Foreign universities not for everyone
ZIMBABWE has at least 20 universities which specialise in various disciplines, from sciences, engineering, technology, arts, humanities, agriculture and other technical fields.
Most of the universities have remodelled their courses in line with current demands and realities and phased out some obsolete degree courses.
The big increase in the number of local universities from just one at independence speaks volumes about the insatiable demand for university education.
Despite the growth in the number of local universities, there is an overwhelming demand for foreign universities.
Zimbabweans spend tens of thousands of dollars to send their children to learn abroad. Given the money and choice, most students would not want to attend local universities.
International exposure, career and learning opportunities offered in other countries are important, but the overwhelming preference for foreign universities is worrying and belies serious problems in the tertiary education sector.
As usual, the rich and well-to-do
always know what the ordinary people do not know about the country.
Their children never learn at local universities and most of them leave soon after A-Level results are out. Even top Government officials and others who can afford it do not ever think of their children enrolling in local universities.
Their children traditionally attend universities in USA, Canada, Australia, UK and Europe. Local universities only become an option for them when plans go awry, as the best-laid plans sometimes do.
Last week, we wrote about the parlous state of the school education system and how the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education appears to have given up on the phenomenon of illegal schools and enforcement of standards in these
learning institutions.
The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development also needs to craft an evolving tertiary education policy. The present universities are a result of the research and effort put in the 1990s when they projected into future demands for higher education.
However, the innovation stopped there, and there is no action noted now in terms of attracting students into local universities out of choice rather than only because there is nowhere else to go. The Ministry of Higher Education actually gives out Government scholarships for students to study abroad.
The original idea was to fund students to learn critical skills which the country needed in foreign universities.
An example was the Science Teacher Training Programme in the 90s, which saw hundreds of maths and science teachers trained abroad in countries like Cuba.
There were other similar agreements with other countries to assist skills development in critical areas like medicine and engineering.
However, the national scholarship programme lost direction such that almost any degree programme can now be studied abroad.
Research has not yet been done into the amount of money Zimbabweans spend in foreign universities, but millions of dollars are repatriated out yearly. Education policymakers need to re-think and find ways of redirecting investment into university education the same way private schools are funded.
National pride is the one missing essential ingredient. If all the money that flows out of the country to foreign universities could be channelled into developing just one local institution into a world-class university, there would be no need for hundreds of students to leave in search of better university standards abroad.
The harsh reality is that most of the money is spent at third-rate foreign universities in countries that have nothing to offer the students when they finish. Most of them only end up back home frustrated and unemployed with degrees that cannot be applied locally.
Education policymakers need to take the matter more seriously because it is deeper than it appears on the surface.
It is also a social and well-being issue, as many parents and students have learnt the hard way that living and learning broad is not for anyone who can get a student visa.
Many young people are simply not ready to live so far away from home in strange foreign environments so soon after school.
Some fall into depression and finish their degrees the really long, hard, painful and expensive way, while some fail to finish at all and others fail to return. More often than not, the tens of thousands of dollars invested in foreign education are rarely ever recouped.
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