Many universities, courses and students but not enough study

The higher education sector in East Africa is close to its lowest ebb, educationists warn as the region battles low access and falling quality.The East African Community countries are struggling to accommodate surging numbers of students seeking an education, while simultaneously addressing the critical numbers who drop out of the system. Between 1996 and 1999, 57 per cent of all children enrolled for primary school, compared with 87 per cent and 72 per cent for Uganda and Kenya respectively. However, only 0.6 per cent of children in Tanzania actually entered tertiary institutions, and only two per cent and 3.5 per cent in Uganda and Kenya respectively.Across the region, university education remains a largely elitist endeavour.

It is also largely a male pursuit.While the female enrollment rate into higher education has increased with recent government interventions, more still needs to be done to ensure that women access tertiary education. Up until well into the 1990s men greatly outnumbered women at most institutions in the region.This situation, however, has changed dramatically, with the increasing privatisation of higher education. According to the study Educational Pathways in East Africa: Scaling a Difficult Terrain, while women currently make up roughly half, of students at most private institutions in the region, the numbers are approaching a modest 30 to 40 per cent at the oldest and most prestigious public universities.

Marketisation of education

The situation is replicated across the region. At Uganda’s Makerere University, according to The Observer, enrolment for courses like mathematics, veterinary medicine and religious studies has been declining over the years. A lecturer in history, Mwambutsya Ndebesa, attributes this to what he calls the marketisation of education.Our society has lost track of the meaning and value of knowledge and education,he says.His words are confirmed by the fact that prominent Ugandan politicians, including President Yoweri Museveni, have on several occasions lamented that the country’s universities teach useless courses such as, incredibly, development studies and peace and conflict resolution.As universities strive to stay afloat in the face of dwindling government financing, there is a real danger that these unpopular courses may be dropped altogether.Across the region, an emphasis on providing free primary and secondary education is also putting the squeeze on budgetary support for tertiary institutions. To counter this, many have had to diversify, introducing certificate and diploma courses as well as opening doors to privately-funded students.


Under-represented female

The study revealed not just significant female underrepresentation within the student body, but also in senior academic and administrative positions. Only a handful of women hold executive university positions in the region, with less than 10 per cent of academic managers being women at Makerere where there are also only two women professors. The University of Nairobi has only five.Though it is widely believed that investing in education leads to accumulation of human capital, which is essential for creation of wealth and sustaining economic growth, a debate continues to rage over the role of universities, with some arguing that their main role was to enable graduates to get jobs when they leave the university, while others argue that the pursuit of knowledge is a noble goal in and of itself and that thinking of relevance only in terms of current demands from employers risks forfeiture of capacity to adjust to future opportunities.

In reality, many universities have already started operating, in the words of Christopher Lucas, author of Our Western Educational Heritage, as an appendage to the world of business.In a recent study by Andrew Rasugu of the Institute of Policy Analysis and Research, Kenyan applicants to public universities were found to be influenced by the dynamics in the marketplace when selecting programmes leading to a greater preference for business, economics, medical, engineering and information technology degrees that are seen to be favoured by employers. The research revealed that although courses such as agriculture, criminology, disaster management, literature, poetry, and ethical education, and natural sciences are more relevant to sustainable development, they are unattractive to students.