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UNIVERSITIES, EMPLOYABILITY and INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT: REPOSITIONING HIGHER EDUCATION in GHANA, KENYA, NIGERIA and SOUTH AFRICA Acknowledgements

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UNIVERSITIES, EMPLOYABILITY and INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT: REPOSITIONING HIGHER EDUCATION in GHANA, KENYA, NIGERIA and SOUTH AFRICA Acknowledgements UNIVERSITIES, EMPLOYABILITY AND INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT: REPOSITIONING HIGHER EDUCATION IN GHANA, KENYA, NIGERIA AND SOUTH AFRICA Acknowledgements This report was authored by Tristan McCowan, Melanie Walker, Sam Fongwa, Ibrahim Oanda, Daniel Sifuna, Segun Adedeji, Stephen Oyebade, Eric Daniel Ananga, Vincent Adzahlie- Mensah and Emmanuel Tamanja. It is the final report of the Universities, Employability and Inclusive Development project (2013–16), commissioned by the British Council. The research was led by the UCL Institute of Education, London, in partnership with Kenyatta University, Kenya; University of Education, Winneba, Ghana; University of the Free State, South Africa; and University of Ibadan, Nigeria. We are grateful to Carole Rakodi for her comments on an earlier draft. Contents Chapter 1 – Introduction 2 Chapter 2 – Universities and employability in South Africa: equity in opportunities and outcomes 15 Chapter 3 – Divergent narratives on graduate employability in Kenya: dysfunctional institutions or dysfunctional labour markets? 39 Chapter 4 – In pursuit of graduate employability and inclusive development in Nigeria: realities and expectations 57 Chapter 5 – Higher education and employability in Ghana 77 Chapter 6 – Enabling conditions 91 Chapter 7 – Conclusion 101 Universities, employability and inclusive development 1 I want to do something that’s going to help me change something in this country, the social ills, whether it be poverty, you know, health… Political science student, South Africa Chapter 1 – Introduction Tristan McCowan Higher education is now acknowledged Millennium Development Goals, as being pivotal for development at showing the increasing interest in this The promise and challenge all levels. Its role in fostering high level of education after a period of of higher education in Africa level research and technological relative neglect. Major regional events capacity in the knowledge economy such as the African Higher Education ‘[T]he dream…is just to empower is well recognised, but it has another Summit (Dakar, Senegal) in March 2015 people and just make our countries, fundamental role – that of forming the have affirmed this renewed recognition. our communities, a better living professionals who will play major roles The idea that the development of environment for all … if we are in the provision of health, education higher education is only justified for exposed to this and we get to a and a range of other services, as well wealthier countries, or a goal to be level where she can write books as public administration. The positive pursued after universal primary and about history and that changes impact of higher education, therefore, secondary education have been the education curriculum, that is not restricted to those who directly achieved, has been broadly discredited. already means that there are people study in universities, but can potentially It is now acknowledged that even the who are inspired and are empowered ripple out through the whole of society, poorest countries in the world require to do something for themselves. If as emphasised in the declaration of and deserve a vibrant higher education this dream is to change the system UNESCO’s World Conference on Higher sector, producing professionals for the of governance – not necessarily Education in 1988: 1 public sector, creating innovators to change but to improve the system Developing entrepreneurial skills develop local solutions to problems, of government – that means entirely and initiative should become major carrying out research relevant to the whole country will be improved… concerns of higher education, in development needs and providing I want to do something that’s going order to facilitate employability of direct support to communities. to help me change something in this graduates who will increasingly Africa currently boasts some of the country, the social ills, whether it be be called upon to be not only job fastest-growing economies in the poverty, you know, health … just do seekers but also and above all world,2 and the region has benefited something that’s going to get the to become job creators. Higher from increased inward investment, next person to their next level…’ education institutions should give growing trade and tourism, and the opportunity to students to fully 3 This statement, from a young political expansion of the service sector. develop their own abilities with a science student in South Africa, However, the extractive industries sense of social responsibility, highlights the transformative potential on which a number of countries rely educating them to become full of higher education – in changing still leave their economies vulnerable participants in democratic society individuals’ lives, but also changing to fluctuations in international and promoters of changes that societies for the better. She – and the commodity markets, and the resources will foster equity and justice. other two students interviewed with on which they depend will eventually be exhausted. It is essential that African her – had come from poor rural The process leading up to the countries diversify their economies and backgrounds and had beaten the odds development of the new Sustainable develop the high levels of knowledge in getting to university. Like thousands Development Goals involved much production and skills needed to sustain of others across the continent, they more discussion of higher education high-tech and creative industries. were committed to using that opportunity than during the lead up to the previous to improve the lives of others. 1. World Conference on Higher Education (1998) World Declaration on Higher Education for the Twenty-first Century: Vision and Action. UNESCO. 2. Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ivory Coast had the second, third and fourth fastest growing economies in 2014. (World Bank (2016) GDP growth (annual per cent). Available online at: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?order=wbapi_data_value_2014+wbapi_data_ value+wbapi_data_value-last&sort=desc ) 3. The Economist (2015) The twilight of the resource curse? January 10. Available online at: www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21638141- africas-growth-being-powered-things-other-commodities-twilight Universities, employability and inclusive development 3 Furthermore, the region has the for the entrance of a number of new governance issues hampering quality fastest growing youth population in providers, particularly faith-based improvement efforts in the former. the world, with its current 15–24 age organisations, alongside the creation The lessons have not, therefore, group population of 226 million set of new regional public universities and been learned from primary education, to increase by 42 per cent by 2030. 4 expansion of existing ones. In Kenya, which, following the introduction of This so-called ‘youth bulge’ can be a for example, enrolments soared from fee removal policies and the support motor for prosperity for all in the region 219,000 to 444,000 in just three of international agencies through the if it is appropriately harnessed, but the years between 2012 and 2015. 7 This Education for All initiative, expanded prospects for doing so depend to a expansion has gone some way towards rapidly from the 1990s onwards, but large extent on universally available meeting the considerable unmet encountered significant problems and high quality education at all levels. demand, and absorbing the increasing of teacher shortages and strained Failure to address the educational numbers of secondary school leavers. 8 infrastructure. Simply piling more aspirations and needs of the youth However, attention to quantity has bodies into universities without is likely to lead not only to sluggish not always been accompanied by adequate attention to the conditions economic growth, but also to youth an adequate emphasis on quality. for learning reduces the impact of unrest, a lingering sense of injustice Many institutions suffer from very large university study, and at worst can and lack of purpose, and, in the class sizes, with numbers in excess of waste precious years of young people’s most extreme cases, to extremism 500 in an undergraduate class being lives, dash the high hopes of their and violence. common, on account of the lack of families and incur debt. Meaningful There is no doubting the impressive funds to recruit lecturers and, in some access to higher education means growth of higher education systems cases, a shortage of appropriately engaging in a high quality and relevant across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). qualified candidates. In addition, there course that will open opportunities The total number of enrolments in are complaints of inadequate physical in the broader society. the region increased from 2.3 million infrastructure, lack of laboratories and These quality challenges have in 1999 to 6.6 million in 2013 – of equipment for scientific, engineering translated into dissatisfaction with the global regions, only Asia had a and agricultural studies, outdated graduate skills in the labour market. faster growth rate in this period. 5 curricula, ineffective pedagogical While the situation of graduates is Nevertheless, SSA still has a low methods and inefficient administration. 9 uneven across the region, a recent gross enrolment ratio of 8.17 per In many cases, these challenges are study by the Inter-University Council cent (compared to the global rate of the direct result of a rapid expansion for
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