Managing fast growth

Development is people-centred if the welfare of all people improves over time. Desirable development interventions are those that aim at helping people realise their human potential, reduce insecurity, increase opportunities and guarantee that the benefits reaped today will be sustained – and even increased – in the future.

In people-centred development, education plays a central role, and that is also true of higher education, which boosts human resources and contributes to finding better solutions to existing problems. In Mozambique, one of Africa’s very poor countries, the strategies differ with which institutions of higher education strive for relevance.
The higher-education sector in Mozambique is still quite small for a population of about 20 million people. However, the sector has expanded rapidly in the past 15 years. According to official statistics, the student population has increased from 4,000 in 1990 to nearly 17,000 in 2002 and even 28,000 in 2005. The number of institutions of higher learning has grown from three in 1990 to nine in 2002 and 22 in 2007. Until 1995, there were no private-sector institutions at all. Today, they make up half of the institutions and one-third of enrolment.

Even though the public sector is still dominant, private universities and colleges are playing an increasingly important role, improving access and geographical equity. Our table summarises key features of the two major types of higher education institutions.

Institutional expansion is driven by demand, which, in turn, is based on professional ambitions. Academic degrees are considered tickets to higher incomes. The number of graduates from secondary schools has also risen dramatically. The absolute number of students enrolled in 8th to 10th grades has tripled since 2002, implying that demand for higher education will expand further.

Government strategy

In 2000, the government adopted a Strategic Plan for Higher Education (PEES 2000-2010). It was drafted in partnership with the sector, and addresses several strategic objectives, including equity in access as well as financial and scientific sustainability of the system.

For people-centred development, the government considers sectors such as education, health, governance, tourism, natural resources and others particularly important. Therefore, these are also the subjects that matter most in academic education.

In line with PEES, there are different options for higher-education institutions to expand (see box next page). For instance, they may opt for rapid and low-cost expansion in a limited number of fields in high demand. On the other hand, they may focus on a small number of courses geared to the demand for specific skills. Yet another option is to evolve into broad institutions, capable of benefiting from interdisciplinary synergies. There are also different options for increasing the geographic coverage, from opening new independent institutions in provinces not yet or underserved by higher education to opening delegations of existing schools.

Finance, of course, is an important factor for all institutions of higher education. Government funding is stable but limited and only substantial for public institutions. The revenues that private schools generate themselves tend to be volatile.

Unfortunately, most institutions seem unaware of international competition. Costs for obtaining a degree from a private institution in Mozambique are comparable to those from a university in neighbouring South Africa. Accordingly, the number of Mozambican students enrolled there is growing fast (from 385 in 2000 to 887 in 2004). In total, the proportion of Mozambicans studying abroad has increased from four percent in 1999 to 10 % in 2004.

The public sub-sector consists of many relatively small, specialised institutions, on the one hand, and only one big, multi-disciplinary university, on the other. The smallest of the seven public institutions operating in 2005 is the Military Academy in Nampula with only 65 students. By contrast, Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Maputo has 12,000. UEM is still the country’s only full-fledged university, covering 17 out of the 22 fields defined by UNESCO’s International Standard Classification of Education in 1997. Like the public sub-sector, the private one consists of specialised and more generalised institutions, but there is no private university comparable to UEM.

Private institutions are comparatively small in terms of enrolment and teaching staff: Average enrolment is 1048 (half of the public-sector average), and the average number of full-time staff 72 (one third). Private institutions rely heavily on part-time staff. One reason is that their dependence on the somewhat unreliable inflow of tuition fees means they require a more flexible workforce.

Moreover, many of those lecturing part-time at private-sector institutions are doing so on top of full-time employment at a public-sector institution. Mozambique only has around 2200 qualified lecturers, after all. This small number is constraining further growth, and it reflects the under-development of master courses in Mozambique.

To date, enrolment in higher education is concentrated in the arts and social sciences. More than 50 % of all students are enrolled in these fields. That share is 70 % for private institutions, probably because these are for-profit operations and per-student costs are generally lower in the humanities than in the natural sciences and engineering. However, relative small capacities in technical disciplines reduce higher education’s impact on technological change. The government has therefore recently started new polytechnic schools.

Conclusion

The experience of the past couple of years has shown that higher education must be diversified if it is to serve people-centred development all over Mozambique. The spread of institutions in the different regions has positive impacts locally, allowing young people to study in their home provinces and bringing expertise to those provinces.

However, graduating large numbers of students does not, in itself, support people-centred development. Graduates must be prepared to become agents of change, actively participating in development, and be enabled to do so. The toughest challenge policymakers face is thus to strike the adequate balance between the need for rapid expansion and for high quality and the need for locally relevant expertise. Strategic planning is essential, if all three indispensable goals are to be met.

Higher education has direct and indirect developmental consequences, but they are medium to long term. Therefore, any system of higher education also needs a long-term vision geared to society’s needs. In other words, universities and colleges must not neglect their links to the public and private sectors as well as other agents of development.