BOTSWANA: Shifting policies benefit Malaysian private university

For two days last week, 16 Malaysian universities held open house at the international trade fair grounds in Gaborone, Botswana. The Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education exhibition followed a similar two-week event last year where exhibitors hoped to attract Botswana's students to apply and enrol in their institutions. But one Malaysian institution had already opened a campus in the country – the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology.

Limkokwing opened in Botswana in March last year with 1,500 students and now says it has 6,000 enrolled. Almost 4,700 are sponsored by the Botswana government while the others are self-sponsored and foreign students. Founder of Limkokwing, Tan Sri Dato' Dr Lim Kok Wing, said he planned to expand the Botswana campus to 30,000 students by 2016 and intended to promote distance learning and double degrees.

The rapid growth of Limkokwing has caused critics to suggest that Botswana president Festus Mogae and Education Minister Jacob Nkate have personal interests in Limkokwing – an allegation both have denied.

Of the 177 staff hired by the university this year, 133 are teaching and of these 24 have masters and 109 ‘junior degrees’. With 6,000 students it has a staff-student ratio of one to 45 – more like the ratio expected in a secondary institution rather than a university although it is not known how many students are pursuing part-time programmes.

The average investment by the government in tuition fees and cost of living allowances for a Limkokwing student is US$8,000 per year or P243.6 million for 4,700 students. This is meant to represent a cost saving as transport and the other costs of sending students abroad are no longer covered.

Limkokwing is a young institution but enough students were sponsored to study at the campus in Malaysia that some have already found employment teaching at the new campus in Gaborone. The university has also opened a branch in London and initially was promoting a triangle: enrol in Botswana and study in London and-or Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, Sarawak or Cyberjaya.

It is now planning new campuses in New York, Beijing and Jakarta so its success in Botswana has helped it grow to a global university. It is not known yet, though, how many of the local students will take advantage of the opportunity to study at Limkokwing's different campuses.

After Botswana abandoned National Service in 2001, there was a rapid expansion in the number of students finishing their O levels and this year, the number almost reached 30,000.

The limited number of places at the only national university resulted in the Department of Student Placement and Welfare aggressively sponsoring qualified students to study abroad, particularly in South Africa, but also in Malaysia, Australia and other countries where it was felt there was value for money.

In 2006, some 400 Botswana students were sponsored to study in North America, 570 in Australia and 660 in Malaysia. The largest number, 7,500 or about 80%, were sent to tertiary institutions in South Africa. To reduce the sponsorship costs of studying abroad, Botswana is committed to expanding its university system.

A second university, the Botswana International University of Science and Technology, is to be built at Palapye in the northeast. It has been planned for a number of years but faces delays and may not now open until 2010.

The existing publicly-funded University of Botswana enrols nearly 15,000 students and, in addition, there are a number of colleges for education, technology, agriculture and health but they are all stretched to capacity.

The Tertiary Education Council began inviting and accepting provisional registration of new tertiary institutions from the private sector in 2002 with the objective of expanding the proportion of the 17-24 age group in tertiary training from 3% to 8% – compared with South Africa's 15%.

Five key players were registered last year and overall capacity within the country increased by at least another 10,000 students in 2008. It was to help fill the need for more places that the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology was given the nod to open.