The study is also Mr Amutuhaire’s December 2024 dissertation for his PhD from the . It is rare in terms of its lens, regional subject matter, and observations about the current and potential shape of international student mobility (ISM) in the three countries.

Today, we will focus on Mr Amutuhaire’s paper and what it suggests for the future of student mobility from – and to – East Africa. Stay tuned for a follow-up article that looks more broadly at what is driving student flows in the region.

Methodology

The study report was informed by quantitative research (a survey of international students in two Ugandan universities, Makerere University and Kampala International University) and by a panel of in-depth interviews with students, institutional staff, staff from Uganda’s higher education regulatory agencies, and a senior immigration officer. In addition, it relies on an extensive literature review.

Unique mobility patterns

Underlying student mobility trends in the three countries are a host of historical, economic, and demographic factors. In brief:

• Uganda is the most balanced in terms of inbound/outbound mobility;
• Rwanda sends many students abroad and hosts relatively few international students;
• Burundi is also mostly a sending market, though it attracts some students from Rwanda and DRC (Democratic Republic of the Congo).

The following excerpt from the paper’s conclusion offers a summary of what drives international student mobility in the three countries:

“Uganda has internationalized its HE [higher education] sector primarily by attracting international students from other countries to its institutions. This has required Uganda to improve the quality of its HE offerings, particularly to expand the number of academic programs in universities. These actions have been complemented by lower tuition fees, a comparatively secure environment, the language policy, and the historical aspect of MU [Makerere University] being a high-quality institution that trained some past regional presidents – all of which have been additional advantages for the university and the country.”

Rwanda puts more emphasis on outbound, rather than inbound ISM. This relates to the country’s long-term absence of a robust HE system, due to political instabilities and the genocide that destroyed social structures. Outbound ISM possibilities were adapted to solve human resource challenges amidst a weak HE system; for example, the government provides scholarships to students to study in foreign countries. The country’s HE system is yet to amass the capacity to meet the needs of all students, especially regarding quality staff and the number of academic programs on offer. These issues and the change in the country’s language policy from French to English encourage outbound, rather than inbound ISM.

Burundi experienced a high rate of outbound ISM in the 1970s when political instabilities weakened the country’s HE system and encouraged the extent of brain drain. The brain drain and a weak education system worsened as qualifications from Burundi’s HEIs lost global recognition, and its graduates could not compete globally. The country adopted changes in 2011 to improve the quality of HE and made it more compatible with other systems worldwide. Consequently, Burundi has attracted international students from Rwanda and DRC. As the HE system became more compatible with those in the rest of the world, students from Burundi can now study efficiently in other countries. However, there is still a high rate of outbound ISM in Burundi since the country’s education language policy (still primarily French) puts it at a disadvantage.”

The future of mobility

Central to Mr Amutuhaire’s research is the concept of the Global South and Global North. Mr Amutuhaire emphasises that these terms describe much more than relative geography. They also represent countries’ relative power and wealth, with the North having more wealth and economic advancement than the South (i.e., low- or middle-income countries in Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America, or the Caribbean). The power imbalance is evident when we look at the shape of global and intra-regional mobility.

Brain drain – from the South to the North, and from more challenged African countries to more prosperous/stable African countries – has been a major factor historically and persists to this day, as Eastern Africans emigrate to countries for education and economic opportunities.

Mr Amutuhaire argues that African countries must:

• Adopt student mobility practices – and create official internationalisation strategies – that do not exacerbate the challenges of South-to-North ISM;
• Deepen cooperation and agreements within the region.

“Smart internationalisation”

He points to “” a term coined by , the founding director of the International Network for Higher Education in Africa (INHEA) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa and founder of the Higher Education Forum for Africa, Asia, and Latin America (HEFAALA).

Professor Tefera argues that traditional concepts of internationalisation are Eurocentric/Western and do not benefit the Global South because they are not relevant to the economic and cultural contexts in Africa. He proposes that “smart internationalisation strategies make the process locally focused, though with an international flavour.”

Going forward, Mr Amutuhaire says it is necessary to explore whether nations recruiting students from Africa – or setting up transnational education partnerships – are acting in ways beneficial to African countries. Too often, he notes, there is too much reliance on the economic rationale for recruitment, for example, the much higher tuition fees international students are often required to pay.

Mr Amutuhaire advocates for more strategic collaboration between African states to establish intra-African ISM aimed at diminishing – not replicating – the challenges associated with south-to-north ISM. His paper highlights the importance of ensuring students from Africa, and the Global South in general, benefit as much from study abroad and TNE as the countries and institutions that host them.

Stay tuned for more articles exploring this crucial idea and the East African context for mobility.

For additional background, please see:

• “Inbound and outbound trends for South Africa, Egypt, and Morocco”

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Uganda boasts 29 universities serving about 200,000 students, with 30,000 graduating annually. Makerere University issues 30% of those annual qualifications and is ranked by  among the top five universities in Africa. Much of the Ugandan higher education market is driven by foreign students, and the schools themselves have adopted more internationalised curricula in recent years.

There are about 16,000 foreign students enrolled in Ugandan universities. Most choose Kampala International University, followed by Makerere University and Bugema University. The bulk are from Kenya, though Uganda has become a hub for students from all of East Africa. The main attraction for these students are the low fees for foreigners, a relatively safe environment, and the wide-ranging subjects available for study. For Kenyans, an extra enticement is the similarity of the education system to their home country in terms of standards and quality.

As we noted in an earlier report, interregional cooperation within the East African Community (EAC) has boosted access to education and mobility between the five member states of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. A 2012 bill signed by the Inter University Council for East Africa () furthered the trend. However, competition still exists, and Ugandan universities have been among the most aggressive recruiters in the region, another factor boosting inbound mobility.

In terms of outbound mobility, the latest UNESCO statistics indicate that roughly 5,200 Ugandan students are currently enrolled overseas. The total has been rising steadily since 2006, and has doubled over the past decade. Students prefer the UK and US, choosing those two destinations in almost equal numbers, with South Africa the third most popular option. In general, English-speaking destinations fare well, but countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and Italy have also proven to be popular among Ugandan students.

şÚÁĎąŮÍř Monitor recently spoke about the Uganda education market with Robert Wagubi of . In the video excerpts that follow, Mr Wagubi offers his considerable insights on trends in Uganda and East Africa.

In our first interview segment below, he discusses Uganda’s investment in education, local demand for education, and points towards improved economies in the East African region as drivers for bringing internationally educated Ugandans back home after their studies.

Uganda is one of the youngest countries in the world, with a median age of 15.6. Like other African countries, there is a skills gap that often results in university graduates remaining unemployed, but this is an especially pressing issue in a country whose youth are a higher percentage of the total population than anywhere else in the world. Estimates of youth unemployment range from 62% to 83%, the highest in Africa.

Even so, state expenditures on higher education have been low. Spending is slated to increase in 2016/17, driven in part by a boost in teacher salaries. Even more funding may be needed, however. A recent study showed that Ugandan universities, on the whole, operate on a below-cost-per-student basis, a loss that makes improving education outcomes difficult. In a related development,  showed that 63% of Ugandan graduates were not properly prepared for the employment market.

However, during President Yoweri Museveni’s long rule, Uganda has made progress in some areas. The World Bank’s Uganda Poverty Assessment 2016 says the country cut poverty by nearly two thirds between 2006 and 2013. This shift is one of the highest in all of sub-Saharan Africa during that time period. How much of this is a result of policy is in debate, however the government has invested in infrastructure and the report credits government trade policies with making a difference.

Rising income levels mean more Ugandans are earning tertiary degrees. But with many of these coming from private universities that arose to fill the country’s large capacity gap, academic standards and quality controls remain areas of concern. For example, in 2007 Kampala International University (KIU) began awarding PhDs in humanities but didn’t have permission to do so from the Uganda National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) until two years later. In 2013 NCHE declared all of the 66 doctorates KIU had awarded the previous two years invalid link to. And in 2014, five universities, including Makerere University, were reprimanded for teaching courses without applying for full accreditation from the NCHE.

These problems have been addressed by the government, and tertiary degrees remain respected by Ugandan employers. Demand for them is soaring. Business owners prefer tertiary graduates for all jobs, and degree holders are routinely hired for positions that could be filled by vocational and technical graduates. Ugandan youth are well aware of this fierce competition for the best positions, and the idea of attaining a tertiary degree is now normalised among not only them, but among their parents and in the wider culture as well.

Students who take the extra step of completing an international qualification have an advantage in this competitive job market. In our second interview segment below, Mr Wagubi talks about effective international education marketing strategies for Uganda, focusing on Canada’s recruiting success there. He makes the point that Canada, which is a top ten destination for Ugandan students, may have created a blueprint for marketing in the region.

The Ugandan government has implemented programmes designed to funnel students toward areas needed by labour market. In 2008, it passed the Business Technical Vocational Education and Training Act, and has since increased investment and sharpened focus on skills training via its BTVET Strategic Plan 2011-2020. Today, 90 districts have at least one BTVET facility equipped to provide training, and enrolment has topped 150,000 students. The government intends to shortly have BTVET schools in all 112 districts of the country.

The government also created the Higher Education Student’s Financing Board (HESFB) in 2014 to increase access to higher education for the rising number of needy students earning the Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education (UACE) awarded to secondary school graduates. The programme is aimed at students who don’t receive state scholarships and can’t raise cash for self-sponsorship. It also aims to address the problem of tertiary participation rates that hover around 6%.

How the state budget is applied to higher education moving forward will likely be affected by the most significant event in Uganda in recent years: the discovery of major oil deposits in 2010. While the announcement generated excitement, the example of Nigeria looms large over discussions about how to manage this potential source of wealth. Nigeria’s oil has brought prosperity but challenges as well, particularly in the form of damage to traditional industries such as fishing and farming.

Uganda vows not to make the same mistakes. President Museveni has asserted that no revenue will be spent on consumables, but rather on areas that boost national growth. The country of Norway – one of international oil’s biggest success stories – is assisting Uganda in various areas. The Ugandan government plans to funnel oil profits into a national fund similar to Norway’s, and President Museveni speaks of the oil industry supplementing rather than dominating the economy. According to some assessments, Ugandan oil could double the state budget if successfully managed.

In our third and final interview segment below, Mr Wagubi notes that Uganda’s burgeoning oil and gas industry is where jobs for engineering graduates are opening up, and points to other in-demand degrees in Uganda and in East Africa as a whole. He also offers useful tips for educators working in the Ugandan market.

For additional background on East Africa, please see:

• “New study highlights shifting patterns of African student mobility“
• “The employability challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa“
• “Demand for job skills heating up in Africa“

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A survey exploring the foreign investment potential and attractiveness of the overall African market for investors, EY’s attractiveness survey Africa 2015 – Making choices, found that Africa holds the #4 spot in the world in terms of perceived attractiveness as an investment destination, behind Oceania, North America, and Asia – but ahead of Europe, Latin America, Central America, and the Middle East.

Survey respondents who are already investing in Africa were far more likely to find Africa attractive than those who are not. Among that first group, Africa emerges as the single most attractive market to invest in, ahead of all other regions. But even that group, as bullish as it is about Africa, considers Africa home to highly challenging labour force deficiencies. One of the most significant issues they face on a daily basis is a skills and education shortage among local African populations.

Many workers, but not many with the right skills

PwC estimates that by 2040, , ahead of even India and China. But as of today, it is a labour force with some serious skills and education challenges.

For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) the secondary school enrolment rate is only 40%, and only 7% of students continue to tertiary education. UNESCO predicts as well that Africa will be home to half of the world’s illiterate people in the years ahead. Experts see these factors as important roadblocks to further skills development that will hinder the continent’s economic and social development going forward.

Perhaps it comes as no surprise then that the EY survey also found employers are having trouble recruiting workers with the right skills today. Seven in ten African firms surveyed by EY are recruiting to support planned growth yet “vacancies are taking longer to fill and employee turnover is high.” The report concludes in part that:

“African governments need to reshape curricula at secondary and tertiary institutions to ensure they meet the needs of the labour market. More technical and vocational training programmes are required to equip African workers with high-quality skills that business needs.”

Some of the most in-demand skills are in the technical and professional categories. Over a third of companies said their need for technical and professional skills was likely to grow over the next 12 months.

Education, yes, but also company-led training

The sheer scale and breadth of current education requirements, coupled with the dramatic growth projections for many African economies in the years ahead, suggests a wide range of student recruitment and offshore delivery opportunities in selected African markets.

Another EY survey, Sub-Saharan Africa talent trends and practices, found that local employees with relevant skills training are increasingly mobile, since there is so much competition in the market that it makes it easy to move from job to job. In addition, it found that companies are having trouble filling vacant positions quickly enough. The result is that they are becoming increasingly reliant on expatriate workers, who constitute a ready supply of skills for specialist positions.

Ideally, the number of local workers with suitable skills would increase to the point where the demand for expatriate workers would decline, with the effect of also bolstering spending (and stability) in local economies.

EY’s Attractiveness Survey Africa 2015 advises:

“To reduce overdependence on expatriate workers, companies must foster skills transfer from expatriates to local staff.”

And to have local staff remain in their jobs, the survey’s authors emphasise the need for appropriate human resource strategies:

“There is a rising war for talent in Sub-Saharan Africa. As companies gear up for growth, the demand for skills needed to support such ambitions has increased, and is being matched by greater mobility in the labour market…Clearly, organisations need to become more deliberate in how they plan for, attract and retain staff. To secure the talent they seek, they will need to make training and career development part of their brand, developing processes to monitor and reward employee performance and ensure management continuity.”

Local knowledge is key, both for students and companies

To operate successfully in any international market, foreign entrants need deep local knowledge and involvement, not only for commercial reasons but also for sustainability (e.g., acceptance by populations and governments). Foreign companies are increasingly considering this concept, also known as “shared value,” but some argue that higher education in Africa is actually becoming less “local,” with possibly troubling repercussions.

At the 14th General Assembly of CODESRIA (the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa), Dr Ramola Ramtohul, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Pretoria in South Africa, . She said:

“Whereas the internationalisation of higher education in Africa is widening access to tertiary education and is often seen as a tool towards political stability, democracy, peace and development, it also carries risks of brain drain, which has increased mobility of professional and skilled workers leaving African universities.”

Professor Ibrahim Oanda Ogachi of Kenyatta University, Kenya, added that this internationalisation “… had stunted the ability of African universities to take off and effectively tackle the developmental needs of African society.”

The discussion also touched on the one-way mobility characterising internationalisation in Africa, with African students going abroad to pursue higher degrees and very few foreign students coming to Africa “largely because of the perceived low quality of academic programmes, and poor institutional infrastructure and facilities.”

There was a sense at the conference that the current state of higher education internationalisation in Africa is a colonial legacy, one that may even be impeding African countries in joining the global knowledge economy. This, plus the aforementioned tendency of companies to hire expatriates to fill specialised jobs, may not be a sustainable direction for a continent poised for enduring growth.

Yet for now, families in Africa that can afford international and/or private education are rushing to it, eager to keep their children out of state schools that some say “have left millions with skills suitable only for manual labour.”

Reuters notes that this recognition is also driving demand for better education at home:

“Rising incomes among the continent’s vast population have created a pool of customers willing to pay for better schooling for their children. That in turn is driving an explosion in education businesses that means Africa could soon rival Asian countries like India as the next big hit with school investors.”

As we have reported previously, this demand is leading to a rapid expansion of private education, including school openings by international providers or joint ventures with local partners. Private schools account for 10–40% of K-12 education in Africa, with key markets such as Kenya and Nigeria at the upper end of that range. Observers expect this demand to strengthen in the years ahead as further economic growth takes hold across the continent and as the middle class continues to expand.

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These are some of the findings of the Pew Research Center’s . The study updates a similar effort from 2013, which highlighted the strong levels of web usage and engagement for social and mobile users. The findings for the 2014 edition are drawn from in-person interviews with 36,619 people across 32 emerging and developing countries conducted from March 17 to June 5, 2014. The results for those 32 countries – including significant education markets such as China, India, Nigeria, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, and Mexico – have been benchmarked against a related Pew Center telephone survey of 1,002 Americans, also conducted in 2014.

The study’s high-level findings provide a compact overview of Internet access in developing and emerging economies, along with important insights as to how people access and use the Internet in each country.

For example, the following graphic illustrates the percentage of the population in each country who access the Internet at least occasionally or own a smartphone (as smartphone users, practically speaking, are also Internet users).

Those who access the Internet at least occasionally or own a smartphone within the 32 countries in the 2014 Global Attitudes study. Source: Pew Research Center

Do some of those numbers look lower than you would expect? If so, it is probably because you spend a lot of time talking to students. The Pew study points out that Internet usage is highly concentrated within younger demographics in developing and emerging economies, particularly among those with a high school education or higher and particularly among those who can speak or read English.

The following table summarises the variances in Internet usage for these factors, and, as you will see, they are quite striking in some cases. (Please note that some table cells are left empty for some countries due to insufficient sample size for the characteristic in question.)

Internet usage by age, education, and English ability among the 32 countries in the 2014 Global Attitudes study. Source: Pew Research Center

These findings make intuitive sense in that the 18-to-34-year-old demographic came of age during a period of dramatic technological change, including the emergence of the Internet and the widespread adoption of mobile devices. In addition to these factors, and, as was the case in last year’s global survey, the 2014 study also finds a close correlation between Internet usage and income. Simply put, “Richer countries in terms of gross domestic product per capita have more Internet users among the adult population compared with poorer nations.”

Also echoing last year’s study, Pew finds that Internet users in developing and emerging economies are highly engaged socially. Staying in touch with friends and family and engagement with social media remain the leading ways in which they like to use the Internet.

This point reinforces an important aspect of communicating with secondary school and college-age Internet users: they are highly engaged socially and those social channels in turn are an important source of information and product or service recommendations. A recent post from NewBrand Analytics makes the point concisely:

“A study of millennials [that is, those born between 1980 and 2000] states that 95% of respondents say friends are their most credible source for information when making a purchase. Additionally, 98% are more likely to engage with posts by friends about a brand versus a post by the brand itself. Therefore, an effective method to get millennials loyal to your brand is to get other millennials talking online.”

Following on from the importance of this highly socialised exchange, Pew also finds that searching for more practical news and information is the next major category of Internet usage in developing and emerging economies. “For Internet users in emerging and developing nations, social relationships are a fundamental aspect of their interaction with the virtual world,” says the study. “Getting various types of information, such as political news, health information and government services, is the next tier of Internet use.”

What’s in your pocket?

The Pew report also has some important observations in terms of how users in developing and emerging economies access the Internet. It tracks usage and ownership of desktop computers from country to country but also smartphone and cell phone penetration as well.

The report notes, “Overall, a median of 38% across the 32 nations surveyed say they have a working computer in their household. In 11 countries, half or more own computers, including 78% in Russia – comparable to the 80% of Americans who say they have a computer in their household. Computer ownership is relatively high in a number of Latin American nations. Majorities in Chile (72%), Venezuela (61%), Argentina (58%) and Brazil (55%) have computers in their homes. Computer ownership rates are lowest in sub-Saharan African nations.”

The extent to which users in each country have reliable access to computers outside the home (e.g., at school or at work) is less clear. Leaving this aspect aside for a moment, we can see that computer ownership broadly correlates to national income levels and explains at least part of the relationship between Internet usage and income that we noted earlier.

Along that same line, cell phone ownership is much more common in the emerging and developing countries in the Pew survey. A median of 84% (across all 32 countries) own a cell phone of some kind. This compares to the US benchmark of 90% for cell phone ownership, and the survey finds a marked difference still between the penetration of more basic cell phones as opposed to smartphones. “Smartphones – and the mobile access to the Internet that they make possible in some locations – are not nearly as common as conventional cell phones. A median of only 24% say they own a cell phone that can access the Internet and applications.”

Percentage of 2014 Global Attitude respondents who own a smartphone or cell phone. Source: Pew Research Center

However, phone ownership again underscores the relationship between age and Internet usage. As with the broader correlation the study observes between these factors, smartphone ownership is also highly concentrated among younger users. “Young people (those under 35) are significantly more likely than their older counterparts to own an iPhone, BlackBerry, Android or other Internet-capable mobile phone,” says Pew.

Overall, the study makes an important point that broader statistics of Internet penetration and usage in developing and emerging economies have to be interpreted via some important filters, including age, education, English ability, and income. In an international education context, the high school and college-age prospects that educators and agents are mainly trying to reach are among the heaviest users of web and mobile technologies. In this sense, the findings of the 2014 Pew study will only reinforce the importance of the Internet, and the social and mobile web in particular, as a key channel for reaching and engaging prospective students.

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Two new studies in particular are on our radar this week. The first, based on face-to-face interviews conducted in 24 countries by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, finds that Internet, mobile, and social media use is booming worldwide. Even more interesting, the study shows that users who adopt mobile and social media technologies are often avid, rather than occasional, users of them.

A second report – sponsored by the college search service Zinch and Uversity, a social media app for colleges – looks at social media usage and engagement in the college admissions process in the US. It finds that 97% of high school-age prospects in the US view college or university websites on their mobile devices, and that more than two-thirds of prospects report that social media plays an important role in their college search process.

These numbers skew higher than the statistics we have seen in other recent research, but even so, the implications for education marketers are clear:

• First and foremost, providers and recruiters of all types have to be prepared to engage with prospects via mobile.
• Second, mobile sites or apps have to not only drive that initial user engagement but also convert prospects through progressive steps along an enquiry and admissions path.

Related research shows us that online search, often unrelated to a specific educational brand or institution, plays a huge role in students’ efforts to explore and choose options for further study. However, much of that search activity does not convert to a higher level of engagement via an enquiry, application, or other key “opt-in” behaviours.

Consumer behaviour in the travel industry can be analogous to prospect behaviour in international education, and attendees at the recent Travolution Summit 2013 learned that users might visit as many as 22 websites before purchasing a travel product. Further, 50% of users will continue to search even after they find a travel product that fits their preferences, budgets, or other interests. As reflected in the Zinch/Uversity study above, peer influence is another important factor in travel consumer behaviour, both with respect to validating the customer’s purchase, or helping to turn a “maybe” into a “yes.”

This is well reflected in the prevalence of review-based websites in the travel industry but also in the increasing importance of alumni and student testimonials in education marketing.

Mobile and social media use taking shape around the world

The Pew Research study we noted above shows that Internet use is still building in many markets around the world. It also observes, however, that “once people do gain access to the Internet, they quickly begin to integrate it into their lives. A significant number of people in these nations say they use the Internet on a daily basis, including roughly half of those polled in Lebanon, Russia and Argentina. At least 20% use the Internet daily in 15 of the 24 nations surveyed.”

In 21 of the 24 nations included in the Pew study, a majority of Internet users are also social media users, including major platforms like Facebook and Twitter as well as other regional networks.

Of particular interest to education marketers, the Pew study finds that Internet use – and the use of web-based communications – is much more common and persistent among those under 30 years of age: “In 14 of 24 nations, at least half of 18-29 year-olds say they are online… People who do go online tend to become avid users. Half or more of Internet users in most of the countries surveyed say they use it daily.”

The study reports as well that Internet use is closely correlated with national income:

“Generally, the higher a country’s GDP per capita, the higher its percentage of Internet users. The three nations with the highest per capita incomes in this survey – Chile, Argentina and Russia – also have the highest Internet usage rates. Meanwhile, these rates are especially low in two of the poorest countries surveyed, Pakistan and Uganda, where roughly nine-in-ten never go online. Some nations, such as Kenya, Jordan, Egypt and Bolivia have more people online than might be anticipated, given their per capita income.”

Social signals and the admissions process

Nearly two-thirds of the US prospects in the Zinch study reported using social media to research colleges, and almost 70% felt that social media was either “extremely” or “moderately” influential in their choice of institution.

Social media and college research. Source: Zinch

However, the study does raise questions about the “signal-to-noise” ratio on educators’ social media channels with only four in ten prospects reporting that they had found relevant information on the institution’s social media site.

One important observation here is that students may look more to other channels, particularly an institution or school’s website or mobile app, for key programme or service information. But that they look to social media channels for review commentary – for insights from students, alumni, or other prospects – and especially for opportunities to engage directly with staff and students.

Two-thirds of prospects reported that social media conversations are an important influence in their decision-making process. The opportunity to connect via social media with currently enrolled students, other admitted students, and admissions counsellors were all rated as “very important” by roughly a third of US prospects in the Zinch survey.

Social media interaction. Source: Zinch

Research like this begins to sharpen our understanding of how different online channels work together, and how search relates to institutional or school sites and to social media networks as well. If search is the top end of the enquiry and admissions funnel, then the institutional site (or app) is a key channel for presenting relevant information and engaging prospects, and social media is another critical channel for driving engagement and conversion. And this broad spectrum of search, information discovery, and engagement behaviours are ever more taking place on mobile devices in the hands of student prospects around the world.

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The Kenyan government clearly sees education as an important component of the country’s future, even as it grapples with the challenges of transforming and expanding its education system while also ensuring appropriate support and opportunities for a growing student population.

Recent legislative changes

In September Margaret Kamar, Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, signed The Universities Bill 2012, which, according to , “seeks to introduce radical changes to higher education” such as:

• Abolishing the decades-old Commission for Higher Education (CHE), which has hitherto regulated the sector, and replacing it with the Commission for University Education (CUE).
• The CUE would advise government on university education policy, undertake accreditation inspections, monitor and evaluate the state of university education and ensure compliance with set standards.
• Additional new bodies running the educator sector would include the Universities Funding Board, to coordinate financing of universities; the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service, to handle admissions to public universities and colleges; and the Technical and Vocational Education (TVET) Funding Board, to handle funding of the TVET sector – a role previously left in the hands of individual, middle-level colleges.

Editor’s Note: in January, the bill was , bringing public universities, which were previously governed by specific acts of parliament, under the same law as private institutions.

Kenyan authorities, in partnership with the EAC (East African Community), are also . To that end, in November 2012, education ministers from Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda met in the Rwandan capital Kigali, and after three years of negotiations, approved the Inter University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) Bill 2012.

This bill, which has been forwarded to the EAC Council of Ministers for approval, repeals IUCEA Act 2009, aims to achieve a unified university system in the region, and enables the building of a system allowing students access to learning and mobility across East Africa. It’s just one example of various subsets of African nations banding together to bolster the prospects of their higher education sectors.

Such harmonisation efforts could help to avoid accreditation disputes, such as the recent trouble thousands of Kenyan graduates of Kampala International University in Uganda have been having upon learning that their qualifications would not be recognised because some courses had not been cleared by the CHE.

The Council of Ministers also adopted a proposed 2013-14 budget of US $1,894,400 to launch the East African Science and Technology Commission (EASTECO), and another US $2,009,041 to launch the East African Kiswahili Commission. The commissions will be based in Rwanda and Tanzania, respectively.

Such intraregional cooperation in developing nations is becoming the norm. Just last month şÚÁĎąŮÍř Monitor reported on a similar phenomenon in Asia, where a credit transfer system was enacted by higher education institutions in the Greater Mekong Subregion. The cooperative moves in East Africa are in line with a global trend, and could have a substantial impact on student recruitment.

Cooperation and competition

Though East African governments have agreed to regional development initiatives, the universities themselves often compete for students. Dr Patrick Mbataru of Kenyatta University noted in a recent interview with that, because Ugandan universities are the most aggressive recruiters in the region, Kenyan institutions have begun to adopt the same approach.

Perhaps the most interesting example of this is provided by Mount Kenya University, which has made moves to open a branch campus in the Somaliland capital Hargeisa. Somaliland is a self-declared independent state unrecognised by the United Nations, which broke from Somalia after years of civil strife. Mount Kenya University’s bold move was driven by competition in East Africa.

Dr Mbatura pointed out,

“The room for expansion in East Africa is getting even more squeezed and universities must look further afield if they wish to grow.”

Funding for Kenya’s education system

The roots of higher education in Kenya date only from 1956 with the founding of Nairobi’s Royal Technical College, a school that would in 1970 become the country’s first university – The University of Nairobi.

Today the story has considerably more depth. Kenya has:

• 52 public, private and constituent university college institutions.
• A total student population of 251,000, up from 81,000 in 2003.
• A one-year increase of 20% in newly enrolled students for the 2012-13 academic session.
• 79,000 students in 40 technical and vocational institutions, up from 34,000 in 2003.
• (Information and Communication Technology), according to a CPS International survey.

In addition to increased student mobility plans, the current Kenyan government has increased funding for state universities by 36%, and President Mwai Kibaki said in November 2012 that the government would upgrade thirteen of the constituent colleges into full-fledged universities, increasing the number of public universities from seven to twenty.

Kenya’s 2012-13 budget included (Higher Education Loans Board), up from US $28.2 million in 2011-12, with the goal of making educational loans available to thousands more students. in national and village polytechnics and technical training institutes will be eligible to benefit.

Meanwhile, with the March 2013 election looming, the CORD (Coalition for Reform and Democracy) political alliance promises that if it wins the next government, it will double funds to HELB.

Clearly education funding is an issue on many minds. Perhaps that’s because demographic data from the suggests that, in the near term, Kenya must create one million jobs each year just to accommodate new entrants into the labour force.

As the World Bank report notes:

“Young people don’t just need jobs, they also create them. Therefore, what matters most is to make sure that the education system delivers the skills needed in emerging economies, and incubates entrepreneurs.”

Kenyan growing pains

Amidst rapid advancement and restructuring, there have been in the higher education sector. The growth of public universities and the expansion of their curricula is wiping out some vocational schools, reducing options for secondary level graduates who may not be qualified for or financially able to attend universities.

Also hurt have been teacher training colleges and Government Training Institutes (GTIs), which have been taken over by universities and no longer offer certificate courses. The space has been filled by commercial colleges, which have been criticised by some employers for turning out poorly equipped graduates.

Universities face problems as well – space, labs, and computers are at a premium. Administrators are dealing with surging numbers of students seeking admissions. Finance Minister Njeru Githae has said in his budget policy statement for 2012-13, “The sector’s biggest challenges include inadequate infrastructure and staffing, slow pace of ICT integration and dealing with accelerated admissions to universities.”

Kenya’s future

In 2008, President Mwai Kibaki launched a development programme entitled . Though most of the recent educational reforms and funding are separate from that ambitious programme, the goals are the same – to create a globally competitive and prosperous nation with a high quality of life.

Despite the recent hiccups, Kenya is making strides towards successfully reorganising and strengthening its tertiary education sector. By 2020, the number of Kenyans with a university degree is expected to exceed those without any formal education – quite a leap for a country whose first university is only forty-two years old.

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The OIC is the second largest inter-governmental organisation after the United Nations. It serves as the collective voice of the Muslim world and strives to safeguard and protect its interests in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony.

Implementation of the initiative has begun with an offer of 10 special scholarships from the University of Kuala Lumpur. Universities in Turkey and Pakistan are also poised to offer scholarships under the new programme.

Further evidence of recent OIC collaborations include Saudi-Uganda links as well as UAE-Pakistan connections.

Saudi Arabia extends 75 scholarships to Uganda

According to , Saudi Arabia is sponsoring 75 Ugandan students so they can complete their higher education.

The Saudi Kingdom is covering all their expenses including tuition fees, lodging and air travel as part of its partnership with the OIC’s higher education initiative for Uganda.

Ugandan ambassador Aziz Kalungi Kasujja said: “These students are currently on the rolls of various universities and academic institutions across the Kingdom. We are now keen to hold consultations with the Saudi side to boost cooperation in education and increase the number of sponsored students.”

The move will help fulfill the educational requirements of Ugandan students and enable educational institutions in the country to upgrade the quality of their education.

Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi welcomed Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah, deputy minister of foreign affairs, during a recent visit where he commended Saudi support extended to Uganda in the fields of infrastructure development, health and education.

Kasujja noted the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) has made available SR 90 million to Uganda for implementing two major projects:

1. the construction and equipment of a technical and vocational training institute at a cost of SR 45 million;
2. a major rural electrification project in the country, one of several other such projects financed by Riyadh in many other African countries.

UAE opens 40 new schools in Pakistan

The UAE has set up 40 schools and educational institutes in Pakistan capable of teaching around 21,000 students, official media in the Gulf state reported.

The schools were handed over to the local authorities in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in Pakistan.

The UAE Project to Assist Pakistan, which is based on a directive by UAE president Sheikh Khalifa Al Nahyan, is part of a bid to improve educational infrastructure in the area. The project focuses primarily on education, public health, roads and bridges.

Abdullah Al Ghafli, director of the project, said that it has brought to life modern educational facilities worth US$27.6 million, accommodating up to 28,000 students.

The UAE has sponsored the construction of 35 schools and colleges, two model schools and 40 primary to secondary schools. It has also built 11 technical, technological and vocational colleges and institutes.

Al Ghafli also announced that they have already started the implementation for construction of two model schools in both Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and South Waziristan (two of Pakistan’s most impoverished regions), with each school costing US$500,000.

Furthermore, according to , Mohamed Zaghoul, professional officer at the OIC’s Jeddah secretariat, said that the exchange initiative “will streamline the scholarship offers by our member countries and facilitate regional and multilateral higher education cooperation.

“The programme will also address the faculty deficiency at different universities in the Islamic world through exchange of academic experts.”

OIC member states have already been offering scholarships to students from other OIC countries, routing offers through the OIC secretariat. But there were bureaucratic hurdles and a mismatch, as in some years countries made no offers.

With a growing number of member states now offering scholarships, particularly at postgraduate and post-doctoral levels in fields such as science, engineering and medicine, the special OIC secretariat for exchanges can follow up on country commitments and match applications to offers.

It will also work to minimise hurdles and delays, in order to facilitate a growing number of joint research projects, another component of the programme. This will involve exchange of researchers for ongoing projects and the initiation of new joint research of interest to the countries involved.

Zaghoul said the secretariat would help willing member states to form sub-groups for special research projects that member countries considered “relevant and crucial to their academic and social needs.”

Junaid Zaidi, rector of the Islamabad-based COMSATS Institute of Information Technology – a founding member of the programme – commented:

“Many OIC member countries are already offering scholarships or have trained faculty to share, and many are in need of these offers, but we lacked a structured system before this initiative was introduced.”

He added that the new programme would not duplicate an initiative announced at an OIC ministerial meeting in December last year for a higher education network to facilitate distance learning to overcome faculty shortages in many OIC countries.

“The educational exchange programme has five components, whereas the previously announced network aimed only to link OIC universities for online or video conference lectures,” Zaidi said.

The idea of an OIC educational exchange programme was first discussed during the June 2011 meeting of the foreign ministers of Islamic nations in Kazakhstan, when OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu called for new initiatives to promote exchanges and sharing of knowledge and experience “through more structured interaction.”

Ihsanoglu said: “Such an exchange programme would provide for short duration exchange of students, researchers and teachers between higher education institutions of member states on a reciprocal basis.”

Sources: , , Arabian Business

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Universities worldwide have been switching wholly or partly to teaching in English for a number of reasons such as improved graduate employment and mobility prospects, and the need for graduates who can speak English for international trade. There is also the growing impact of university league tables. Even if academics question their objectivity, they have become increasingly important in how universities market themselves. And the use of English, particularly for research, is seen as helping to raise visibility in international rankings.

But there are also challenges, including a shortage of lecturers who are proficient in English, local resistance, as well as the costs involved for new text books, lectures and course materials.

recently provided a convenient round-up of those following the English-medium trend:

China

Chinese universities have been adding bilingual lectures to curricula to comply with a 2007 government requirement for more lectures in English and Chinese to improve the overall quality of Chinese students, according to the Ministry of Education.

Ningbo University in the key east China trading port of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, started trialling bilingual teaching then, and has a small number of English lectures, including some taught partly in English.

Around half of these are finance-related, including international clearance, international finance and accounting.

“English-teaching makes our students more competitive if they want to seek jobs in foreign companies or banks. It will also benefit our students planning to study abroad,” said Zhang Ying, a curriculum specialist at Ningbo.

Other lectures, such as liberal arts and scientific engineering, use just Chinese. “For one thing, the English level of Chinese students is not good enough. For another, we lack English-speaking teachers.”

Limited budgets are another constraint. Ningbo usually seeks teachers among overseas returnees, or sends its own teachers abroad for short-term language training. “It costs a lot more if we hire returnees, let alone foreign teachers.”

However, Zhang added that a “foreign language cannot be quickly improved in just six months. That’s why we are still trialling the English-teaching programme.”

Editor’s note:

In recent news, three postgraduate courses at – masters and doctoral degrees in organic chemistry, and doctorates in Vietnamese studies – are the latest to switch to being taught in English from the semester that began in September 2012.

They join 14 other courses, seven undergraduate and seven postgraduate, delivered in English since 2007 at the country’s largest multi-disciplinary university, under its Nhiem vu chien luoc (Strategic Tasks) programme to lay the foundations for internationalisation.

Middle East

In the Middle East, English is the official language of long-established American universities in Lebanon, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, and is rapidly becoming the language of choice at new universities in the region.

In Lebanon, for instance, students over the past decade have increasingly opted for English over French at university despite being schooled in French. Again, job opportunities are typically cited as the major reason.

This has not generally caused problems, but there has been some resistance in the more conservative Gulf countries – and there have recently been moves towards in higher education.

In Qatar, English has been gradually imposed on schools as well as at the state-owned Qatar University, where most subjects are now taught in English. Also, Qatar Foundation’s Education City has six branch-campuses of leading American universities.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one academic based in Qatar told University World News: “Some Qataris are not happy about English being the dominant language, as they feel it is at the expense of Arabic and a further blow to their culture.

“This is a pressing issue at Qatar University as English is the course language at the Education City universities.”

Editor’s note:

şÚÁĎąŮÍř Monitor has just learned that following a decree by Qatar’s Supreme Education Council, Qatar University, the country’s largest third level educational institution, all lessons in business, economics, media and international affairs will be solely in Arabic starting next semester. However, courses in engineering and science will remain in English.

As Qatar looks to promote itself as a knowledge hub, it will need to find the balance between accessibility and preservation of language and culture.

Latin America

In Latin American universities too, teaching in English is increasingly common. It is driven largely by job opportunities opening up at overseas companies investing in Latin America, and as more students look to work overseas.

Ecuador is typical, and Universidad San Francisco de Quito in the capital city Quito leads the way.

Students must reach an advanced level of English before they can graduate. A growing number of courses, including psychology, sociology and education, are now taught mostly in English, with each specifying a number of credits that students must take in the language.

“The use of English here has been growing over the past five years,” said Rhys Davies, English coordinator at Universidad San Francisco de Quito. “We are always looking for teachers to teach in English, and lots are now from the US and the UK.

“Students know how important it could be for their professions and embrace any opportunity to improve language skills.” Another factor is the growing number of students becoming postgraduates in the US, Davies added.

East Africa

One particularly illuminating example is in Africa. Former Belgian colony Rwanda once taught mainly in French or the indigenous Kinyarwanda dialect, but switched to English as the primary language of educational instruction in 2008.

It changed partly in order to integrate better with nations that cooperate as the East African Community – Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi – the majority of them English-speaking in official circles.

The switch has also helped to distance Rwanda from France, which the Rwandan government has accused of arming the 1994 Hutu genocide against the minority Tutsi population.

The Kigali Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) in the capital city was one of the first to convert fully. Focusing first on English-taught technical classes, it is now expanding English usage across the arts and humanities.

However, four years on, students and instructors still struggle with English, said Professor John Severin Mshana, KIST’s vice-rector for academics. “It’s a problem for students to understand what lecturers are saying,” he said.

This stemmed from not having enough primary and secondary school teachers with English fluency, he added. So KIST offers remedial English classes to students.

Despite the challenge, Mshana said he has never heard anyone question the transition. Quite the opposite, because “to be bilingual is a benefit.”

Europe

There are more than 4,500 university courses now being taught in English in continental Europe.

But lately, professors in The Netherlands have complained of Dutch becoming a second-class language and students have not been generally happy about the spread of English.

Competition for foreign students has seen English gain ground since 2009 depending on subject and degree level. Dutch prevails for bachelor degrees, and English at masters level. International programmes are largely in English.

At the University of Amsterdam for example, two bachelor of arts programmes – economics; and business, liberal arts and sciences – are in English, as are 87 masters and research masters programmes.

Since 1996, almost all courses at Maastricht University have switched to, or started up in, English. Some staff and students worried about their English proficiency, so the university has student admission requirements based on TOEFL and IELTS English language exams.

“For teaching and support staff, courses are offered to improve their level of English,” a spokesperson said.

Using English has attracted students from Anglophone countries. The Netherlands is seen as an option by students from the UK, where tuition fees have tripled of late. Within a broader strategy, teaching in English has seen a doubling over 10 years in the proportion of foreign students registered at Maastricht.

The Dutch approach to English usage in universities is echoed in other European countries, including Germany and Scandinavian nations.

“Universities are in a more competitive world, if you want to stay with the other global universities – you have no other choice,” says the Politecnico di Milano’s Professor Giovanni Azzoni.

He says that his university’s experiment will “open up a window of change for other universities,” predicting that in five to ten years other Italian universities with global ambitions will also switch to English.

“We are very proud of our city and culture, but we acknowledge that the Italian language is an entry barrier for overseas students,” he says, particularly when recruiting from places such as China and India.

“It’s extremely important, at present you have two choices. You can either stay isolated in your own country – which is not realistic in a global world.

“The other is to open up and be able to work in an international context. Either our university will understand that or else our country will be isolated.”

Source: ,

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