GRADUATING TOWARDS THE TERTIARY COLLAPSE

IT is graduation season across many of our tertiary institutions and while we congratulate all those who have worked hard for their achievements, one cannot ignore the trials and tribulations behind those beaming smiles of success that light up graduation day.

It is evident that graduands are gradually finding it harder to grind their way through local tertiary institutions as inadequate funding of the institutions continues to compromise the quality of the programmes on offer.
The Minister of Education Dr Phineus Magagula, who has a mandate to deliver free primary education, adequate secondary and high schools to satisfy the growing primary school population, while also ensuring access to institutions of higher learning for all who qualify, is far from achieving these goals. He should be a very worried man when key institutions under his watch seem to be crumbling brick by brick, day by day.

These are institutions responsible for ensuring we have a better educated citizenry tomorrow. Most recently they have been asked to put their academic qualities together to help set up the SADC University. A tall order indeed, given that they can barely keep themselves afloat.

They say desperate times call for desperate measures, which rings true for the University of Swaziland which has decided to put up the land upon which it is built as collateral to raise money for its business plans. The institution has registered a Holding Company PTY LTD to manage all the university’s business initiatives and will soon be appointing the board of directors.
This, according to the Vice Chancellor Dr Cisco Magagula, is part of a 2016-2021 Strategic Plan and vision to become the ‘University of Choice in Africa.’

The strategic initiatives include; upscaling fund-raising through the UNISWA Foundation; providing, at a fee, consultancy and training through the Consultancy and Training Centre (CTC); offering, at a fee, non-credit short-courses, and credit courses in the evenings and during long vacations; engaging in commercial farming; and commercialising some of the UNISWA assets.

We’ve just heard that it had 124 graduands less than last year due to the reduction of government scholarships. This, despite the fact that enrolment grew by seven per cent and there are plans to raise this number to 8 000 students from the current 6 700.
One hasn’t had a chance to read through the strategy but who can blame them for trying to survive in an environment that clearly suggests they ought to swim or drown.

The number of universities in Swaziland is increasing and more colleges are in the process of transforming into universities.  However, this increase is hardly being matched by the desired scholarships needed to make it sustainable for them.
For instance, we now have a medical university that is an essential institution for a country that has to produce medical practitioners in ways that could drastically reduce the high cost of overseas scholarships for such programmes, and ensure we have enough doctors and specialists.

Government had great appetite for this project initially, having calculated the benefits. Agreements were signed and this made the project viable. However, there suddenly appears total lack of commitment by government to take full advantage of this initiative as financial support for this institution has dwindled sharply.

One could expect that the minister, who was part of the team that brought the university to life, would wish to see his dream become a reality under his tenure. What went wrong Sir?
The Swaziland College of Technology is also in the process of transformation but not without glitches with their partnership with Vaal University.
Government stands accused of not sufficiently funding this transformation and students were in protest once again this week.

Limkokwing students continue to have running battles with their administration over the funding issues that have seen experienced lecturers depart and programmes not sufficiently funded.
The Southern Africa Nazarene University has also endured financial troubles in recent times, all related to underfunding.

All this flies in the face of government’s talk of meeting Vision 2022 targets of building more universities and increasing access for students. By the look of things, it would appear government is driving all these institutions to privatise.
This wouldn’t be such a bad idea as government has too many parastatals to subvent anyway and has to find ways to cut this number down because it can hardly keep up with payments.

What will most likely follow with our tertiary institutions is the commercialisation of the scholarship fund. In fact this has been suggested in the past.
It all then boils down to whether the business model adopted by the University of Swaziland could work for all the other troubled tertiary institutions that rely on government subventions? Fact is, they simply don’t have a choice.
 

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