Will fused ministry bring back autonomy to tertiary education?

The scheduled abolition of Mozambique’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education and the country’s Secretariat of State for Professional Technical Education has created uncertainty about the future of the country’s higher education sector.

However, Mozambique’s Association of Private Higher Education Institutions (Associação das Instituções Ensino Superior Privadas, AIESP) has welcomed the move, should this return autonomy to the country’s universities and colleges, which had been undermined by overweening control from the now abolished higher education ministry.

President Daniel Chapo mandated the closures through decrees shortly after his inauguration on 15 January, to improve the management of public resources, he said.

The ministry of education and human development will henceforth undertake the education work of these two bodies, while the new ministry of communication and digital transformation will undertake their research and innovation work.

Operating model not clear

According to senior officials linked to the former ministry of science, technology and higher education, the operating model of the expanded ministries is still uncertain.

One official told University World News that personnel distribution to the new ministries is still under way, as is the drafting of revised operational statutes and internal regulations. How the new ministries’ responsibilities will be organised is unknown.

“We do not yet know whether secretaries of state will be appointed within the ministries or whether the new responsibilities will be more like a department,” the official said.

The ministry of education and human development’s communications advisers told University World News they are helping produce what they call an ‘organic statute’ for later government approval. Only then, will they have a clear idea of how the ministry will handle its expanded competences: “For now, we can make little or almost no progress; we are still in the process of organising ourselves,” he said.

Will higher education be neglected?

Some Mozambican academics, students and university administrators voiced concerns about the ability of expanded government departments to deal with education, scientific research and innovation.

One academic, Rui Matavele, a former social sciences lecturer at Maputo’s Universidade Aberta ISCED, fears the complexity of the enlarged ministry of education and human development may cause confusion and lack of attention among officials to higher education issues.

He said that the new ministry already has several problems it cannot resolve – from poor secondary textbook production and distribution, failure to pay teachers due overtime, to weak implementation of policies designed to expand teaching nationwide, including building new classrooms.

Also, José Luis, coordinator for the Association of Final Year University Students of Mozambique (Associação dos Estudantes Finalistas Universitários de Moçambique) is not opposed to the mergers, if the reforms do not harm students’ interests, “especially those who are completing their studies”.

Single interlocutor to education

That said, Mozambique’s private higher education association, AIESP, argued that the mergers could improve higher education and research performance and the association’s relationship with the government.

Júlio Gonçalves, AIESP executive director, recalled that Mozambican higher education was under the jurisdiction of a broader education ministry before the turn of the century. Its return to this model reflects the benefit of a single interlocutor for all levels of education, from primary, secondary and technical, to higher education.

Gonçalves, also dean of the Maputo-based Higher Institute of Management, Commerce and Finance (Instituto Superior de Gestão, Comércio e Finanças), believes that the fusion could restore universities’ academic, pedagogical and scientific autonomy, rights that were taken away from them by the now-defunct ministry of science, technology and higher education.

Gonçalves said this withdrawal of autonomy from higher-education institutions created an undeclared conflict between the ministry and the universities since the latter controlled many of these institutions’ actions. Even internal regulations had to be approved by the minister. So, these changes are welcome, given that the AIESP expects the ministry of education and human development to coordinate higher education and not be a watchdog.

Regulations should be reviewed

He acknowledges that the expanded ministry’s workload will be heavy, necessitating the appointment of competent personnel in the right places. Should this happen, the autonomy of higher-education institutions could be restored.

To achieve this, the AIESP hopes a comprehensive review of regulations governing the operation and licensing of higher-education institutions in Mozambique will be staged, given that their operation under the old ministry has impeded the functioning of universities and colleges.

The association also hopes the enlarged ministry will review Mozambican higher education legislation in the medium term. The AIESP believes it contains norms that violate higher-education regulations and legislation.

Gonçalves said Américo Muchanga, the new minister of communications and digital transformation, “will have to be careful” in his new role, but he was encouraged that “he is someone who knows the area of education; he was the dean of a university and knows how things work”. Muchanga was, until recently, the CEO of the National Institute of Communications of Mozambique and the National Institute of Meteorology.

He said the appointment of staff in the new ministry needed to be mindful, with “the placement of highly professional and competent staff in each of the areas of activities”.

Numerous challenges ahead

Looking ahead, the expanded ministry faces a major challenge in growing higher education in Mozambique, which, according to former president Filipe Nyusi, only educated 8% of higher-education-aged men and women, lower than the 33% average for Southern Africa, Latin America (52%) and Europe (70%), Mozambique Information Agency reported on 24 January 2024.

Moreover, the expanded ministry will have to deal with a disproportionate distribution of the student population across the country’s regions and provinces, with the northern provinces poorly served compared to the southern provinces where there are more higher-education institutions, particularly in the capital, Maputo, Gaza and Inhambane.

Another challenge is the asymmetry in the student population that attends social sciences, literature and humanities courses – 73.4% vs 26.6% in engineering and mathematics courses, Nyusi said in a speech in 2024.

Social unrest a threat?

These anticipated and ongoing changes in the management of higher education in the country are taking place during a social crisis, with almost daily protests since the last election in October 2024, which Chapo won – a result challenged by opposition parties alleging electoral fraud.

Thus far, there are no reports of higher-education institutions being damaged by protesters, but operations have been disrupted. There have, for example, been delays in carrying out examinations. Although university teachers have stayed at work, widespread strikes have also harmed operations.

Most recently, on 17 February, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported that the post-election situation in Mozambique was now “largely calm, but small protests continue”, with some road blockades on roads such as the key N2 Maputo to South Africa.