Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa: Herana One

1. Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa: Herana One Makerere University CHET August 2012

2. The Project and Context

3. Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network Africa • To use a set of analytical concepts to try and better understand the complex interactions between national economic/education policies and higher education system development • To learn from some OECD countries who had been successful in linking HE and economic growth • To use 8 African countries as contexts for the study • To develop an empirical methodology to operationalise the concepts • Do not assert that the primary/only role for higher education is development

4. HERANA Structure HERANA Higher Education Research & Advocacy Network in Africa RESEARCH ADVOCACY The HERANA Gateway An internet portal to research on higher education in Africa Higher Education and Development Investigating the complex relationships between higher education and economic development, and student democratic attitudes in Africa University World News (Africa) Current news and in-depth investigations into higher education in Africa The Research-Policy Nexus Investigating the relationship between research evidence and policy-making in selected public policy sectors in South Africa Nordic Masters in Africa (NOMA) Collaborative research training by the Universities of Oslo, Makerere, Western Cape, and CHET FUNDERS Carnegie, Ford, Rockefeller, Kresge, DFID, Norad HERANA 2: Carnegie, Ford, NORAD

5. The Case Studies Three successful (OECD) systems investigated: • Finland (Europe), South Korea (Asia), North Carolina (US) Africa • Botswana – University of Botswana • Ghana – University of Ghana • Kenya – University of Nairobi • Mauritius – University of Mauritius • Mozambique – Eduardo Mondlane • South Africa – Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University • Tanzania – University of Dar es Salaam • Uganda – Makerere University

6. Project team Higher education studies – Peter Maassen and Nico Cloete Development economist – Pundy Pillay (UWC) Sociology of knowledge – Jo Muller (UCT), Johann Mouton (US) Data analysis - Ian Bunting (DoE), Charles Sheppard (NMMU) Researchers– Tracy Bailey (CHET), Gerald Ouma (Kenya & UWC), Romulo Pinheiro (Oslo), Patricio Langa (Mozambique & UCT), Samuel Fongwa (Cameroon, UWC) External commentators Manuel Castells (USC, Open University, Barcelona) John Douglas (CHES, Berkeley) Makererecontributors Prof. Vincent Ssembatya (Director, Quality Assurance) Dr Florence Nakaywa(Director, Planning) Prof. Baryamureeba (Acting VC)

7. Economic Growth and Human Development A substantial body of academic and technical literature provides evidence of the relationship between informationalism, productivity and competitiveness for countries, regions and business firms. But, this relationship only operates under three conditions: information connectedness, organizational change in the form of networking; and enhancement of the quality of human labour, itself dependent on education and quality of life. (Castells and Cloete, 2011) The structural basis for the growing inequality, in spite of high GDP growth rates in many parts of the world, is the growth of a highly dynamic, knowledge-producing, technologically advanced sector that is connected to other similar sectors in a global network, but it excludes a significant segment of the economy and of the society in its own country. The lack of human development prevents what Manuel Castells calls the ‘virtuous cycle’, which constrains the dynamic economy. (Castells and Cloete, 2011) Connecting growth to human development – trickle down doesn’t work. Key connectors are education (Higher Education) and ICT.

8. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita versus Human Development Index (HDI)

9. The relationship between scientific excellence and economic development (R = 0.714, P = 0.218) (R = 0.961, P = 0.002)* Data source: Thomson Reuters InCitesTM (21 September 2010); The World Bank Group (2010)

10. Participation rate and development indicators

11. Some implications from 3 successful systems Finland, South Korea, North Carolina (USA) As part of reorganising their ‘mode of production’, they developed a (pact) around a knowledge economy model (high skills training, research and innovation) Close links between economic and education planning High participation rates with differentiation Strong ‘state’ steering (different methods) Higher education linked to regional development Responsive to the labour market Strong coordination and networks PundyPillay (2010): Linking higher education to economic development: Implications for Africa from three successful systems. (CHET)

12. The analytical premises Higher education’s role in / contribution to development is influenced by three inter-related factors: The nature of the pact between the university leadership, political authorities, and society at large The nature, size and continuity of the academic core The connectedness and coordination of national and institutional knowledge policies to the academic core and to development projects is crucial

13. The Pact

14. Defining the ‘Pact’ A ‘pact’ is defined as a fairly long-term cultural, socio-economic and political understanding and commitment between universities, university leadership, political authorities and society at large of the identity or vision of universities, what is expected of universities, and what the rules and values of the universities are. Pacts are not only between society and higher education, but also important within the institution.

15. Conceptual Framework: Government – Institutions - Market Government Pact Academic Core Connectedness External Groupings University

16. The pact: National-level indicators • Narrative, intent and structures for the Role of HE in development • Visions and plans, i.e. Development Visions (2025-2035) • Policies – development, science and technology, higher education • Methods and structures for co-ordination

17. Role for knowledge and universities in development

18. Notions of the role of higher education in development

19. Coordination of knowledge policies

20. The Pact in Uganda (1) At national level the importance of knowledge economy and the importance of higher education were rather weakly reflected in national policy statements The Poverty Eradication Plan recognises the need for higher economic growth (currently around 6%) and human capital development and Science and Technology. Important to shift from higher education for social mobility and training the professions, to higher education as ‘engine” for development. In contrast, at institutional level a much stronger reference to knowledge economy and the importance of the university in development in the strategic plan. Regarding notions of the role of the university, at national level strong Instrumental expectation, while institutional level increasing support for engine of development (innovation) - faculty differences Not strong enough incentives to translate ‘increasing support’ into action

21. The Pact in Uganda (2) 6. There did not seem to be a strong agreement between national and institutional levels that higher education is key to development – different discourses 7. Development aid agencies needs to become part of the Pact - while in their own countries there is a ‘engine of development’ notion, in Africa the universities are often regarded as ‘development agencies’, meaning a narrow ‘instrumental’ role 8. Poor policy coordination – the problem of Capacity and Agreement 9. In both the development of a Pact and Coordination, the National Council on Higher Education could play and important role to connect stakeholders - needs to be capacitated to do this in addition to other tasks 10. The importance of Institutional leadership stability – between institution and society and within the institution 11. The road pact!!

22. The Academic Core

23. The academic core Burton Clarke refers to the ‘academic heartland’ and a ‘stronger steering core’ The universities in the HERANA sample are public and ‘flagship’ universities which claim in mission statements that they: • have high academic ratings, • are centres of academic excellence engaged in high quality research and teaching • and contribute to development They are the key “knowledge institutions” in these countries Assumption: For a university to contribute to development it needs a strong academic core – universities are ‘weak ‘ development agencies,

24. Input indicators Increased enrolments in science, engineering and technology (SET) – AU regards SET as a development driver (importance and weakness of social sciences, humnaities and education) Increased postgraduate (PG) enrolments – knowledge economy requires increasing numbers of workers with PG qualifications Favourable academic staff to student ratio – workload should allow for research and PhD supervision High proportion of academic staff with PhDs – high correlation (0.82 in South Africa) between doctorates and research output Adequate research funding per academic – and from multiple sources

25. Output indicators High graduation rates in SET fields – not only must enrolments increase, but also graduate output Increased knowledge production (doctoral graduates) – for reproduction of academic core, to produce academics for other universities and for demand in other fields Increased knowledge production – research publications in ISI peer-reviewed journals (problem of counting ‘publication’s which is not the only knowledge output

26. Head count enrolments by major fields of study Target = 40% enrolments in science & technology

27. Qualification levels of permanent academic staff members

28. Research funding • Research funding resources (in US$) available in 2007 to the academic staff members of each university.

29. Doctoral enrolments (head count)

30. Doctoral graduates

31. Research publication totals

32. Makerere: high-level knowledge outputs

33. Ratios of high-level research outputs to permanent academics: averages for 2000/1 to 2007/8

34. South Africa: High-level inputs and outputs • Graph 1offers summaries for the 15-year period 1996-2010. Doctoral enrolments were 1.3% of national total of 893 000 students in 2010. Permanent academics Doctoral enrolments Research publications Doctoral graduates

35. Percentage of doctoral enrolments in race groupings Graph 4 shows how the % of doctoral enrolments by race group changed between 1996 to 2010. African doctoral students rose from 13% in 1996 to 33% in 2004, and 44% in 2010.

36. It is important to note that the two countries produce almost the same number of PhD graduates but that South Africa’s population is in the order of 48 million whilst Norway’s population is 4.8 million

37. Findings: Academic core (1) General: None of the universities (except Cape Town) seem to have moved from their traditional undergraduate teaching role Considerable diversity amongst input indicators, with postgraduate enrolments and inadequate research funds the weakest The strongest input indicators are manageable student-staff ratios (Except Ghana) and staff with doctorates (comparable to SA) On the output side, SET graduation rates are positive, but all institutions (except Cape Town) have low knowledge production From the weak knowledge production output indicators it seems the academic cores are not strong enough to make a sustainable contribution to development

38. Findings: Academic core (Makerere) Makerere on the UP – dramatic increase in SET, doctorates and particularly ISI publications, but knowledge production from a very low base Major concern to increase the enrolment and graduation rate of doctorates (balance staff and young graduates, funding, post docs and “productive” departments Incentive structure (double and triple teaching, consultancies and bureaucracy in institutional and national research funds) do not encourage knowledge production Working on improving data definition, systematic institution-wide capturing and processing, and strengthen evidence-based strategic planning and leadership

39. General Implications: Academic core A focus should be to strengthen the academic cores of the ‘flagship’ universities Key areas to improve are: • masters throughput to PhDs • doctoral enrolments and graduation, with scholarships and post docs • research funding and the incentives around research funding Examine incentives and address perverse incentives Consider an Africa Research Fund with some of the features of the European Research Fund Funders and governments must build conditions into consultancies that strengthen rather than weaken the academic core

40. HERANA Phase 2 There is a clearly identified need to improve and strengthen the definition of performance indicators, as well as the systematic, institution wide capturing and processing (institutionalisation) of key indicators Capacity needs to be built about the analysis of data at both planning, management and leadership levels, and linking these analyses to planned reforms – at institutional and national levels Revitalising African higher education is amongst other things going to require more comparative, evidence based approaches than declarative missions and intentions Important role of National Commissions Role of Incentives in Knowledge Production

41. HERANA Publications: HE and Economic Development Books and reports Linking Higher Education and Economic Development: Implications for Africa from three successful systems (Pillay) Universities and Economic Development in Africa: Pact, academic core and coordination (Cloete, Bailey, Maassen) Universities and Economic Development in Africa: Key findings (Cloete, Bailey, Bunting & Maassen) Country and University Case Studies: Botswana (Bailey, Cloete, Pillay) Country and University Case Studies: Ghana (Bailey, Cloete, Pillay) Country and University Case Studies: Kenya (Bailey, Cloete, Pillay) Country and University Case Studies: Mauritius (Bailey, Cloete, Pillay) Country and University Case Studies: Mozambique (Bailey, Cloete, Pillay) Country and University Case Studies: South Africa (Bailey, Cloete, Pillay) Country and University Case Studies: Tanzania (Bailey, Cloete, Pillay) Country and University Case Studies: Uganda (Bailey, Cloete, Pillay)

42. HERANA Phase 2 There is a clearly identified need to improve and strengthen the definition of performance indicators, as well as the systematic, institution wide capturing and processing (institutionalisation) of key indicators Capacity needs to be built about the analysis of data at both planning, management and leadership levels, and linking these analyses to planned reforms – at institutional and national levels Revitalising African higher education is amongst other things going to require more comparative, evidence based approaches than declarative missions and intentions Important role of National Commissions Impact of engagement activities on the academic core Role of Incentives in Knowledge Production