HIGHER EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT: A CRITICAL NEXUS

KEY PAPER PRESENTED TO SARUA WORKSHOP ON INVESTMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPMENT: NEW DIRECTIONS  HELD ON 5TH AUGUST 2010, UNIVERSITY OF DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA.

BY

PROF. W.S ABELI

Director of Higher Education, Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, P.O Box 9121, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

1

1. INTRODUCTION

•Prior to the financial crisis of the 1980’s, the States had the monopoly on policy,planning and provision of higher education (IIEP,2009).

•The imposition of Structural Adjustment led to decline of University educationsystem as Universities were considered as providing little or no social returns.

•Developing countries were advised to concentrate on primary, secondary andvocational education as these were the ones with high social returns.

•Since Higher education was a non priority sector, it was not considered when itcame to resource allocation (Muchie, 2009).

•This was emphasized in most Joint Assistance Strategy frameworks and PovertyReduction Strategy Papers signed between the Governments and DevelopmentPartners. I

•In the case of Tanzania, higher education was not amongst the seven prioritysectors where debt relief resources under the High Indebted Poor Countries(HIPC) policy framework were channeled to (NSGRP, 2005).

•This was indeed a tragedy as it resulted to higher education being marginalizedand getting less funding from both the Government and Development Partners

2

•It took almost 15 years for many African countries to realize that if the whole education sector was to be transformed, higher education had to be taken on board. 

This is because, in higher education that is; where teachers for secondary schools and Teacher Trainings Colleges (to train primary school teachers) are trained, where curricula for all levels are developed, where a range of leaders and decision makers are cultivated and above all, where knowledge and research for development are nurtured  (Muchie, 2009).

Reduced availability of resources (due to Structural Adjustment policies) and inability of the States to meet their obligations led to privatization and encouragement of Public‐Private Partnership in education.

Public Universities were forced to generate income internally for their survival and encouraged to enroll fee paying students.

Although PPP has positively contributed to the provision of education in the country, this type of partnership has led or is likely to lead to three tier education system; The Community schools/Colleges for the poor, Public schools/Colleges for middle class and Private schools/Colleges for the rich (IIPE, 2009).

3

Despite the involvement of the Private sector through Public‐Private Partnerships, the States are still the main financiers of higher education in most Developing countries.

Public Institutions get almost all of their operational and development funds from  the Government. In addition they supplement their incomes by charging fees to students and soliciting grants from donors and other sources. 

Private Institutions on the other hand get Government subsidies in form of tax relief on educational materials. They also get loans for developments and training for their students and staff from the Government.

Since it is now a reality that University education is  key to any country’s development, many countries are now investing in higher education in order to create knowledge and human resource required for the country’s long term developments.

4

2. UNIVERSITY EDUCATION VERSUS DEVELOPMENT

•In most cases, Development is assessed using indicators like GNP, GDP,balance of payment, external debt and excludes social indicators like politicalparameters, cultural wellbeing, income distribution and human development(Edigheji, 2009).

•Human development besides encompassing economic parameters,incorporates also quality of life, patterns of social equality and human rights.Universities being intellectual and cultural centers and centers for generatingknowledge, need to be supported through investments in order to play theirroles of bringing socio‐economic changes to the society.

•Universities as agents for bringing socio‐economic developments in thesociety (Edigheji, 2009), need also to;

5

• Train and empower students to become critical thinkers;

• Equip students with competency and skills required for socio‐economic development;

• Promote and advocate for political freedom, democracy, human rights, equity, justice and good governance;

• Produce technocrats, political and administrative leaders able to address developmental issues and  challenges facing the society;

• Produce professionals capable of planning, designing and inventing new products and solutions;

• Serve the needs of the market, the public and the surrounding Communities;

• Produce graduate entrepreneurs who will also promote social networks at the Community level;

• Work with industry to turn innovations and research outputs into commercial enterprises;

• Forge strong relationships with business community in order to secure research and investment funds.

6

• Majority of Universities in developing countries have limited partnership with business community and low capacity to turn innovations into commercial products . 

• Research funds for basic and innovations are  also limited. These together with Low enrollment of students in science and technology programmes are cited as one of the factors contributing to inability of the county to produce enough innovative and entrepreneur graduates. 

• According to Mwapachu (2010), only about 28% of higher education students in Africa are enrolled in science and technology courses. 

• Studies in SADC countries also have shown that majority of Universities have Social science faculties and very few science and engineering faculties (SARUA,2008).

• Although Universities are supposed to be the engines of change and drivers for socio‐economic and technological developments, majority of them are facing a number of challenges which are very similar (Muchie, 2009). Amongst these challenges include;

7

• Little investments and inadequate budgets set aside by Governments to run Universities;

• Competition for resources  with other more popular sectors like primary and vocational training sub sectors, health, agriculture, water and infrastructure;

• Competition for good students and academic staff with other Institutions;

• Increasing student fees due to high running cost of Universities

• Dilapidated infrastructure and aged teaching facilities;

• Brain drain to greener pastures, politics and other more paying jobs;

• Poor staff incentive packages and retention schemes;

• Aging and high  retirement rate  of senior and experienced staff;

• Few students with interest in science and technology programmes i.e., less than 22%;8

For Universities to be able to address these challenges and be relevant to the society, they have to be responsive to the needs of the society, play more public roles and proactively engage with the state (Edigheji, 2009). 

The more the public understands and appreciates the roles of Universities in socio‐economic developments, the more the chances of Universities getting more public funds.

• More students enrolled in social sciences, management and business programmes (70%);

• Lack of qualified teaching and technical staff;

• Pressure to produce more graduates especially in the fields of education, agriculture  and health;

• General feeling from the public that Universities are producing job seekers rather than job creators due to lack of practical and entrepreneurship skills

• High dependence on external donors especially for Research and Innovation funds;

• Gender imbalance especially in science and technology programmes;

9

3. HIGHER EDUCATION IN TANZANIA

3.1 Tertiary and higher education

• Tertiary education is defined as post secondary education offered byUniversities, Non University higher learning institutions and TeacherTraining Colleges from the level of Certificate, Ordinary Diploma,Postgraduate Diploma, Advanced Diploma or Higher Diploma, Bachelordegrees, Masters and PhD degrees.

• Higher education on the other hand is defined as education leading tothe award of Advanced Diploma, Bachelor degrees, Masters,Postgraduate Diplomas and PhD degrees.

10

3.2 Students enrollment

•Currently there are 22 Universities and 10 University Colleges in the country offeringboth Tertiary and Higher education. Out of these, 8 are Public Universities and 14 arePrivate Universities, 3 are Public University Colleges and 7 are Private UniversityColleges.

•Although Private Institutions (allowed to operate 15 years ago) outnumber Publicinstitutions, the number of students in Private Universities and Colleges total only35,123 or 29.5% of the total 118,951 students (tertiary) enrolled in all Universities andUniversity Colleges in 2009/10.

•Undergraduate students accounted to about 81% of the total students, whilePostgraduates accounted to about 9% and non degree students about 10% (BEST, 2010).

•During the same period, a total of 50,173 students were enrolled in Non degree higherlearning institutions to take Certificates, Ordinary Diplomas, Advanced Diplomas,Postgraduate Diplomas and Degree courses.

•In addition, another 36,648 students were enrolled in Teacher Training Colleges to takeCertificate and Diploma courses in education.

•Therefore, the total number of students enrolled in Universities, Non University higherlearning Institutions and Teacher Training Colleges to pursue tertiary education in2009/10 was 205,772 (BEST, 2010). In terms of Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER), this is6.4% in tertiary education.

11

The total number of students pursuing higher education in Tanzania in 2009/10 was 128,240 (107,300 in Universities and 20,940 in Non University Higher learning Institutions). 

If about 4,000 students are added to take care of those studying higher education outside the country, the GER in higher education comes to about 4.2%. This is a significant increase when compared to the situation five years ago as shown  in Table 1 below.

Table 1. GER in higher education for the past 5 years

12

Year 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10

GER 1.22 1.47 2.2 3.0 4.1

3.3 University outputs/graduates

• This year (2010), Universities and University colleges are expected toproduce about 20,686 graduates. About 12,120 will be in the field ofeducation, 666 in the field of Agricultural sciences, 731 in the field ofhealth sciences and the rest in other fields like engineering, law,commerce, management, and social sciences.

• The number of University graduates next year is expected to to be over30,000. All these graduates are expected to be absorbed to the economyand contribute significantly to the improvement of the service andproduction sectors.

13

In the last five years there has been an increased student enrollment in higher education. This increase is attributed to;

• Increased number of Universities and University colleges, i.e. from 22 to 32;

• Expansion and introduction of new programmes in the existing and new Universities;

• Establishment of University of Dodoma in 2007. The  current number of students 15,142 and in 2015, the number is expected to be 40,000;

• Access to higher education student loans i.e., from 42,729 to 72,035 per year;

• Successful implementations of SEDP phase I which has increased the number of Secondary schools from 1,291 to over 4,000 and students enrollment from 630,245 to 1,566,685.;

• Increased public awareness on the importance of investing in education and acceptance  of higher education cost sharing policy by the Public. 

14

3.4 Challenges faced by Universities and measures being taken

• Most of the challenges facing Tanzanian Universities are more or less similar to  those facing other Universities in Developing countries. Amongst  these challenges include;

3.4.1 Inadequate funding;• Although for the past 5 years the annual budgets set aside for higher

education have ranged between 21‐26% of the total education budget(BEST, 2010), most Universities get only about 20‐30% of what theynormally request annually.

• This has retarded Institutional developments and led to dilapidation ofinfrastructures due to lack of repairs and regular maintenance. While theGovernment is looking for the solution for this problem, (for examplethrough the recently developed HEDP, Universities are encouraged togenerate and compete for more funding from other sources.

15

3.4.2 Inadequate qualified staff

• Increased number of Institutions and academic programmes has led to increasednumber of students from 37,667 five years ago to 118, 951 in 2009/10. This hasconsequently put pressure or demand for more teaching staff in both Public andPrivate Universities.

• For example, currently there is a demand for over 6,000 staff but there are only4,722 teaching staff i.e., 3,384 in Public Universities and 1,338 in PrivateUniversities (DHE,2010).

• Majority of staff in Universities (60‐70%) are in the ranks of Lectureship andbelow while new Universities depend heavily on part time lecturers from fewPublic Universities.

• This type of staff profile threatens the quality of education being offered by ourUniversities. Only few Universities are offering Postgraduate programmes due tolack of senior staff especially at PhD level. Where they are offered they take toolong due to heavy workloads on supervisors.

• The Government is aware of this problem and as a short term measure, theGovernment has allowed Universities to recruit new staff both internally andexternally, train staff internally and externally and set aside staff training funds(e.g, in 2010/11, $1.3 million). Universities have also been allowed to recruit oncontracts retired Professors.

16

3.4.3 Dilapidated infrastructure and aged teaching facilities.

• Most of the infrastructure in all Universities (with the exception of UDOM) isover 30‐40 years. The same applies to teaching and learning materials or facilitieswhich are aged and outdated.

• Recent survey shows that about $414 million are required to rehabilitate 10Public Universities and another $452 million for new infrastructure;

• Through Higher Education Development Programme (2010), the Governmentplans to rehabilitate and put up new infrastructure in order to accommodate theincreased number of students and new academic programmes in Universities.

3.4.4 Increasing student fees• Due to high running cost, Universities are forced to increase student fees.

Students in both Public and Private Universities are given loans by theGovernment in order to meet their training cost.

• Strategic programmes which include science, technology and education are givenpriority in issuing loans to students. As a way of encouraging and attracting morestudents to take science programmes, students are given 100% loans. So farabout 130,000 students have benefitted from student loans since 2005/06. Thisexcludes 48,236 who were issued loans between 1994/95 and 2004/05.

17

3.4.5 Aging and retirement of senior staff• Due to freezing of employment in all Public sectors between late 1980s and early

2000s, most of the Universities are now experiencing a big gap between thenewly recruited young staff and the aging senior staff.

• Most of the senior staff (over 80%) are above 50 years and in some institutionslike UDSM, over 70% of their full Professors are on contracts after retirement.Junior staff (below the rank of a Lecturer) constitute 60‐70% of the total staffmembers (Abeli, 2010).

• Universities will have to continue recruiting, train and mentor the newlyrecruited staff for at least another5 years before this gap is filled.

3.4.6 Brain drain and poor retention schemes• Low salaries and unattractive incentive packages have resulted to some staff

taking up employment in other sectors internally and externally. For example atSokoine University of Agriculture, over the past 20 years, the Institution lost over90 senior staff to other Institutions while at the UDSM, over 50 senior staff areon leave without pay (Abeli,2010).

• Although salaries for University staff have relatively been increased, more needto be done to attract and retain more qualified staff. Improvement of staffretirement packages is one of the recent measures taken by the Government toaddress this problem of staff exodus.

18

3.4.7 Inadequate Research funds• Because of poor links with industries and under developed Private sector, almost

all Universities depend on external donors for Research funds.

• Realizing the importance and the contribution of Research to the development,the Government has decided to set aside 1% of its GDP for research anddevelopment. Universities being the main actors in this field are expected to bethe main beneficiaries of this fund which will be accessed on competitive basis.

• Universities  also encouraged  to compete for Regional research funds like Vicres

3.4.8 Gender imbalance • With the current average female ratio of 35% in higher education, gender

imbalance is more pronounced in science and technology programmes.

• Measures being taken to address this problem include awareness campaigns insecondary schools to encourage female students to take science subjects, takingaffirmative actions like lowering cut‐off points for female students duringadmissions, conducting pre‐entry programmes to science female students whodo not meet the minimum University admission requirements and awarding bestfemale science students with prices.

19

3.4.9 Weak linkages amongst Institutions

Weak links amongst Institutions normally lead to programmes offeredbeing un‐ necessary expensive and resources being under utilized.

The Government through the World Bank supported Science andTechnology Higher Education Project (STHEP) plans to connect all 128higher education and research Institutions in the country into a networkso that they can communicate and share resources in a more efficientway.

20

• 4.0 HIGHER EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT IN TANZANIA

For Tanzania to be a middle income country with diversified and semi industrial economy, higher education is key and critical.

Higher education is necessary if problems related to poverty, people’s well being, infrastructure, sanitation, diseases, health, water, environment, food security, agriculture and governance are to be  solved. 

Higher education graduates produced each year have been used and continue to be absorbed in various sectors of production in order to improve services and productivity. 

Amongst the sectors where higher education has improved productivity and service delivery include;

21

4.1. Agriculture

• Graduates in agriculture with higher education have been able toformulate agricultural policies and programmes aimed at improvingproductivity and marketing of agricultural products.

• Such policies have also led to the development of better and improvedcrop and animal breeds, industrial processing and value addition toagricultural products and improved design of tools and equipment whichhave contributed to reduced stress and workload to farmers.

• Developed and implemented agricultural programmes has not onlyimproved productivity and farmer’s income but has contributed topoverty reduction and economic development in general.

• Implementation of the recently inaugurated Kilimo Kwanza Programmewhich aims at improving the current agricultural growth rate from 4 to8% will indeed need and depend on trained agricultural experts withhigher education.

.22

4.2. Engineering

Engineering graduates have designed and supervised construction works ranging from highways, dams, bridges, mining, irrigation, machines, buildings to industries. Proper design of these infrastructures has led to low unit cost of production, improved productivity and environmental sustainability. 

The success of the Manufacturing industry whose contribution to the national economy is supposed to increase from 8.6 to 15% will depend on the number of trained and skilled labor force with higher education

23

4.3. Education• Universities are expected to produce 12,120 teachers this year. Most of these

graduates will be absorbed in Secondary schools and few in Teacher Trainingcolleges.

• Their main contributions to the country’s development will be to prepareSecondary school leavers to access higher education and enable Teacher Trainingcolleges produce more Primary school teachers.

• The more teachers available, the more the chances of improving GER at all levelsof education (106% Primary, 50% Secondary, and 10% Higher education) by 2015.

• The higher the GER especially for higher education, the more the country feelscomfortable and ready to join and participate actively in Regional cooperations

4.4. Health• Medical doctors and other health practitioners have been and continue to cure

and do more research on diseases like Malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS whichcontribute significantly to poverty and low productivity.

• With more investments and trained personnel in the Health sector, the country isexpected to have a healthy population capable of producing and contributing toeconomic development.

• In order to attract and encourage more students to take health programmes, theGovernment gives grants to all students pursuing medicine and dentistry degreeprogrammes and 100% loans to other health programmes. 24

4.5 Business• Graduates in economics, business, management, accountancy and commerce

normally draw up economic, business and management plans which are used tomanage the economy sustainably.

• Financial institutions headed by higher education graduates have and continue to playsignificant roles in controlling the economy even during the global financial crisis.

4.6. Law• Lawyers, advocates and magistrates interpret laws, monitor the judicial system and

offer legal services to the needy in order to ensure fair and timely justice. They alsopromote and defend human rights and democracy in the country.

4.7 Research and technology• All higher education institutions, research and innovation centers require their staff to

have minimum higher education. Experience shows that the higher the level ofeducation the more the number of publications, research outputs and innovations.

• The Government has to set aside 1% of its GDP for Research and Development sinceknowledge and technology are considered to be the main drivers of economic growthin this era of science and technology.

• Starting this year, the Government intends to start ranking and rewardingUniversities with best researchoutputs.

25

4.8  Decision makers

• Since good leaders have to be visionary, knowledgeable and make informeddecisions, higher education is normally used as a key criteria for appointingleaders in high decision making organs.

• With this in mind, in his first Cabinet of 64 Ministers in 2006, President Kikweteappointed almost all (91%) of his Ministers with higher education. 85% of themhad first degrees and advance diplomas, 70% Masters, 25% PhDs and 15% wereUniversity dons (Maelezo, 2006).

• Likewise, in the outgoing Parliament (2005‐2010), out of 323 members ofParliament, about 75% had higher education (PhDs (11%), Masters (23%),Bachelors/Advance Diploma/Postgraduate Diploma (41%)).

• Although there could have been other factors which contributed to the goodperformance of these two decision making organs, higher education is definitelyone of the key ones.

4.9 Governance• With higher education this has led to good leadership and good governance it

which has resulted to peace, democracy and harmony in the country. Goodgovernance and peace also has led to both local and foreign investors investingin the country and thus resulting to creation of more jobs to the local population.

26

5. CONCLUSION

• As noted already, Tanzania is amongst the countries with low GER inboth higher and tertiary education.

• It is the 114th out of 132 countries in terms of Knowledge Index (KI) scale.

• KI which for Tanzania is 1.4 (out of 10) measures the level of education,the use of knowledge, innovations and application of ICT in productionand service delivery sectors. (World Bank, 2008)

• Since Universities’ main role is to generate knowledge which is used ininnovations and in ICT, more resources need to be invested or directedto Universities if Tanzania is to improve its ranking in terms ofknowledge, innovation and ICT application.

27

Realizing the importance of Higher education in development, of lately, higher education has been given priority in almost  all National Development programmes and in the Ruling Party Election Manifestos.

Higher education for example has been given prominence in Kilimo Kwanza which intends to transform the current peasantry agriculture to modern commercial agriculture; National Development Vision 2025 aimed at transforming Tanzania into a middle income country by 2025 and National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction (MKUKUTA) aimed at improving income and poverty reduction.

For these programmes to be implemented successfully, they need good and committed leaders as well as skilled and well educated manpower to the level of higher education. 

28

• Development of Higher Education Development Programme (2010) intends toaddress most of the current challenges facing Universities so that they can playtheir roles effectively and efficiently.

• The Government realizes that higher education, research and knowledge are keyand essential for the country’s sustainable development, wellbeing and dynamictransformation. Together they constitute what could be termed as productivepower to all other sectors. (Muchie, 2009).

• In other words, for this country to fulfill its goal of becoming a middle incomecountry by 2025, it has to invest in higher education as the theme of thisworkshop advocates.

• The choice of the topic, the timing and the choice of the venue (UDSM) couldnot have been better than what you have done.

• The Government of Tanzania extends its gratitude to SARUA organizers forchoosing Tanzania to host this year’s workshop. Thank you very much and wehope you will enjoy your stay here and come again.

29

6. REFERENCES

1. Abeli, W.S (2010). Rewarding and Retaining Lectures in Higher Learning Institutions. Unpublished paper presented to ANAFE Regional Workshop of Vice Chancellors, Principals and Deans held on 24 May 2010, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.7p.

2. BEST (2010). Basic Education Statistics in Tanzania. Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, 2006‐2010 National data, United Republic of Tanzania. Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 123p.

3. DHE (2010). Directorate of Higher Education Handbook. Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, United Republic of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 56p.

4. Edigheji, O (2009). Constructing democratic Developmental States in Africa. DEVELOPMENT and its Implications for Higher Education in Southern Africa. SARUA Leadership Dialogue Series Vol1 No3 2009, South Africa. pp63‐74

5. HEDP (2010). Higher Education Development Programme:2010‐2015. Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, United Republic of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. 76p 

30

6. IIEP (2009). UNESCO International Institute for Education Planning. IIEPNewsletter, Vol. XXVII No 3. September –November 2009. Paris, France.

7. Maelezo (2006). The Cabinet. Tanzania Information Services. United Republic ofTanzania, Dare s Salaam. 65p.

8. Muchie, M (2009). Higher Education, Research and Knowledge for AfricanIntegration. The Challenges of Regional Integration and its implication for HigherEducation. SARUA Leadership Dialogue Series, Vol1 No 2 2009. South Africa. pp50‐61.

9. Mwapachu, J (2010). The University of the future; Perspectives for Tanzania.Unpublished paper presented to Higher Education Forum held at Naura SpringsHotel, between 11‐14 May 2010, Arusha, Tanzania.

10. SARUA (2008). Towards a Common Future. Higher Education in the SADCRegion; Research findings from four SARUA studies. Study Series 2008. Wits, SouthAfrica.

31