Next presidential students’ cohort ready to go abroad

Zimbabwe is set to send a cohort of students to study in foreign countries starting this July (2023) as part of the Presidential Scholarship Scheme that has helped local students from poor backgrounds get quality education away from home.

Paperwork to facilitate the students’ studies is under way.

The late president Robert Mugabe started the scheme and, initially, students were sent to study at his alma mater, Fort Hare University in South Africa. Fifteen students were in the first group in 1995. Mugabe read for a BA degree in 1948 and graduated from Fort Hare in 1951. Zimbabwe’s government continued with the scholarship scheme after Mugabe was deposed in 2017. In the intervening years, more South African universities, including the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Johannesburg, started admitting Zimbabwean students who received the scholarship.

Now, students are also sent to countries outside Africa such as Russia, India and China for under- and post-graduate studies. They are chosen from all 10 provinces in Zimbabwe, and provincial ministers must vouch that beneficiaries are unable to raise funds for higher education.

Diversity of ideas

In an interview with University World News, Professor Fanuel Tagwira, Zimbabwe’s permanent secretary of higher and tertiary education, science, and technology development, said the presidential scholarship fund is the vehicle for locals to study in foreign countries.

“When you go outside the country you come up with a diversity of ideas. That is the reason why we are still continuing to send students. The students learn at various levels, not only in class but also outside.

“When they go outside, they also learn degree programmes that we don’t really offer, such as artificial intelligence, which is in its infancy in Zimbabwe.”

Richard Moyo, the minister of state for Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland North province, said the presidential scholarship programme has benefited students from his province immensely, especially those coming from rural areas.

“We are very happy about the presidential scholarship, because students from rural areas who are poor can also get a quality education like any other person. We used to second the children, but now it is done online. We provide them with recommendation letters for consideration,” he said.

The minister said there is an overwhelming demand for scholarships from the provinces and not all applicants are successful.

No jobs for those who return

Alan Chipoyi, the University of Zimbabwe’s student representative council president, told University World News that, while the presidential scholarship initiative is noble, it is a national tragedy that those being sent out do not come back, as the country’s economy is collapsing.

He said that these students do not return to offer whatever services the nation needs or add any benefit. Although he appreciates the fact that the students have the opportunity to get an education, it is a pity that they do not return to plough what they have learned back into their home country.

“The reality is that, after several years of study, the only option that they are left with is to go into the street and sell airtime, which is unfortunate. It is clear that you can’t go back to a nation that guarantees that you will never find employment. That is why students prefer not to return to Zimbabwe,” Chipoyi said.

Internationalisation promoted

A study by Dr Promise Zvavahera of the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, now a senior lecturer at the Institute of Business Studies University or IBS University in Papua New Guinea, published in the Journal of Case Studies in Education in 2015, found that the main reason students and former students interviewed cited for applying for the scholarship is that most came from poor rural backgrounds with no opportunities of obtaining a degree.

The other respondents indicated that they were requested to apply by their parents or relatives who are senior government officials, while some indicated that they had failed to secure places at local universities due to competition and a lack of financial resources. The study said similar schemes should be established in other SADC countries, adding that the programme helped the internationalisation of education.

“The respondents indicated that this programme encouraged the transfer of skills and expertise within the region and beyond. Most of the beneficiaries indicated that they could be employed anywhere within the region and beyond without facing challenges of quality,” Zvavahera wrote.

During the first 20 years, Zimbabwe sent at least 30,000 undergraduate, masters and PhD students to 15 universities in South Africa.

“Most students who joined this programme came from poor backgrounds and, to them, it was breaking new ground. The failure of many students to be admitted to local universities points to the fact that higher education in Zimbabwe is expensive and in high demand to the extent that the poor cannot afford it. The fact that local universities fail to accommodate all applicants is a sign that higher education is in high demand in Zimbabwe,” the study found.