BOTSWANA

BOTSWANA: Decision soon on stalled new university
The future of the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) at Palapye, 260 kilometres northeast of the capital Gaborone, will be known in early October. The potential of this high-profile project to contribute to meeting the country's human resources needs has been wrapped in controversy and subject to the whims of contending interests for years.Botswana's planning for its second public university goes back to 2004. A team was established, now known as the Mpuchane Commission or the Task Force on the Establishment of the Second University in Botswana, and it reported to the Minister of Education in May 2004.
An Act of Parliament in December 2005 established BIUST. As originally conceived, it was to become a 'world-class university' employing public-private partnerships and with strong links to programmes of excellence elsewhere in the world.
Belatedly, the BIUST council was formed and a founding vice-chancellor was recruited, Professor Kweku Bentil, a Ghanaian-American. His term ends this month and his contract has not been renewed. Bentil is credited with a number of initiatives associated with BIUST including:
1- Obtaining US$6.1 million for the development of the university from the European Union.
2- Setting the framework for a Mining and Geological Museum at Palapye to encourage mining tourism.
3- Facilitating private sector investment in a Science, Engineering and Technology Research Park on the campus, including the Botswana Institute of Food Security.
4 Starting a BIUST Trust to enable foreign direct investment in Botswana and to stimulate local development in Palapye.
5- Seeking support from Germany, through a link with Ingolstadt University, to establish an educational ecological lodge on the campus.
There is dissatisfaction in some quarters over the way BIUST has developed. Costs have been high. There have been continuous delays in implementation, and poor project management with little visibly to show for it. A 24.5 kilometre face-brick wall has been built to enclose the 2,500 hectare campus, plus a bridge, costing US$7 million.
So far more than $61 million has been spent on developing phase one of BIUST and the institution has yet to open. Already established during this phase are administrative and student centres, a library, clinic, laboratories, classrooms and staff and student housing.
It is estimated that the development costs for BIUST over the next 10 years could amount to $1.3 billion. The scale and costs of building a world-class university appear shocking to decision-makers and politicians, who may have difficulty perceiving the long-term benefits of the venture.
There is also not an adequate realisation that that these costs are relatively low compared to the capital costs of developing such a project in North America or Europe.
It was anticipated in 2007 that BIUST would start operating in 2009 with an initial enrolment of 2,500 students and reaching 10,000 students by 2016. But procrastination and the absence of clear decision-making and support from the government have caused enrolment postponements.
The most recent target embraced by the BIUST council and academic leadership was to begin its phase one intake of 256 students in January 2012. Even this scaled-down objective is now unattainable and BIUST will be fortunate if it can open by August 2012.
This set-back was partially caused by the creation of a high-level review committee by Minister of Education and Skills Development, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, in November 2010 to review the future of BIUST.
It was led by Dr Happy Fidzani, Director of the Botswana Institute for Development Policy Analysis, and Dr Burton Mguni, a former deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Botswana.
It was tasked with reviewing costs, duplication of programmes and facilities offered by other tertiary institutions in Botswana, future human resource requirements for graduates and the viability of BIUST's phase two. They were also to take into account decisions made by the Tertiary Education Council (TEC) on the rationalisation of the tertiary sector in Botswana.
The committee's overall brief was to recommend whether BIUST should "proceed as originally planned or in some changed form". According to local media, the review team reported in April this year and came out in support of BIUST, arguing that the project should continue but in a phased manner.
Competing forces lobbying cabinet have caused the government to take six months to make a decision. The delays have also been attributed to cabinet seeking answers to new queries about the project, dramatic changes within the government in recent years and the global financial crisis, which has increased the cost of BIUST and severely altered the level of commitment to new projects.
The Ministry of Education and Skills Development failed to hand over management of the project to the BIUST council, as required by the BIUST Act of 2005. Had the university's development been under the council and senior staff, it is likely it would have taken off and won wider support within the country before the global meltdown.
Now, if the new university goes ahead, it will cost far more than originally anticipated.
The rationalisation of both BIUST and the University of Botswana will require new measures to respond adequately to the TEC's policies and the National Human Resource Development Strategy. It could also require the amendment of the acts that established both institutions if the new approaches to achieving a knowledge economy are to happen.
The rationale concerning the need for BIUST is still present.
The University of Botswana is not meeting national requirements in science and technology. A bottleneck in the science faculty foundation year of some 700 students has never been resolved. It is estimated that at least three times that number of O Level students qualify to be admitted to a science foundation year.
The cost of sending science and technology students abroad is up to seven times what it would cost per student per year within Botswana. The need for such educational opportunities within the country exists if the vision to become an "educated and informed nation" is to be attained.
There is also a concern in Botswana that if the number of science and technology students increases dramatically there would not be employment opportunities for them. This view is accentuated by thousands of jobless graduates, and those enrolled annually in the National Internship Programme, although most of these are arts and social science students.
Market surveys on absorption rates for science and technology graduates remain to be done. It is known that around 13,000 foreigners had work permits in 2009 in these areas because citizens with the requisite skills were not available. Dependence on imported high-level human resources is costly to the nation, but is not as publically visible as building a second public university.
The member of parliament for Palapye, Moiseraele Goya, has said that BIUST will continue as originally planned, has not been scaled down and will not be turned into a technical college, as the media reported in advance of the impending cabinet decision on its future.
Rumours of 'downsizing' BIUST have elicited protests from other MPs and the private sector in Palapye, which has been investing in anticipation of the full development of the new university as originally approved.
It is likely BIUST will now be implemented in a phased and gradual manner. Its foundation will be in the core areas of engineering, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
It is perceived that a new public university is more likely to attain excellence than the University of Botswana, which is seen to be stagnating, having been ranked in research and graduate attainment at 5,375 out of 6,000 universities in the world.
Existing graduate programmes in engineering should therefore be transferred from the University of Botswana to BIUST, along with the Botswana College of Agriculture at Sebele and the Okavango Research Institute outside Maun. This would strengthen BIUST as a centre of excellence.
It is suggested that the older university concentrate on developing a medical school and teaching hospital that are now under construction. Two other national institutions are also favoured to come under BIUST: the Department of Agricultural Research and the National Food Research Technology Centre.
However, the loss of components by the University of Botswana will be strongly opposed by vested interests.
After Bentil leaves it is likely that the acting vice-chancellor will be Dr Shabani Ndzinge, who joined BIUST a few months ago as Deputy Vice-chancellor. He was previously deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Botswana, and before that dean of the business faculty.
Ndzinge was educated at the universities of Botswana, Dar es Salaam and Northwestern, and holds an MSc from the University of Delaware and a PhD from the University of Kent in the UK. It is likely that he will become the first citizen vice-chancellor of BIUST.
COMMENT:
This article is highly biased in favour of BIUST. For instance, the Government has made huge capital investments at UB related to engineering and science. Any move of engineering to Palapye would be expensive, and leave the new engineering buildings (4) in need of substantial retooling. Admittedly, UB has problems but they certainly could be addressed at much less cost than building a new university. I could go on. So much documentation is lacking for the policy assertions made.
John D. Holm
The above article is a factual report on BIUST and the Fidzani Report. If Professor Holm finds it biased then he disagrees with the findings of the consultancy report requested by the Republic of Botswana. It has been reported that Cabinet on 26 October approved the Fidzani Report. This has not yet officially been announced.
Sheldon Weeks