If you had to invent a university, what would it look like?

Universities must abandon old-fashioned ideas about their roles and the kinds of qualifications they offer if they are to meet student needs and serve the public good, says Peter Wells, the head of education at UNESCO’s regional office for Southern Africa.

Citing research indicating that too many graduates are working below the level of the qualifications they have received or are unemployed, Wells emphasises the importance of ensuring that students who have invested time and family money in entering higher education “should derive significant benefits on an individual basis in their careers … as well as in terms of the public good, helping to serve their local or national communities or even the African continent”.

Accordingly, universities should reimagine the education that they are offering so that students can succeed in their education and enter the labour market at the level of their qualification.

In this respect, Wells argues that “the notion of bachelor, masters and PhD qualifications which take years to complete is somewhat outdated”.

“Of course, there will still be a call for longer courses, such as five-year medical qualifications – after all, you can’t become a doctor in six months,” he said. “But at the same time, there is a clear need to deliver short courses, such as those which have become known as ‘baby bachelors’ and ‘micro-masters’ in line with the needs of the labour market in both the public and private sectors.”

Resisting change?

However, Wells notes, universities are resisting the call to reimagine the kinds of knowledge, research and study programmes that they are providing.

“Unfortunately, universities around the world are plagued by tradition and are cautious as a result,” he said. “Which is not to say that the history, which has made universities what they are, and the traditions which have evolved as a result, should be discounted; but rather that they have created a lot of baggage in terms of modalities, rules and procedure which may no longer be that relevant.

“I say this all the time: ‘Imagine if there were no such thing as a university right now and you had to invent one. What would it look like?’,” Wells said.

“That’s the reimagining that is required: Who are we really? What knowledge do we want? What research do we want? What study programmes do we want? For whom? How and why? And where?”

Curricula, pedagogy, assessment probed

In an effort to address such conservatism, UNESCO has undertaken a four-year project in Sub-Saharan Africa to examine the curricula, pedagogy and assessment being deployed at higher technical institutions.

“The problem [is] that the curricula which are implemented in Africa, as in many other parts of the world, often just stagnate, while the pedagogic and assessment techniques on the continent and elsewhere fail to keep up with the times,” said Wells.

The project seeks to support and train faculty members so that they can equip their students with the appropriate knowledge and skills and accurately assess the competencies being acquired during the particular degree programme.

Wells emphasises the importance of equipping individuals, including teachers, nurses, doctors and public servants, with up-to-date skills in a rapidly changing job market.

“In the modern workplace, employability and career development depends on acquiring up-to-date skills,” he said.

“Unless the latest, new skills are acquired every two years or so, the modern employee faces being replaced by a better-qualified job applicant waiting to take their place.”

In this context, he argues for increased provision of continuous education: “These individuals need training that they can undertake quickly and easily so that they continue to work to support themselves and their families.

“They can’t just drop out to acquire a masters degree.”

Groundswell in support of reform

Praising the private higher education sector, which, he says, is thriving “because it meets the wide need for continuous training”, Wells advocates systemic reform of national higher education systems in an effort to meet contemporary employment and development needs.

Addressing the issue of colonisation which, he says, has created “a hangover stretching back more than 100 years” for many higher education institutions, Wells notes that there is a groundswell of international opinion pushing for reform of the sector.

“Now there is a global voice saying that all those systems need to change … So, there is an opportunity, without sacrificing the baby, to change the bathwater; and to create new national or even sub-national higher education systems.”

In reforming these systems, a key question, according to Wells, is whether the priority should be on fostering research- or teaching-intensive institutions.

In this regard, he argues that traditional academia tends to valorise research over teaching, “which, to my mind, is not only a shame, but quite disastrous”.

Instead, he says, “a mindset shift is required to promote the notion that a higher education institution serving the local community or national socio-economic development can be a ‘good university’ even though it is not ploughing lots of money into research”.

Knowledge production project

In addition, Wells is promoting the new four-year UNESCO project that is also seeking to boost the efficiency of the knowledge production being undertaken in Sub-Saharan Africa by promoting greater collaboration among researchers.

“The problem being that there is insufficient coordination at present, which can lead, for example, to the ridiculous situation of somebody in Fiji and somebody in Windhoek [Namibia] both researching the effects of climate change on oceans failing to connect when they should – since, after all, two brains are better than one.”

The importance of differentiation

More generally, Wells emphasises the importance of differentiation in national higher education systems as a means of addressing employment and development challenges.

He describes national efforts to establish multiple higher education institutions providing the full range of courses as “folly”.

“In this regard, a key principle in reimagining the higher education system is that no institution should try to be everything to everybody,” he said. “Rather, they should all try to be something to somebody.”

Accordingly, Wells says, universities should seek to identify their unique institutional virtues rather than trying to compete with each other.

“The advice to higher education institutions would be that they should exercise their autonomy and craft their own particular vision and mission, identifying what they want to do and for whom.

“So, the focus might be on a relatively small local or regional community, or it might be on a much wider national development agenda. But, whatever is on offer should be unique to that institution.

“In this way, a nice diversity of institutions can be established; and a range of graduates may be produced, each different according to what they have learned and where they have studied.”

This article is based on an interview conducted by Professor Catherine Odora Hoppers for ‘The Imprint of Education’ project, which is being implemented by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), South Africa, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. This project, which includes a series of critical engagements with experienced scholars and thought leaders on their reimaginings of higher education in Africa, investigates current and future challenges facing the sector, including best practices and innovations. Thierry M Luescher and Mark Paterson edited the transcript for focus and length. A full transcript of the interview can be downloaded from the HSRC’s website.