University rankings; Does it matter?

Since the mid-1990s, the country has witnessed a proliferation of local and foreign higher education institutions. Education provision in Zambia had become fragmented and uncoordinated in the absence of an integrated national regulatory framework. This led to the repeal and replacement of University Act of 1999. Thus the government enacted the Higher Education Authority Act No. 4 of 2013 to enable higher education providers to operate according to standards applicable to all public and private institutions and accreditation processes that would provide incentives for quality improvements and protect students from unregistered higher education providers.

However, Zambia's top tertiary institutions have in the recent past continued to record a record low position on the latest rankings released by Webometrics. Since 2004, the Ranking Web (or Webometrics Ranking) publishes twice a year (data which is collected during the first weeks of January and July), covering more than 24,000 Higher Education Institutions worldwide. According to Webometrics, The University of Zambia (UNZA) has dropped in ranking from 23rd to 55th in Africa while the Copperbelt University (CBU) has dropped from 152nd to 239th in Africa in less than a year.

The rankings of our universities, both public and private should be of great concern not only to our university authorities and academicians but also the nation as a whole. This is because university education is more than just the next level in the learning process; it is a critical component of human development worldwide. It provides not only the high-level skills necessary for the labor market but also the training essential for our country’s teachers, doctors, nurses, civil servants, librarians, engineers, entrepreneurs, scientists, social scientists, and a myriad of other personnel needed for the social and economical development of any country. It is these trained individuals who develop the capacity and analytical skills that drive local economies, support civil society, support the education system, lead effective governments and make important decisions which affect the entire society.

It is thus highly likely, that the rankings of our learning institution on the global, regional and national scale have an effect on the credibility of graduates, research, knowledge and other products that are churned out from these universities. There are a number of factors, other than a university’s open access and transparency policy, promotion of substantial increases in the volume and quality of their electronic publications that influence the rankings of universities globally. According to Thomson Reuters (2012), a university’s research capacity and performance in terms of number of academic staff (including research staff), research income, income per academic staff member and the number of papers published per million of research income are all factors that influence the ranking of universities. There are also other factors such as number of papers published per (academic and research) staff member, global research reputation, research output, total citations counted, doctorates awarded per academic staff member and number of papers published per million of research income.

Universities are also gauged on their institutional performance such as the number of undergraduate and post graduate degrees awarded, overall student/academic staff ratio, institutional ratio income per academic staff member, institutional income per student (in total enrolment) and the number of staff engaged exclusively in research as a proportion of all academic staff.

Other ranking factors include international diversity, that is international academic staff as a proportion of all academic staff, published papers authored jointly by at least one international academic staff member as a proportion of all papers published, international student enrolment as a proportion of total student enrolment, new international undergraduate intake as a proportion of total new undergraduate intake, international research reputation and international teaching reputation. Both our private and public universities should thus be evaluated on how well they have scored on the above score card.

However, the enactment and operationalization of the Higher Education Authority Act of 2013 in Zambia should among other things address the recent reported poor ratings and standing of our public and private universities by enabling a system for establishing equivalences with other higher international education systems and also make Zambia’s higher education system operate in a globalised learning environment.  Thus, the recognition of qualifications and credits as provided for in the Higher Education Authority Act should enable students to move from one international higher education systems to another and compete favorably both on the local and international labour market  and industry.

Private universities also have a duty to improve on the quality of their teaching, research and reputation performance by investing highly in quality teaching and research staff, proper library infrastructure and ICTs if they are to earn local and international credibility. Public universities such as the University of Zambia and the Copperbelt University which had been the only mandated institutions to provide university education in Zambia before the repealed and replaced University Act of 1999 should also consider repositioning themselves by diversifying their source of funding (away from the traditional funding from the government), improve on research, technological innovations and scholarly publications, sustain the Public Private Partnership initiatives in university provision, maintain close linkage between the university and industry and  increase their capacity to generate new knowledge for the benefit of our country’s national development.

Will the Higher Education Loans and Scholarship Board be the solution to university education financing?

Government announced on Wednesday March 9, 2016 that it will operationalise the Higher Education Loans and Scholarship Board in January 2017 next year after Parliament adopts it. The recent reforms announced by the Minister of Education Dr. Michael Kaingu are not new to the running of the public universities. The Government made efforts to introduce student loans in 1989 when a Working Party on Student Loans was appointed during the UNIP Government. The recommendation of the Working Party was that all citizens admitted to accredited higher education institutions should be given the option of applying for a student loan to cover tuition fees, and other direct educational expenses like personal allowance, living expenses and transport. The Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology announced in 1989 that students admitted in higher education institutions would from then on be funded through student loans. The student loan scheme was, however, not implemented. Instead, bursaries still continued to be the mode of paying for the education of students at the two public universities.

On 30th April, 1997 then President of the Republic of Zambia, Mr. Frederick Chiluba, appointed a Commission of Inquiry “to investigate all aspects of life and operations at the University of Zambia and the Copperbelt University.” The appointment of the Commission followed the concern of the Government and the President in particular over the incessant disturbances at the two universities which quite often compelled university authorities to close the institutions.

The Commission comprised eight (8) members including Justice Bobby Bwalya as Chairman. Among the recommendations of the commission was that the Government should introduce a student loans scheme for needy students to assist them meet the cost of tuition and personal welfare; the commission further recommended for an establishment of an autonomous statutory body to administer the student loan scheme to be established by the Government to replace the Bursaries Committee. The body was to be known as the Higher Education Loans Board. Thus the decision by government to operationalise the Higher Education Loans and Scholarship Board in January 2017 as announced by the former Minister of Higher Education Dr Kaingu was not only long overdue but a move in the right direction.  One of the ways in which government meets the cost of students in public universities is through students finance or bursaries.

Student finance refers to the money received by students whilst in the university in order to assist them meet maintenance and education material costs. These include costs for tuition, meals, books, accommodation and projects. Most of the university students who are sponsored by the Government receive bursaries which cover the cost of meals, accommodation, tuition, books and projects. These bursaries are non refundable meaning that benefiting students are not obliged to repay back once they graduate.The only qualification for a bursary is admission in a public university.  According to the current practice, all students on government sponsorship at the public uinversities receive their meal allowances to buy their own meals. The allowances for projects are paid to those students taking courses that require projects. Book allowance was reintroduced in January 1997 and the government policy was that it was to be paid directly to the university bookshops. Currently, students are paid book allowance in monetary form as an allowance.

According to the 1997 Bobby Bwalya Commission’s recommendations, the justification for paying students allowances stermed from the idea that University students remain a privileged lot in the country.Most of the students who went forward to submit evidence told the Commission that society owed them something for being intelligent. Some students argued that they were the cream of society and that the government was therefore obliged to pay them for their intelligence. The Commission further noted that these ill-conceived attitudes by students still prevailed under conditions where the government had made drastic changes in the mode of financing and providing various services in the country such as cost sharing measures.

The Commission also observed that the size of the bursary scheme had been increasing over the years. The amountof money going into student bursaries had risen to the level where it was almost equivalent to the total amount of grants the public universities get from the government. The Commission noted that funding for student welfare was therefore rising to levels far higher than what was spent on the core functions of teaching and research in the public universities. According to the Parliamentary Hansards, in 2014, then Minister of Education Dr John Phiri said in parliament that out of the K395.5 million, bursary allocation to students at the University of Zambia (UNZA) for the year 2014 stood at K91, 161,907. The Minister explained that in 2014 alone, UNZA received a supplementary allocation of K57, 700,000, bringing the total allocation to the two universities, including the Copperbelt University (CBU), to K191, 825,179. Dr Phiri said that it was to be noted that the annual allocation to the ministry for the execution of the bursary programme was insufficient, hence the supplementary funding which was requested for by the ministry. He further told parliament that the budget for sponsorship of students takes into account the returning students as well as the new ones. Therefore, as a way forward, the decision to transform the bursary scheme into a loan scheme as a way of operationalising the loan scheme by the government and transforming the Bursaries Committee into a Loans Board which will be overseeing the revolving fund is the most sustainable and cost effective way of financing our public universities.  Although to me is what the nation has been waiting for, it remains to be seen whether the loan scheme will be a solution to the challenge of university education financing in Zambia.

Re-created Presidential Affairs Ministry: some ruminations

Recently Parliament unanimously approved the creation of new ministries in line with President Edgar Lungu's proposal to re-align and reconstitute some portfolios to enhance service delivery and economic development. The newly-created ministries include Housing and Infrastructure Development, Water Development and Sanitation, National Guidance and Religious Affairs and the Ministry of Presidential Affairs.

There is no doubt however, that the move to create and realign some ministries has attracted a number of mixed reactions from among many stakeholders. For those against the decision, the issue of running a cost effective administration by cutting down expenditure has emerged prominent, while for those in favor, aligning such institutions and the creation of new ministries of government is intended to focus on the strategic areas of economic efforts and improve service delivery for the country.

In Zambia, it is not the first time the Ministry of Presidential Affairs has been established. This ministry had existed under the previous MMD government of President Fredrick Chiluba.  Prominent lawyer Mr Eric Silwamba was once the Minister for Presidential Affairs Minister in the Chiluba government. Mr Silwamba was however, widely criticized by some section of the Zambian private press as merely ‘meddling unnecessarily’ with the presidency. A case in point was in August 1997 when President Chiluba visited Singapore and Indonesia was conducted incredibly without the Foreign Affairs Minister but with the ‘ever-present’ Minister for Presidential Affairs, Eric Silwamba. In any case however, the criterion for accompanying the President on local and international trips has hitherto purely remained the preserve of the President. This throws out the argument as to who becomes part of the presidential entourage on foreign trips. However, Silwamba was also known to be Chiluba’s personal old friend from Ndola before the latter became President. Thus for many, it was widely, perceived that the position of Minister of Presidential Affairs was for the purpose of political grandiose to the President’s political allies.  As such, the role of the Presidential Affairs had remained publicly undefined throughout this period.

Depending on the structure and organization of government set-up, there are countries in the region that have institutionalized the Presidential Affairs Ministry. In Namibia for instance, the Presidential Affairs Minister is responsible for assisting the President, both technically and administratively, to effectively exercise his/her roles and responsibilities as Head of State and Government among the other defined roles. Similarly, in Botswana, the Ministry of Presidential Affairs and Public Administration is equivalent to the same position. In Tanzania, the Presidential Affairs Act collectively provides for the functions and offices of the President, Vice-President and the Prime Minister.

In Zambia, the reestablishment of the Presidential Affairs Ministry by President Lungu should be viewed as a right move only if its intended objective is meant to strengthen the capacity of the intended ministry to bring efficiency and effectiveness by reducing bureaucracy in the administrating of the Executive duties and functions of the president by promoting initiatives such as the integration of science, technology and innovation in all aspects of running government. There is also need to define the role and functions of this Ministry through the necessary institutional capacity to avoid duplication of government functions.

The intended ministry can also be a useful link between the President and the ordinary citizen. This is because in nearly all systems of government, such political capital to transform the lives of citizens and drive the economy is vested in the chief executive of a country who in Zambia is the President of the Republic according to the constitutional order.