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This report presents the findings of a study on the progress, challenges, and recommendations for higher education in Lesotho. It covers admission rates, enrolments by institution and gender, enrolments by program and qualification, enrolment by age, gross enrolment ratios, and enrolment by field of education.
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State of Higher Education Report 2013-14 2nd CHE Biennial Conference 2016 Presented by Makaizer Mohlouoa
Outline • Introduction • Methodology • Findings • Conclusions • Recommendations
Introduction • Monitor progress on the implementation of the HE Policy and the Strategic Plan • It gives highlights of progress made • 55 out of 82 indicators covered • Covers - 2013/14 • Comparison was done with other years 2010/11 - 2012/13 where data was available
Methodology & Limitations Methodology Limitations • Annual Statistics : 2011/12 -2013/14 • Rapid Assessment of Higher Education Institutions 2015- • Secondary sources: BOS, NMDS, ECOL, etc • Various documents consulted e.g. HE Policy, HE M&E Framework, UNESCO Publications, baseline survey of HE institutions, 2012/13 State of Higher Education Report, Quality Assurance Standards etc. • A validation workshop with key stakeholders was also held • Poor quality of data from HEIs • Not all the information required to calculate all the indicators was available. E.g. • Transition rates could not be calculated. Admission requirements at HEIs required to determine students that qualify for HE – not available
ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION • The Lesotho Constitution commits the state to making higher education equally accessible to all Basotho who are eligible. • HE Policy Strategy – to increase the number of places available and to broaden the range of programme offerings • Covers existing institutions, admissions, enrolments
Admission rates • To check the absorptive capacity of HEIs • It measures the number of students admitted relative to the number of applications (13 HEIs) • In 2012, 13, 739 students sat for COSC • About 18, 977 applied to HEIs in 2013/14 and only 6086 (32.1%) students were admitted
Admission Rates - continued • Low admission rates imply low absorptive capacity of HEIs • The HE Policy proposed construction of new public institutions for tertiary and TVET. • The funding model for HE public institutions proposes increased capital investment by government over 10 year period. It proposes capital injection into higher education public institutions for infrastructure over a ten year period. Implementing the model will help improve the absorptive capacity of institutions
Enrolments by Type of Programme and Qualification studied • Majority (90.1%) enrolled at undergraduate level during 2013/14 as has been in the previous years, • Majority at Diploma Level followed by Degree • 8.1% studied professional programmes offered by CAS and procurement and supplies programme offered by IDM • Only 1.8% were at postgraduate level – masters, honours and PhD, majority were honours/postgraduate diploma students (62.7%) • Low enrolment at postgraduate level could be due to limited number of HEIs offering postgraduate programmes and limited types of programmes offered.
Enrolment-cont. • Having many PhDs broadens a country’s research base and generate knowledge which leads to innovation and solutions to societal problems, a missed opportunity for Lesotho • Only 1 PhD student was enrolled in 2013/14 while Botswana had 208 PhDs and Mauritius had 280 • Already, Lesotho has low research output at HEIs and national level. No structures at national level for promoting and supporting research and no consistent funding for research
Enrolment by Age • To measure the participation rates at HEIs • Most students enter HE between 20-25 and 30-34 years – similar to previous years • Majority of 30-34 year olds were enrolled at NUL and LCE which offer adult education programmes • The international standards measure participation rates of youth by comparing total number of HEIs’ student aged 18-25 years relative to population of youth aged 18-25 years • It was estimated at 4.6% of the population aged 18-25 years – very low compared to total youth population • Adults aged 26-50 years made up 1.5% of the population in that age group – much lower
Gross enrolment ratios • It is a measures of participation at HEIs by those eligible • It is total enrolment in tertiary expressed as a percentage of the total population aged 18-22 years • GER for 2013/14 was 11.0% (12.9% for females and 9.1% for males), thus females more advantaged in terms of participation in HE • GERs have been declining over the years • They imply low participation at tertiary by those eligible, therefore remains a challenge to be addressed • Low GERs not only unique to Lesotho
Enrolment by Field of Education:2013/14 • HE Policy proposes broadening a range of programme offerings for Basotho students wishing to pursue HE • In 2013/14, 138 programmes were running in HEIs • Programmes were categorised according to UNESCO fields of study for international comparability • Programmes are supposed to be in line with national priorities – no national human resource development policy or plan that identifies and addresses manpower needs of the country • Most programmes are general, not specialised therefore not addressing scarce skills • Most programmes are at diploma or bachelors level
Enrolment of Students with Disability/special needs • UN Convention on the rights of persons with disability was adopted in 2006 and ratified in December 2008: “State parties shall ensure that persons with disability are able to access general tertiary education, vocational training and adult education and lifelong learning without discrimination and on an equal basis with others. To this end, State Parties shall ensure that reasonable accommodation is provided to persons with disability” • Objective of the HE Policy – To safeguard the right of equitable access to higher education for people living with disabilities and to guarantee that Lesotho lives up to its international obligations • Focus is on youth aged 18-30 years eligible for HE
Enrolment of Students with Disability/special needs- cont. • About 20 students with disability were enrolled in HEIs in 2013/14 – represents 0.6% of population of disabled eligible for HE (3434) and 0.08% of students enrolled • It was an improvement from 2011/12 and 2012/13 figures of 10 students • They were enrolled at undergraduate programmes at NUL, LCE and LUCT • They were in education, science, law, tourism, business management, broadcasting and journalism • Close to Half (8) were visually impaired and 7 had intellectualdisability • Key infrastructure at HEIs do not cater for persons with disabilities e.g. science labs, libraries, lecture room etc. • Lesotho is still far from reaching its obligations of making HE accessible to persons with disabilities
Inbound Mobility • SADC Protocol on Education and Training requires HEIs in its member states to reserve at least 5% of their admissions to students from other SADC countries • Out of 23545 students enrolled in 2014/15, only 103 were foreign students, down from 127 and 105 in 2011/12 and 2012/13 • It represents only 0.4% of the students enrolled, far from 5% recommended by SADC • Foreign student population is therefore generally low • It is therefore crucial for Lesotho to improve quality of its HE system to compete and attract a larger share of mobile students like other countries e.g. Botswana and Mauritius with 988 and 1546 respectively in 2013/14 • There is need for HEIs to indicate where “other” come from to enable us to estimate how many come from SADC
Outbound Mobility • About 2,912 Basotho students were studying at universities outside the country in 2014 • 93.5% of them were at institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa, majority in South Africa (897 sponsored by NMDS) • Its an improvement of 0.9% from 2013 figure of 2,887 students studying abroad • Outbound mobility ratio-the number of students from a given country studying abroad as a percentage of local tertiary enrolment in that country • The result was an outbound mobility ratio of 12.4% • They studied a range of specialised programmes -Majority enrolled in medicine and engineering fields
Enrolment by Sponsor • Majority are sponsored by government through NMDS • Assistance is awarded on the basis of academic merit, without considering financial circumstances of students or their families • The 2010 Review of Financing Tertiary Education done by MOET with World Bank support indicated that 85% of tertiary students come from highest two income quartiles • NMDS funding needs to be restricted to the needy who cannot afford to pay for themselves • Fast-tracking of NMDS plans to introduce means testing is therefore crucial
Graduates at HEIs • About 6581 students registered for end of programme examinations in 2013/14 • 81.5 % graduated while only 18.5% did not succeed – failed or withdrew or did not meet all the requirements
TEACHING AND LEARNING HE Policy objectives: • To build the capacity and expertise among academic staff members employed by local HE providers to deliver a high quality teaching and learning experience for students • To promote greater responsiveness among HE providers to the needs and perceptions of the students they serve • This can be achieved through ensuring staff are suitably qualified, building their capacity through professional development and training, getting feedback from students • A total of 1721 staff were employed, a decline of 8.7% from 2012/13. fluctuating trends were observed since 2011/12 • More research needs to be done to determine the source of fluctuating trends • HEIs need to improve on the quality of their statistics on staff
Staff by Country of Origin • Internationalisation of institutions plays a central role in improving mobility and employability of graduates – therefore recruiting foreign staff and students vital • Only 89 foreign staff members employed – represents 5.2% of all staff (ranged between 5.0% and 5.1% from 2010/11 to 2012/13) - majority from Zimbabwe and Botswana • Internationalisation Index – measures proportion of foreign students and staff to total staff at HEIs • It was estimated at 11.2% in 2013/14, lower than 2012/13 figure of 12.4% • It indicates low international competitiveness of local institutions and their programmes
Qualifications of staff • Majority had masters (26.6%) and Degree (21.3%) while PhD holders was 7.3% of staff, largely from NUL “CHE minimum programme accreditation standards require academic staff to have higher qualifications than the level they teach”. • There were staff members teaching at higher or same level as the qualifications they had
Academic staff quality indices • It is critical for HEIs to ensure that academic staff members are suitably qualified and have sufficient expertise in subjects or levels they teach • Academic staff quality index measures the quality of teaching staff and capacity of HEIs to produce research degree holders. • It is measured on the basis of PhD holders but Masters also considered for other HEIs • NUL had 303 academic staff, 102 PhD holders giving an index of 33.7% (was 24.1% and 25.1% in 2011/12 and 2012/13) • For other HEIs, an overall index was 42.2%
Capacity building of Staff • 47 staff members were sent for long term training, predominantly instructional personnel (80.9%) to do Masters and PhD –this represents only 2.7% of staff • This is low relative to the staff complement • Could be attributed to lack of funding for long term training • 9 HEIs reported providing continuous professional development programmes – short term courses, research workshops, seminars, visits to other countries. • Feedback from students also important for informing efforts to improve quality of service – Only 2 HEIs conducted satisfaction surveys from 2012/13 to 2013/14 • HEIs therefore not responsive to the needs and perceptions of students they serve
Attrition rates • Retention of staff is critical for improving teaching and learning • Academic staff attrition rates measure the environment for sustainable academic activities –proportion of academic staff leaving the institution • About 201 staff members left in seven HEIs – represents 11.6% of all staff. Majority (61.2%) were from NUL followed by LCE with 14.1% and were largely support and academic staff • 88 were academic staff giving an overall attrition rate of 13.8% for seven HEIs that provided information
RESEARCH OUTPUT • Assess the state of research at HEIs – research output, funding for research, capacity building of staff on research, participation in conferences, collaborations • Indicator – HEI publication index - measures average number of peer reviewed publications per academic staff in a year per HEI. • 10 HEIs conducted research – academic and commissioned
Publication indices • Seven HEIs published papers • An average of less than 1 paper was produced per institution per academic staff • This is low hence the need to improve research productivity • Efforts to improve research • Only 3 HEIs provided incentives for staff for conducting research (NUL, PSN and MAC) – promotion points, free internet, access to on-line databases (e.g. EBSCO Host), research breaks etc • Capacity building of staff done (– long term training, holding research workshops, exchange programmes etc • Incentives provided for attending conferences (8 HEIs reported) • Programmes with research component - 93 out of 148 programmes have research component (62.8%)
Collaboration Agreements • 93 collaboration agreements established nationally, regionally and internationally • HEI collaboration index – measures the number of agreements signed nationally, regionally and internationally relative to the number of institutions involved • 24 institutions/organisations nationally, regionally, internationally were involved • Overall collaboration index – 3.3% (It was calculated on the basis of 79 agreements that we had information on)
