Transcript A South African Big Picture for Teaching and Learning The

Nico Cloete and Peter Maassen
NORAD Conference, Oslo
Litteraturhuset
1 November 2012
Development Aid Responses
Across the developing world, higher education is coming
in from the cold. Gone are the days when it was purely a
luxury for the elite. ....there has also been a revolution in economic
thinking. Not so long ago the World Bank pooh-poohed spending on
higher education as both economically inefficient and socially
regressive. Now many development economists are warming to
higher education, pointing to the demand for graduates…and to the
positive effect of university-based research on the economy.
(The Economist, 8 September 2005 – afterG8 meeting at Gleneagles)
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Development Aid Responses
1. China - $2,5 billion for 4 new universities in Sudan (Sept 2012)
2. World Bank – Africa is on the move (Blom, Sept 2012)
i. HE in Africa in general is not able to respond to the large unmet demands for
skilled professionals in booming economic sectors (e.g. extractive industries
and energy) and in critical development sectors (e.g. health and agriculture).
WB has committed US$800 million for institutional strengthening for
appropriate skills (manpower) and centers of excellence.
3. US Aid - $20 million on 80 projects (2000-2005)
4. Sida and Norad - $90 million on 50 projects (2000-2005)
(Maassen, Pinheiro and Cloete, 2007)
Completely different approaches but overwhelming evidence shows that
multiple, small, short-term interventions lead to minimum impact and
‘perverse incentives’
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NORAD: Research for Development
Conference announcement
1. Development and poverty reduction.
2. Enhance knowledge-based development.
3. Research-based knowledge is more applied to development
4. Is strengthening academia in the South also important
for democracy and society at large?
Questions about NORAD assumptions:
1. Are Development and Poverty Reduction separate things?
2. Is academia in the South different from academia in the North?
3. Are universities only for the development knowledge, or also for
developing democracy?
4. Are Development and Democracy independent from each other?
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The university and knowledge in development
University not part of
development strategy
No or marginal
role for new
knowledge in
development
strategy
Ancillary
Self-governing
Central role for
new knowledge
in development
strategy
Instrument
Engine
University part of
development strategy
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Comments: Notions of the Role of the University
1. Post-independence the ‘agreement/pact’ was to produce
professionals and civil servants.
2. Result: undergraduate teaching institutions and upward mobility
for the new elite (private returns).
3. The development role was nation-building and ‘manpower’.
4. Privileging primary school and opposition to State, led to the
‘luxury ancillary’ notion and state interference.
5. University responded with a self-governance.
6. Foreign donors demanded a more direct instrumentalist notion –
poverty reduction/community upliftment/consultancy.
7. Result: Isolated Centres of Excellence and Poverty Reduction.
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Tension: Development vs Poverty Reduction
1. Poor countries need development, not poverty alleviation
2. “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 linking human
to dynamic productive development prevents ‘the virtuous cycle
of sustainable development.” (Castells and Cloete, 2011)
3. Poverty alleviation in a poor country without a dynamic
productive sector is a contradiction in terms.
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Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita
versus Human Development Index (HDI)
GDP ranking
HDI Ranking
(2007)
GDP ranking per
capita minus HDI
ranking
13 604
60
125
-65
11 296
68
81
-13
9 757
78
129
-51
Chile
13 880
59
44
+15
Costa Rica
10 842
73
54
+19
Ghana
1 334
153
152
1
Kenya
1 542
149
147
2
802
169
172
-3
Uganda
1 059
163
157
6
Tanzania
1 208
157
151
6
Finland
34 256
23
12
11
South Korea
24 801
35
26
9
USA
45 592
9
13
-4
GDP per capita
(PPP, $US) 2007
Botswana
Mauritius
Country
South Africa
Mozambique
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Tertiary participation rate and development
Gross tertiary
education
enrolment rate
(2009)
Overall global
competitive
ranking
(2010-2011)
Ghana
6
114
Kenya
4
106
2
131
Tanzania
2
113
Uganda
5
118
20+
76
26 +
55
18
54
94
7
98
22
82
4
Country
Mozambique
Botswana
Mauritius
South Africa
Stage of
development
WEF
(2009-2010)
Stage 1:
Factor-driven
Transition from
1 to 2
Stage 2:
Efficiency-driven
Finland
South Korea
United States
Stage 3:
Innovation-driven
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Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network (HERANA)
Funders: Carnegie, Ford, Norad, Rockefeller, Kresge
Research Project: Higher Education and Economic Development
in Africa (Cloete, Maassen, et al., 2012)
• Three successful (OECD) systems
◦ 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 University
◦ South Africa – Cape Town and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan
◦ Tanzania – University of Dar es Salaam
◦ Uganda – Makerere University
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The analytical premises
Higher education’s role in and contribution to development is
dependent on three inter-related factors:
1. The nature of the Pact between the university leadership, political
authorities, funders and society at large
2. The nature, strength and continuity of the Academic Core
3. The nature and management of the Connectedness between the
university and externally funded projects
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The Pact
Findings:
1. None of the 8 countries had broadly agreed on a development
model (except for Mauritius) – many distant visions
(2020/30/50).
2. Mauritius was the only country that stated upfront that
knowledge is a key driver of economic growth and that higher
education has a key role to play – instrumentalist vs engine of
development.
3. There were, however, clear signs of an emerging awareness
about the importance of the knowledge economy in all the
countries – generally stronger at the national than at the
institutional level.
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Academic Core: Input/output Indicators
1. Increased enrolments in science, engineering and technology (SET) –
AU regards SET as a development driver.
2. Increased postgraduate (PG) enrolments – knowledge economy requires
increasing numbers of workers with PG qualifications.
3. Favorable academic staff to student ratio – workload should allow for
research and PhD supervision.
4. High proportion of academic staff with PhDs – high correlation (0.82 in
South Africa) between doctorates and research output.
5. Adequate research funding per academic – and from multiple sources.
6. High graduation rates in SET fields – not only must enrolments increase,
but also graduate output.
7. Increased knowledge production (doctoral graduates) – for reproduction
of academic core, to produce academics for other universities and for
demand in other fields.
8. Increased knowledge production – research publications in ISI peerreviewed journals.
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Publications (Web of Science, 2010)
No. of publications
1516
% SET
Makerere
Ghana
Dar es Salaam
381
338
232
122
129
90
91
89
2008
2009
2010
Botswana
UCT
Dar es Salaam
Makerere
Mauritius
198
Nairobi
89
169
Ghana
45
62
107
Eduardo Mondlane
381
169
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Masters and doctoral graduates: 2008 vs 2010
1339
Ratio of masters to
doctoral enrolments
1118
Averages for 2008 to 2010
Target ratio
Cape Town
Ghana
Makerere
832
760
4.0
3.7
18.7
9.1
310
151
160
160
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Cape Town
23
Ghana
2008 Masters
2008 Doctoral
2010 Masters
2010 Doctoral
30
55
Makerere
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Academic Core and Knowledge Production
• Despite dramatic increases in masters enrolments, PhD
enrolment is growing very slowly (at Nairobi – masters grew
from 3900 to 6100; doctorates decreased from 190 to 62).
• On the output side, SET graduation rates are positive, but all
institutions (except Cape Town) have low knowledge production.
• Perverse incentive structures promote ‘triple teaching’ and
consultancies over research and doctoral supervision.
• From the weak knowledge production output indicators it seems
the academic cores are not strong enough to make a sustainable
contribution to development.
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Articulation and Connecting Projects
to the Academic Core
Articulation - direct or indirect to national development priorities
and or instructional strategic objectives
Strengthening academic core - link to teaching/curriculum
development, involve students as part of their formal training,
project reported in academic publications, link to international
academic networks
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Connectivity
• High level of ‘arbitrariness’ and fragmentation in the funding,
sustainability and connectedness of externally funded projects
• Successful projects represent high quality niches, but
disconnected inside their own university.
• Development Aid donors and government agencies often weaken
the academic core of the receiving universities through
‘projectization’, by expecting top academic staff members to
coordinate consultancy projects
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Key Findings: Pact, Academic Core, Connectivity
1. A weak Pact in which a new Knowledge Economy discourse is
developing, but it is not yet reflected in coordinated policies, nor
in a reprioritisation of resources and incentives.
2. An academic core which is continuing to be efficient in producing
undergraduates, but not doctorates and research output
3. Perverse incentive structures promote ‘triple teaching’ and
consultancies over research and doctoral supervision.
4. While many academics are involved in development related
projects many of these projects do not strengthen the academic
core, nor contribute to development in a sustainable manner.
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Basic argument (1)
1. The importance of knowledge and higher education for
sustainable development is global, but there are contextual and
regional differences.
2. What is universal is that the university is the key knowledge
institution for knowledge-generative capacity that underlies
sustainable development.
3. There are persistent attempts to depict the relationship between
knowledge and development as a direct one - to demonstrate
‘relevance’, utility, applicability and belies the deep desire to ‘do
something’ in what is frequently a parlous, or underdevelopment, situation.
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Basic argument (2)
5. In the African context, Flagship universities have a crucial role as
producers of appropriately skilled professionals, research skills,
academic staff for other institutions and as nodes for knowledge
networks.
6. Strengthening the Academic Core of the Flagship universities
could also be a driver for strengthening the national tertiary
education system.
7. It is not the university as such that needs to become integrated
with the private sector and or the community, but it is the nature
of the bridge or connection between higher education and
society that needs to be re-interpreted, and studied. One cannot
expect the linkages between various nodes (private sector,
universities, government) to be effective if the nodes themselves
are still weak!
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Suggestions
1. Development agencies should adopt the same model for the role
of higher education in their own country (engine of development).
2. Development aid, governments and institutions must pay more
attention to forging an agreement (pact) on the importance of
universities in development – booming ‘resource curse’.
3. To build capacity requires knowledge (research) about the
knowledge institutions and evidence based planning for both
institutional leadership, funders and government departments.
Part of this is the institutionalisation and analysis of system and
institutional performance indicator data.
4. In order for African as well as globally produced knowledge to
connect much more effectively to various application sites in the
African context the role of the African flagship universities as
research institutions needs to be strengthened dramatically.
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Dr Nico Cloete
[email protected]
www.chet.org.za
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