The stark differences in higher education capacity between richer and less developed countries were highlighted at the International Association of University Presidents’ (IAUP) latest semi-annual meeting.
Staged at Nottingham Trent University in England’s East Midlands on 8 March, delegates heard how in Uganda, with a population of 47.2 million (World Bank data for 2022), there are only 60 higher education institutions, of which only 20 meet international standards.
However, according to Dr Barnabas Nawangwe, vice-chancellor of Uganda’s Makerere University, in the United Kingdom (population 66.9 million), there are almost 300 reputable universities and higher education colleges, around 15 times more institutions per head than Uganda.
Nawangwe was addressing a panel discussion on the role of universities as a catalyst for economic and social development at the IAUP meeting.
Comparisons can be drawn between emerging market regions too, said the vice-chancellor. For instance, China and Africa both have populations of around 1.4 billion, but China has 3,100 universities, with a decreasing population, while Africa, where the population is expanding, has 1,200 universities today, said Nawangwe.
Comparing universities per capita, he said, in Uganda each reputable university must serve eight million people and in the UK a university services only 230,000 people. In China, a university services 450,000 people in contrast to Africa where one university services about 1.1 million people.
Of concern to the Makerere vice-chancellor is that higher education enrolment in Uganda is one of the lowest in the world, with less than 6% of the population having studied at higher education institutions, compared to the African average of 13%, and the international average of 32%. In countries like Sweden, the number is as high as 80%, he said.
Targets for higher education
Past political instability in Uganda has meant that the country’s higher education development got off to a late start, along with a still weak economy – the World Bank said Uganda’s GDP per head per annum was just US$964 in 2022, which has hampered the country’s educational development. Making matters worse is the country’s high population growth (3% per year in 2022), eating up much of the country’s economic growth.
While additional higher educational capacity would be welcome, Nawangwe is sceptical about growth targets set by the World Bank, which in 2020 said that for Africa to slew off poverty, it needs to train at least 100,000 PhD graduates by 2030.
Arguing that this is unattainable, he found such calls ironic, because in the past, development experts had discouraged African governments from investing in higher education. “But the very same people now want us to invest more in higher education,” he said.
Fortunately, Africa is sinking money into higher education, he added, highlighting progress in Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria and Uganda. For example, in 2019, the Ugandan government established a Research and Innovation Fund for public universities. As a result, Makerere, Uganda’s largest and oldest university, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2022, receives US$80 million annually.
Going forward, its aim is to be more relevant to the community and the country, becoming a research-intensive university, said Nawangwe.
“We want to look for solutions that affect the country – like the high population growth. We plan to establish a science and technology park where students can open start-ups and run them on a commercial scale until they are ready to move,” he said.
Addressing issues around climate change is another area of focus, he said. Uganda is one of the worst affected countries, experiencing drought and floods interchangeably. “Hence, we are researching drought-resistant plants: food security and health is a key area, going forward,” he said.
Matching economic needs
Such focused research and development can boost economies anywhere, another speaker at the meeting stressed. Andy Abrahams, the executive mayor of Mansfield, just 24 kilometres (about twice the cruising altitude of a commercial jet) from meeting host Nottingham, told the panel how the development of Nottingham as a university town had helped to boost the local economy there and in Mansfield too.
But this was only because higher educational development matched economic needs: “You cannot set out an educational mission or syllabus without knowing your community,” said Abrahams. He grew up in social housing in Mansfield, while his stepfather worked in nearby (and now closed) mines, while his mother was a cleaner.
“Why this is important is because with a deprived generation, with community spirit disappearing along with all traditional industries, Mansfield at that time had become a low skilled area,” he said.
“What you needed to break that cycle was a big idea,” he said, adding: “And that big idea was to develop Nottingham as a university town,” including the development and growth of Nottingham Trent University, which has always prospered from having a vocational focus to its studies.
Devorah Lieberman, president emerita of University of La Verne near Los Angeles, United States, agreed that developing local skills can generate economic prosperity, delivering a ‘brain remain’ trend rather than ‘brain drain’, where skilled graduates live near their university, boosting wealth and community pride.
