Concern over academic freedom as government amends acts

The acts governing Zimbabwe’s 13 state universities are being amended by the Amendment of State Universities Statutes Bill which was gazetted on 7 January 2022 and is currently being reviewed by parliament.

The amendments will apply only to the university councils and not the university bodies or matters relating to the appointment of university staff.

According to the memorandum of the bill, it seeks to amend the university acts to align them to the constitution and to bring uniformity in line with the government’s education policy. The policy focuses on teaching, research, community service, innovation and industrialisation to produce quality goods and services.

The bill will further amend the appointment of the registrar, bursar and librarian who will now be appointed by the council with the approval of the minister in all university acts.

“This bill seeks to reduce the number of members of the council in order to have a lean and efficient council, as well as ensuring that there is gender balance and fair regional representation in the appointment of members,” the bill reads.

A typical state university council currently has more than 50 members. The University of Zimbabwe (UZ), for example, is governed by a 63-member council, starting with the chancellor, the vice-chancellor, and the pro-vice-chancellors, and 16 members appointed by the minister.

Another 10 members appointed by the minister represent various specified interest groups such as commerce, industry, agriculture, and religious bodies. Other members of the council are the president of the student union, three members elected by the university staff with the approval of the vice-chancellor, nine members of staff appointed by the university senate, and one distinguished academic appointed by the council.

The bill proposes to replace this with a council of between 10 and 20 members comprising the chancellor and vice-chancellor (but not the pro-vice-chancellors), 10 ministerial appointees, two faculty members appointed by the senate, the president of the student union, and two members elected by the university workers’ committee.

The members shall hold office for four years and will be eligible for re-appointment or re-election for one further term. At present, they can be re-appointed or re-elected for an indefinite number of three-year terms.

While giving oral evidence on the morning of 28 February 2022 before Zimbabwe’s parliamentary portfolio committee on higher education, innovation, science and technology, the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development, Professor Amon Murwira, said vice-chancellors will now be required to serve their institution only for two terms as part of the government’s plan to ensure good corporate governance.

“Only in exceptional circumstances will a vice-chancellor have his or her term extended beyond two terms,” Murwira said.

He told legislators that the objective of the bill is to standardise and ensure uniformity in all state university operations, including disciplinary procedures, and to bring state universities in line with the need for 21st-century universities to function as agents of industrialisation and modernisation.

Speaking during a post-cabinet briefing in November 2021 when the draft bill was brought to the cabinet, Monica Mutsvangwa, minister of information, publicity, and broadcasting services, said cabinet had considered and approved the Amendment of the State Universities Statutes Bill.

“The bill will amend all the university acts in line with the Education 5.0 policy which places emphasis on teaching, research, community service, innovation and industrialisation for the production of quality goods and services,” Mutsvangwa said.

Concern over academic freedom

In its analysis of the bill, legal think-tank Veritas concluded that it is deeply flawed and undermines academic freedom.

“The bill does not wholly succeed in any of the objectives set out in its memorandum and fails completely in what is perhaps the most important one, namely bringing the university acts into conformity with the constitution,” Veritas said in its Bill Watch publication.

“The bill will increase the government’s control even further by requiring ministerial approval for the appointment of university bursars (finance officers) and librarians,” the organisation said in its analysis of the bill.

When it comes to academic freedom, Veritas said, “Neither the bill nor any of the university acts mention academic freedom. This is a very serious omission. Section 61 of the constitution protects academic freedom as a fundamental human right.

“All universities are entitled to academic freedom, including those that are established by an act of parliament and those that receive money from the state. Universities must account for funds they receive from the state, but the fact that they receive funding is not a justification for depriving them of their fundamental right to academic freedom. By failing to entrench or even mention academic freedom in the university acts, the bill signally fails to align them with the constitution.”

Veritas, nonetheless, noted a few positives, saying that the bill does introduce principles of good governance “indirectly by reducing the size of unwieldy university councils to facilitate speedy decision-making, limiting the terms of office of council members to ensure a regular infusion of new talent, and reducing the influence of senior administrative staff members on the councils (by excluding pro-vice-chancellors from membership)”.