Zimbabwe’s Higher and Tertiary Education Minister Professor Amon Murwira has challenged institutions of higher learning to adopt international best practices and raise their overall institutional quality, including student accommodation, as a first step towards the development of a national institutional framework for the internationalisation of higher education. 

In reference to the squalid conditions in which many students reside due to chronic shortages of campus accommodation, Murwira told a conference, held last week in Harare and focused on internationalisation of the sector, that the system needs to construct infrastructure that conforms to international standards before it can invite students and staff as part of internationalisation initiatives. 

“We are also saying if you want to be truly international, we cannot have our students studying in holes. Surely you cannot claim to be international when your students are sleeping 10 to a room … Infrastructure development is a very important component of internationalisation,” said Murwira. 

Murwira said the country’s higher and tertiary education system must also have predictable order, be transparent and harmonised. “We no longer want an opaque system. If you want to be trusted, be transparent,” he said.

Investor interest

The minister said the higher education sector can raise billions of dollars and build its own infrastructure following renewed investor interest in the sector and responsible deployment of available resources such as the Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund. 

“I know that we are going to raise billions of dollars and the higher and tertiary education sector shall be an area of growth in the economy, creating infrastructure, innovations, economic opportunities and jobs for export. I’m dreaming of a future where the sector becomes the prime export industry.”

He said when the country has transparent education systems, relevant skills, infrastructure that is top-notch and has adopted international best practices in everything it does, then it was ready for the world.

As a strategy to promote internationalisation, Murwira said his ministry had facilitated the development of a National Qualifications Framework that will harmonise learning programmes and learner mobility within and outside Zimbabwe, and a National Skills Audit, the results of which show an urgent need to bridge the skills gaps. The two initiatives will be launched in the coming weeks. 

Progression and standardisation

“The National Skills Audit is showing us that although we have high education levels, our skills levels are only at 38%. Also, our system was not very fair: when one finished a course at a polytechnic or teacher training college and then went to university, one would be treated like an Advanced Level student. The system must recognise work being done by other components of itself. We want to ensure there is progression and that our courses are standardised across the system. Every degree must have a professional body,” he added.

Dr Evelyn Garwe, acting director of the Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education, the country’s higher education regulator, which is overseeing the internationalisation process, said university vice-chancellors met last year and developed a theory of change on internationalisation of higher and tertiary education. 

She said the internationalisation of higher and tertiary education entailed the recruitment of foreign students, fostering active partnerships with foreign institutions, sending students to study abroad, setting up overseas campuses for local institutions, international research collaborations, engagement in global enterprise development and participation on international platforms for teaching and research. 

Professor Ranga Zinyemba, vice-chancellor of Chinhoyi University of Technology, said universities had come up with “tangible outputs” to achieve internationalisation. 

“As universities we have come up with tangible outputs to achieve our goal to internationalise. This includes attractive programmes, favourable immigration and government policies, systems which give foreign staff the ability to remit money, political stability and having our staff publish in high impact journals,” he said. 

Furthermore, universities must develop harmonised programmes and achieve favourable international rankings, he said.

In response to the minister’s comments, Zinyemba said the higher education sector was clearly dissatisfied with its current state and condition, but with clear vision, commitment, togetherness, friends and experience, it could triumph over its challenges. 

Challenges

Dr Juliet Thondhlana, researcher at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, who conducted a scoping study on internationalisation of higher and tertiary education in December 2017 covering six of the country’s 24 universities, said many universities were already engaged in internationalisation activities and had some internationalisation structures, but many of them were facing challenges. 

“Some of the challenges include the political environment, sanctions, different entry requirements from other institutions of higher learning in the Southern African Development Community region and beyond, immigration controls, financial constraints, language barriers, shortages of lecturers with PhDs and a lack of harmonised guidelines on internationalisation of higher education that universities can follow to come up with their own institutional policies,” said Thondhlana. 

To achieve internationalisation, the universities called for policy guidelines, a national internationalisation policy, internationalisation structures such as international offices, and overseas campuses. 

“It was felt that if these tools can be secured, Zimbabwe would then have an increased presence of international students and staff, and mobility.”