes, misinterpretations of the law and problems arising out of contradictions in the law.

The general governance of institutions improved as evidenced by fewer staff/student strikes or other forms of commotion in 2007 than in 2006. Few universities reported violations of their institutional autonomy, not many staff complained of interferences in their freedom to search for the truth or unnecessary interferences in student affairs. However, the great governance problem we are having include:

(a) Failure to separate between ownership and management in all institutions, public or private. As a result, there is massive interference in the institutional autonomies of universities leading to a lot of management problems.

(b) Mismanagement of institutions, particularly finances, the academic processes and public relations.

(c) Failure by virtually all institutions to organise data and information.

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