Public university wants to expand its programmes

The Amílcar Cabral University, the only public university in Guinea-Bissau, one of the world’s poorest and politically fragile countries, is looking to expand its educational services and attract more funds, trying to overturn past student dissatisfaction with its work.

After nine years leaning on a public-private partnership with the Lisbon, Portugal-based Lusófona University, the UAC (Portuguese acronym for Universidade Amílcar Cabral) partnership ended in 2013 after the government jeopardised the agreement. The UAC then operated at a low level for five years, seriously restarting operations in 2018 as a stand-alone body.

A new rector, Timóteo Saba M’bunde, was appointed in September 2020 by a new government that was confirmed in office in July after contested elections in 2019.

Extending programmes

In place as head of the UAC, M'bunde has announced that he will “do the reverse” of past timid expansions, “make things happen and then reap the rewards”. He told University World News he wanted to start with the extension of the university’s bachelor programmes from six to nine, adding economics, social services and educational sciences.

He hoped this expansion would cause more officials and educationalists to give “attention to the university”, adding: “In this country things don’t always happen when we hope to have the resources to take a step forward.”

Expansion is of importance for sustainably developing the UAC, he said.

“A public university must have a variety of options for those who want to have a higher education,” M’bunde told University World News. By adding new courses, the rector hopes the number of students at the university, which is based in the capital, Bissau, will start to grow, initially from about 300 to 500, saying the university is already receiving applications.

In another positive sign, the university will cease its past sole reliance on tuition fees (which will, in any case, continue) and temporary lecturers, with the government hiring 35 permanent state-funded lecturers for the university.

Given the university’s past weaknesses, M’bunde will have a tough time convincing Guinea-Bissau’s 1.8 million residents that he can succeed.

Carlos Mendes Junior, the marketing manager of the Academic Association of UAC, claimed that, when he met the new Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embaló earlier this year, the national leader joked, saying he “didn’t know about the existence of the university”. However, the president of this Portuguese-speaking country did promise Mendes that he would press his government to improve the institution.

Bettering degrees

As yet, despite the appointment of a new rector, there has been little visible improvement, Mendes told University World News: “By now, nothing has improved,” he complained, highlighting broken chairs, no properly operational laboratories, limited bathroom space, malfunctioning computers for IT students, social science and natural science students attending the same classes and weak information about degree programmes.

“The UAC is adding new bachelors [degrees] without defining a good teaching policy. It seems that they want more students than good education for them,” the marketing manager argued.

Rector M’bunde, however, replied that he had just arrived in his job, and he was trying to improve the conditions for the new degrees “to get a better performance”, helping him leverage contacts with the government. The rector said he and his team were committed to making progress: “We can’t stop.”

He may need to deliver improvements soon given, upset among students that their tuition fees have increased and classes have been cancelled because of delays in paying teachers’ salaries, a situation that will be solved soon, according to the rector.

Mendes worries he will not be able to finish his bachelor degree because of the instability at the university. He was among an initial cohort of more than 60 IT students during an earlier expansion in 2018 but, with this course now in its second year, “there are only 23 students left, and there’s still a possibility this number will drop further,” he warned.

A new ministry of higher education

M’bunde is working to “create conditions to consolidate” UAC’s new courses to get “national, sub-regional and international credibility”, but almost every step requires funds, which are often in short supply within a Guinea-Bissau government that has spent much of the year resolving who won the 2019 legislative and presidential elections.

The UAC is also working to get “financial and legal autonomy” since securing approvals for anything at present, is “so bureaucratic”, he said.

The new government does want to rationalise higher education in the country. For instance, it wants to integrate two autonomous higher-education schools into the UAC, namely the Faculty of Law of Guinea-Bissau, and Raúl Díaz-Argüelles García Faculty of Medicine, which rely on support from Portugal and Cuba respectively.

The government wants to do the same with the country’s Higher School of Education and the National School of Administration. Their student numbers are not currently counted within the UAC total.

Guinea-Bissau’s Higher Education Secretary Garcia Bideta said all these initiatives were challenging: “Higher education is a very complex subsystem and, considering the precariousness of the educational system, and other factors, such as the political and economic sectors, it’s very hard.”

One key reform under consideration that might bring these plans to fruition, Bideta said, was creating a new ministry of higher education and technological innovation – currently there is a general ministry of national education and higher education covering all tiers of studies.

Distance learning not an option

At present, he said, education gets only 12% of the national budget which, for this year, is awaiting approval by the National People’s Assembly. A meagre 1.5% to 2% and this is “very insignificant” has been earmarked especially for higher education, given the government has indicated the overall pot will be just US$475 million.

Higher education in Guinea-Bissau is at an “embryonic stage”, said Bideta, and needs significant funds to develop new facilities, academic degrees and lecturers’ training. Government spending currently barely covers salaries and a few scholarships. International aid has, so far, usually focused on lower-education levels, he stressed, saying that he hopes that, once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, public funds for expanding higher education will flow into the country.

Fighting COVID-19 itself has also demanded a share of these scarce resources, but it has been tough for Guinea-Bissau higher education to “comply with 100%” of health guidance, since there are still insufficient resources to ensure social distancing and masks, he said.

The minister added that distance learning has not been an option, given that families often cannot afford to buy computers or tablets and the country’s internet connections are poor. As a result, physical classes have to be staged and those for the 2020-21 academic year that were supposed to have begun in September have been postponed until January.

Inspection capacity

Meanwhile, government officials are assessing the current number of students in the country and planning the future allocation of resources. Inspection of teaching standards faces “many difficulties” said the minister, but agreements with Portugal and Brazil are in place to train inspectors, which makes Bideta believe that, in five years’ time Guinea-Bissau will have its own qualified higher education inspection capacity.

Bideta noted that private universities also operate in the country but many lack formal authorisation, with only five being government-approved to operate facilities in Guinea-Bissau, namely the Lusófona University, the University of Colinas de Boé, the Nova University of Guinea (Universidade Nova da Guiné), the Jean Piaget University of Guinea-Bissau and the Catholic University of Guinea Bissau, all with links to Portugal, the former colonial power.

But the government is open to discussions with institutions based in other countries. For instance, it is discussing an agreement with an American university to offer Guinea-Bissau students degrees through distance learning, said Bideta.

Also, Pishu Gianchandani, the president of an India, Spain, the Gambia and USA-based business body, the World United Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said he was promoting the construction of an international university to welcome 10,000 students from around the world on the Guinea-Bissau island of Bolama. The country needs “an international-standard higher education” expanding through a “vanguard method”, said Gianchandani.

The ministry of national education and higher education has yet to receive information about this idea, said Bideta.

Polytechnic network

One long-term initiative that may be revived in future includes plans to create a polytechnic education network with several hubs in the interior of Guinea-Bissau, Bideta confirmed.

A Portuguese non-governmental organisation for development, the Faith and Cooperation Foundation (FEC, Fundação Fé e Cooperação) likes the idea. The FEC helps to improve teachers’ skills and support postgraduate education in Guinea-Bissau.

Its representative in the country, Carla Pinto, praises the plan because “the higher education network is almost entirely centred in Bissau,” (the capital). Besides, the nation “needs a great supply of human resources with a medium level of capacity and with technical education” to make its industrial, agricultural and business sectors evolve.

From her perspective, Guinea-Bissau also needs “more regulation” in higher education, to better plan the education needed to make the country grow. Furthermore, many Guinea-Bissau students get scholarships from other governments to study abroad, and, even though education is always helpful for the students concerned, the subjects offered are “not always strategic” for the country, and do not fit the Guinea-Bissau economy, she said.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commissioner for Education, Science and Culture, Leopoldo Amado, himself from Guinea-Bissau, was quoted by Portugal-based news agency Lusa in September saying that Guinea-Bissau needs “to improve the quality of its education” to become a competitive country.

He said the country “must do everything to get our degrees recognised and respected abroad”. Guinea-Bissau will chair the ECOWAS for the first time from June 2021 to June 2022, generating hope within the country that perhaps the next decade will see real development in local higher education.

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