Ladies and Gentlemen,

The following article is from the Observer, I found it very interesting but I wonder why UTG establish a Medical School. I beleive the timing is wrong. Please read on.

Opinion
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Sustaining universities
By LJ Marenah ORG
Jan 19, 2004, 09:12

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Today's national economies are often described as knowledge-based. As an important source of expertise, skills and technology, the university potentially makes a significant contribution to economic growth and, hopefully, to standards of living. This contribution is greatly enhanced by appropriate further education, which produces well-trained technicians to improve the productivity and efficiency of the more expensive professionals, especially at the work place.

At a Saint Mary's University mini-university forum, I once told twelfth graders that they would learn many useful things for their further studies, although not all of them may enter university. Perhaps this remark, with no intention of underrating anyone's academic ability, but to reflect reality, may have gone too far. In our own country, we are aware of and often lamented the shortage of Gambian artisans of various kinds, as a drag on the economy. The British are experiencing a similar problem and the government is vigorously promoting sub-degree programmes, such as HND and the new foundation degrees, which could be terminal but more likely progress on to more academic first (university) degrees, in order to rectify the shortage of certain skills in the economy. These sub-degrees are much valued by industry because of the practical knowledge and skills they offer, and command relatively high salaries.

In October 2003, the University of The Gambia (UTG) reported in the Daily Observer some two years' arrears in the payment of tuition fees, warned the students concerned to settle their debts before they were allowed to continue their courses and advised new students to pay at least part of their fees upfront. This report coming within only three or four years of the establishment of the university is somewhat troubling, considering the adverse effects of shortage of funds on the implementation of academic programmes, and in particular, on quality education, in the long run, should the shortages continue.

World Bank reports going back to the 1980s, have highlighted the harmful effects of decreasing public funding per student combined with increasing university enrolment on quality of higher education in sub-Saharan African universities. Judging by the apparent lack of public reaction to the university's report, the situation was probably not alarming. This article discusses generally the wider issue of sustaining our universities.
The governing body (the council) and the senate (academic board) are two of the most important structures in the British university system. The former, among others, is responsible for the determination of the educational character and mission of the university and for oversight of its activities, including the exercise of degree awarding powers, the effective and efficient use of resources and for safeguarding its assets.

The council is also responsible for the appointment and dismissal of staff, including the vice-chancellor who is the chief academic and administrative officer. The senate is delegated responsibility for all academic affairs and is usually, but not necessarily always chaired by the vice-chancellor. The independent chair of council (pro-chancellor) is concerned, both formally and informally, with all the major financial and strategic decisions of the university and thus, it is desirable that s/he works very closely with the vice-chancellor on broad issues of policy and development.

The consensus nowadays is that the lay members of council should form the majority, thus enabling the university to benefit from the expertise, broad views and experience of outsiders from different backgrounds. The university can demand a lot of the time of council members, especially during the early years of its establishment. The first council of UTG, for instance, had to meet weekly for a long time and it is known that the council of universities more than 100 years old still meet every month. Therefore, members should be prepared to spare the time needed for council and committee meetings. Normally the council has such wide powers and responsibility that it has something to answer for the university's fulfilment of its mission.
At present, almost worldwide, universities are too heavily dependent on state financing while governments are finding it increasingly difficult to cover university budgets.

Therefore, it is imperative that universities make more economical use of resources, diversify sources of funding and give priority to fund-raising to increase incomes. Otherwise, with their current level of financial dependence, they run the risk of under- funding as well as interference or micro management and control leading to loss of their autonomy and academic freedom. The saying "He who pays the piper calls the tune" applies.
Tuition and other fees, set at realistic levels and paid timely to ensure solvency, are a common source of valuable revenue. The belief exists that those who mostly benefit directly from university education (i.e. the students) should pay for it or at least contribute rewards its cost.

It is argued that this is fair since the average university graduate in the UK could earn twice as much during their lifetime as a non-graduate. The United Kingdom, faced with university short-funding, plans substantially increased tuition fees; student loans (making upfront payment of tuition fees unnecessary) and repayment of debts after graduation. Appropriate maintenance grants will be awarded to student labs and libraries. This is why private universities usually do not offer very expensive courses.

With financial resources limiting, savings should be made wherever possible. Universities may delay starting highly expensive science-based courses, such as engineering and medicine, depending on priorities of the economy and public services. To save on staff and meet essential needs, it is advantageous to recruit academic staff who have additional training or experience in curriculum development and can teach more than one area of a degree programmes as well as in consultancy work. The commission on the establishment of UTG rightly emphasised the importance of curriculum development to ensure course content is adapted to local circumstances and needs without ignoring international norms. Someone once said that lecturers should not teach what they want or can teach but rather what they should teach.

The commission shied away from recommending in the short term, a new and vast residential campus for UTG, because the provision of student board and lodging in the sub-region was found to be extremely costly and often proven unsustainable. The private sector could perhaps take up the financing and management of university hostels and the savings made used to support academic programmes instead of the rather excessive expenditure on administration and social programmes.

Rather large complex faculties or schools, in terms of subjects covered, under stellar leadership, rather than large numbers of departments and faculties are now the trend. This restructuring enhances multidisciplinary cooperation in teaching and research and reduces administrative costs. The lumping together of science and agriculture (and perhaps engineering later) in one faulty in UTG reflects the trend.

The university can engage in various income-generating activities such as consultancies and research contracts as well as appropriate commercially-oriented enterprises whose income could support research. Alumni donations to US universities, in particular, are worth millions of dollars. Besides alumni assistance, other countries may look into possible financial and material aid from public, commerce and business, which benefit somehow from the products of their national universities.

Academics are supposed to do three things: "to know stuff (scholarship); to find out more (research) and to communicate that knowledge and enthusiasm to others (teaching)." To these, may be added community service (outreach programmes) to enhance community life. Sometimes people decry the utilitarian aspects or vocational- orientation of universities, but this is unfair considering that even medieval universities were expected to produce clerics for the king and today's universities train professionals such as lawyers and engineers.

Teaching is of direct and immediate benefit to students. There are teaching-only colleges and private universities (some more than 100 years old in the US and elsewhere and their graduates do not seem handicapped. Highly qualified and/or experienced academic staff are needed to develop a culture of research (when necessary), undertake research and supervise quality research degree programmes. It could be argued that, in the early life of a university, it is more cost-effective giving priority to highest possible quality teaching rather than rapidly developing costly research. Will it more wisely be concentration on immediately useful research or expensive somewhat unpredictable blue-skies (pure) research, which may be 'bought' from others and cheaply exploited for development? Giving high priority to quality teaching in the beginning was the strategy adopted by leading African universities such as Makerere in Uganda where over 70 per cent of 21,000 students were also reported to pay upfront fees. Both research and teaching are essential, it is a question of prioritising, taking into account available resources, which are likely to be very limited for intensive research in the beginning.

The Times Higher Education Supplement of 7 November 2003 reports a recent World Bank conference held in Accra, Ghana, whose conclusions include:
*Upfront tuition fees are essential if universities in sub-Saharan Africa are to improve academic standards, build postgraduate programmes and stem the loss of faculty.
* About 150 public universities in the region have been hit by reduced revenue, and most were unable to retain or attract qualified lectures.
* The diminishing quality of higher education was also blamed for driving African students overseas. An estimated 130,000 Africans were studying overseas.
* A minister of higher education called for speedy reforms such as discarding irrelevant programmes and introducing demand-driven courses.

When planning the establishment of UTG, there was great optimism that to further improve its viability, international students - especially from the West Africa sub-region - who pay much welcome higher tuition fees than indigenous students, would be attracted and enrolled. However, this will only materialise to a large extent, if high quality education is offered.

Incidentally, the commission on the establishment of UTG also recommended periodic surveys of middle and high-level manpower requirements of the economy, the findings of which would guide university programmes in meeting market demands. This will be one way of avoiding surplus unemployed general arts graduates.

The Accra conference has once more highlighted the harmful effects of the financial crisis facing a large number of universities. A substantial increase in revenues and adopting some of the other measures indicated in this article, including reduced financial dependence, should go a long way towards improving the sustainability of our universities.

Acknowledgement: Information from the Times Higher Education Supplement of London since 1997 and the "Guide for Members of the Governing Bodies of Universities and Colleges in England and Wales" is gratefully acknowledged.

Kebba Foon




I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something he will die for,
he isn't fit to live.
Martin Luther King Jr.,

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