THE STATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

AND TRAINING IN 2013/14

PROFESSOR BENON C BASHEKA

VICE CHANCELLOR -UGANDA
TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
UNIVERSITY (UTAMU)
 Report Methodology
Sources of data
Primary sources with self-administered questionnaires
(sent by courier)
Secondary source Annual Reports, Data from
inspectors and monitoring visitations
Analysis process
-Data verification
-Data entry by interns(September-October 2015)
-Validation (November 2015)
-Analysis (December,2015)
-Report writing (Late December 2015)
 Higher Education institutions in Uganda

Three categories of Higher Institutions

1. The University sub-sector which constitutes 18.9% of
the sector and grew from 37 to 40 (8%)
Of the 40, 32 are private and 8 public
University sector had 71% of the student
enrollment
Majority of students were studying
arts/Humanities (66%) compared to science at
technology at 34%
2. Other Degree awarding institutions (ODAIs)
9 institutions in the category
Accounted for 2.6% of enrollment in higher
education
7 of the institutions offer business and
management programs
3. Other Tertiary institutions (OTIs)
Number grew from 159-166 (4.4%)
6 however acquired ODAI status and this left 160
Most popular of this category are in business and
commerce (43%) followed by Health (12.5%)
26% of the sector enrollment is from the OTIs
Institutional Ownership of the sector
Since 2006/7 to 2013/4, the public sector has
experienced a diminishing share of ownership
from 34% to 27% respectively.
Private sector still dominated the sector (157)
institutions (74%)
Enrollment in public institutions is 49% as
compared to 51% in private
Private sector invests more in arts than sciences
which is for public
Enrollment by Category & discipline
University 71% with 56% in arts and humanities
while 44% in science disciplines
Science enrollment increased by 10% from the
2012/2013
Other Degree awarding institutions (20%)
Other tertiary institutions 42.4%) (with 62% in
arts and humanities compared 38% in sciences-
mainly computer science
 Sector Distribution
A. Eastern had 14%
B. Central had 56%
C. Northern had 9%
D. Western had 19%
 Enrollment by Gender
Proportion of male and females has remained
stable
Proportion of females remained at 44%
Females exceed males in management and social
development (55%), Business and Commerce (52%),
Hotels and Tourism (57%)
Technical and agriculture categories had only 20%
and 31% females respectively.
 Enrollment by Nationality
Ugandan and Non-Ugandan categories are only
used-making it difficult for adequate planning
Percentage of number of non-Ugandan students
dropped by 8%
Theological colleges still had the highest at 30%
Universities and affiliated colleges dropped by 12% in
2012/13 to 10% in 2013/14
No disaggregation of data but those which did
suggests students from South Sudan, Somali and DRC
 Completion, Graduation and
employment
About 94% admitted complete their programmes
at university level while 92% from other
institutions
No disaggregation by level but situation varies
considerably by graduate and undergraduate levels
Report presents contradictory findings from national
statistics-tracer study of 2015 suggests that those who
graduated in 2011 64.7% at degree level got
employment, 18% self-employed and 17.1% were not
employed

Diploma category had 62.5% formally employed
,13.5% self-employed while 24% were
unemployed
78% of graduates acknowledged that skills
obtained enabled them to get jobs
Four major sectors that absorbed graduates
were: Agriculture, health, trade, banking and
finance
State of Education Report (2015)
Only 6 percent of young people in sub-Saharan Africa are
enrolled in higher education institutions compared to the
global average of 26 percent.
The promising news is that universities in many African
countries are experiencing a surge in their enrollment.
Between 2000 and 2010, higher education enrollment more
than doubled, increasing from 2.3 million to 5.2 million.
Overcrowding in lecture halls at some Africa
universities is becoming all too common.
Statistics show that on average there are 50 percent
more students per professor at African universities
compared to the global average.
 .
Private higher education is one of the fastest growing
education sectors in Africa.
In 2009, there were around 200 public universities
and 468 private higher education institutions on the
African continent.
Comparatively, there are 1700 public universities and
nearly 2500 private universities (4- and 2-year
universities) in the U.S. alone
 African Scorecard

Area Score card Ranking

Primary Education B+

Secondary Education C

Vocational and Technical Training C-

Tertiary Education B-

Quality of Education c
Public spending on African Education C

Building a Skilled Workforce for 21st Century C

Jobs
 Academic Programs
Period Received Assessed Accredited % out of
assessed

September 195 153 72 47%

2013
December 156 118 55 47%
2013
March 172 148 75 51%
2014
June 2014 182 122 63 52%
Accredited programs by mode of delivery
Day (1162) 56.71% both undergraduate and
postgraduate
Evening (505) 29.87%
Long distance 85 (4.78%
Weekend (139) 8.64%
 Academic staff
PhD (251 Females and 845 males)
Masters (1094 females and 2699 males)
Bachelors (1204 females and 2681 males)
Postgraduate Diploma (83 females and 239
males)
 Research?????
No financial resources to support research by
NCHE
Research in universities has continued to be
neglected
Institutions have continued to allocate 1% of the
budget to support research
 Annual Expenditure Analysis
Item Public Percentage Private %

Books 73,601,591.84 0.05% 45,104,054.04 1.99%

Equipment 0.07% 2.60%

Furniture 0.37% 3.32%

Infrastructure 3.57% 19.47%

Material 9.31% 8.56%

supplies

Other academic 4.61% 0.79%

costs

Research 0.75% 0.84%

REPORT IDENTIFIES A NUMBER OF PROBLEMS
OTIs are not preferred institutions in Uganda
Funding for research remains a problem
Gender disparity of academic staff
High number of unaccredited courses
Declining number of public institutions
Declining numbers of foreign students
Disparity of enrollment and programs according to
discipline
Failure to comply with some statutory obligations-
annual report submission
Lack of accurate data on financial records
Low PhD Production
 Other issues include:-
No disaggregation of data but those which did suggests
students from South Sudan, Somali and DRC
African development bank committing funding for staff
development but all going to public universities
Retention of academic staff is still a problem
Lack of staff development efforts
Part-time and full time staff debate issues
Student fees being the only source of income
 REPORT SILENT ON KEY ISSUES
GOVERNANCE OF HEIs
Autonomy
Financial management
Student completion rates
Staff salary payments
Student results management
Research outputs
NCHE-institutional harmony
Number of partnerships
Management of projects
Student governance
 Report is silent on
Academic process management
Admission systems
Registration (payment of statutory fees to NCHE)
Class attendance
Examinations
Processing of results
Graduation periods
 .
Student Governance
Student grievances per sector category
Student leadership by gender
Student innovations by discipline
Student loan scheme beneficiary
Student assessment of lectures
 ..
Academic staff activities
Publications by rank and discipline
External examination
Community engagement
Staff promotion durations
Staff conference attendance
Staff projects and grants
Staff supervision of graduate students
Staff grievance issues by sector category
Staff nationality especially for senior ranks
 ..
Projects, grants and partnerships
Awards to colleges, faculties and schools
International collaborations on programmes
Partnerships and joint awards
 RECOMMENDATIONS
Problems of financing information can be addressed
through multiple approaches like Auditor General and
GAPI studies, UBOS and NPA reports
Data Collection should involve students and academic
staff as primary stakeholders
Tracking of project financing in the country for HE
Improve research data in terms of tracking publications
by academic staff
Capture other academic activities like conference
presentation, external examinations, consultancy
projects, awards
 .
Need to march all policies at NCHE with data like PhD
and Masters holders with the minimum standards
for teaching postgraduate studies, minimum
standards for lecture space against the enrollment,
etc
Need to fully integrate private institutions into policy
decisions at all levels
Develop clear performance indicators for each of the
variables with a view to measure inputs, processes,
outputs, outcomes and impact
Attention should be paid also to:-
Payment of salaries and governance of universities
Recommendations in the report should focus on
policy, tactical, operational or NCHE, council level,
management level, school/faculty/college,
departmental levels
University ranking and score card should be
considered
Computer and physical facilities misses use of mobile
phones, laptops and i-pads
Online studies and policy guidelines seem non-
existent yet this is the trend for the sector
Automation of data collection instrument
 Contributions frorm Assoc. Prof. Gerald
Kagambirwe Karyeija, Panel Member
Areas for policy Implications (Inform HE Policy)
Funding: There is need to devise diverse resource
mobilisation strategies for higher education. This may
include including state funding, especially for the
facilities, infrastructure and capacity development of
lecturers
Rise in the number of Universities: there is need to
revisit the categorisation of Universities. Many
institutions are changing eminence to Universities
and there has also been increase by 12-hierarchy of
research based universities and teacher base
universities, community colleges and elite institutions
 .
Gender Parity: Mechanisms to improve on the
percentage of female participants needs to be put in
place
Programs for accreditation: the accreditation of new
programs should be harmonised with the national
human resource audit/ plan by encouraging HEI to
come up with programs that are in sync with the
future demand of human resources
Research: There should be a national research fund
(funded by the state and its partners) to be competed
for by the various institutions to build the research
capacity of institutions, and focusing on national
priorities.
 PhD Production: There is need for a 10 year rapid
national PhD production process to create a critical
mass of PhD holders.
Improve on internet bandwidth and connectivity to
ease e-library functionality
 Stakeholder engagement
Proposes a stakeholder engagement matrix that
suggests those stakeholders to:
Inform
Consult
Involve
Collaborate
Empower
On strategies for improving data collection
Institutionalise ( and make compulsory) the tool so
that it becomes part of the HEIs reporting systems
annually, then the NCHE will follow up with the non-
compliant and supervise the compliant
Sanctions should be embedded in the law or
guidelines for non-compliance with the tools
Work with UBOS to collect and collaborate data
 CONCLUSION
Participants should receive our presentation
Discuss and make suggestions
For policy
For governance
For management/administration
For regulatory