Institutional level

25 Feb 2010

Below is a schematic overview of the present status of the Higher Education Sector at the institutional level and the outcomes of NICHE projects in Zambia. This overview is based on Annex 1 of the Programme Outline.

Benchmark of the present status

  • The three public universities have already improved systems of management, administration, financial planning and cost recovery. There is still a need to enhance these systems in order to provide appropriate financial reporting and planning for delivery of university education. The NPT programme will address these issues in a follow up project at two public universities.
  • The three public universities have developed strategic and/or business plans indicating observed weaknesses and prioritized intervention areas and have recently started implementation;
  • Insufficient surplus for capital investment, staff development and research;
  • University education enrolment is limited to about 14,000 students, 2,000 of whom take courses through Distance Education and Open Learning;
  • Staffing levels of the various programmes are insufficient. There is a particular shortage of young and academically qualified staff;
  • Gender policies are available yet not implemented. There is hardly any information available on drop-out rates of female students and stimulation packages for female lecturers to pursue academic careers;
  • Both staff and students have limited access to education and research materials and ICT (in libraries).
  • There is a lack of ICT infrastructure and fibre networks to connect university campuses to providers. There are no effective low-cost alternatives available to upgrade bandwidths.

Medium Term Outcome(s) - 4 years

  • Leadership, management and administration at the public universities have acquired the knowledge, skills and instruments to properly manage and organize their institutions with clear results in terms of increased efficiency levels (internal and external).
  • Universities have increased their capacity to develop, review and implement their strategic plans with special emphasis on labour market needs and gender issues.
  • The organizational capacity of the public universities has been strengthened in line with the priorities outlined in their strategic plans - especially for human resource development, curriculum development, increased access to and use of ICT for teaching, learning and research, strengthening of distance education and quality improvement of research - with special emphasis on labour market needs and gender issues.
  • Universities have enhanced, developed and implemented internal quality assurance and M&E systems for academic programmes.

Longer Term Outcome(s) - 8 years

  • The participating institutions have well performing systems of management, administration, financial planning and cost recovery, which are positively assessed by external stakeholders (MoE, donors, Auditor General of Zambia).
  • The government, society and donors have a better return on investment from university education.
  • Universities have successfully implemented consultancy tasks and research projects (PPPs) which resulted in:
    - higher additional revenues;
    - higher quality of Zambian research studies and products;
    - sustainable relations with the public and private sector.
  • The most important weaknesses, as identified in the 2009 strategic plans, have been eliminated in those domains in which NICHE invested.
  • The number of graduates in university education has considerably and demonstrably increased due to NICHE interventions, including expansion through Distance Education and Open Learning.
  • The employability rates of graduates and post-graduates has increased with a proven tracer records.
  • NICHE has achieved better quality of staffing levels in the departments and faculties of the three public universities where staff development investments have been made.
  • Gender policies have been implemented and there has been a rise of women in public and private sector employment (including middle and higher management positions).
  • Access to education and research materials has been improved through better access to and use of ICT for both staff and students at the three public universities.
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