University Governance: Perspectives from the Inter-University Council for East Africa

1. University Governance: Perspectives from the Inter-University Council for East Africa Mayunga H.H. Nkunya Executive Secretary The Inter-University Council for East Africa Presentation at the Higher Education Forum 2012 for Tanzania, Arusha, Tanzania 13th and 14th September 2012

2. Presentation Plan • Higher Education in the East African Community • The Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) • Emerging trend in higher education provision within the Community • IUCEA response • Trends in Higher Education in East Africa that impinge upon management and governance systems • The management and governance responses • Future Roles of Higher Education Institutions

3. Higher Education in the East African Community • The responsibility of the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) as the strategic institution of the Community responsible for the development and coordination of higher education and research in the region • IUCEA facilitate networking among universities in the region and beyond • Mandated to promote the maintenance of quality standards and harmonization of higher education for the region’s international competitiveness and regional integration • Provides support to the development of university systems in the region • Operationalization of the Common Market Protocol in relation to higher education

4. IUCEA Membership • Universities, university colleges and other degree-awarding institutions can become IUCEA members • Current membership is 91 universities, both public and private universities

5. Emerging trend in higher education provision within the Community Establishment of East Africa as a common higher education area by 2015, to be characterized by comparable, compatible, coherent and harmonized systems of higher education thereby facilitating free mobility of student, staff, programme, and institutions, and mutual recognition of qualifications

6. IUCEA response …… • Establish a harmonized and structured quality assurance system for the region • Develop regional guidelines, benchmark standards and procedures in higher education management and delivery systems • Develop and maintain a regional qualifications framework for higher education constituting a credit system, qualifications descriptors, qualifications types, etc. • Promote inter-institutional networking and collaboration through exchange of students and academic staff, joint research and academic programmes delivery, etc. • Promote linkage of universities to industry • Establish research coordination system and higher education information management system

7. Global trends in Higher Education that impinge upon management and governance systems • Expansion of tertiary education systems and massification of student enrolment • Diversification of provision systems and providers • Emergence of more heterogeneous student bodies • Higher education funding diversification and partnerships • Increased focus on accountability and performance targets • Emergence of new forms of institutional governance • Enhanced global networking systems and internationalization of higher education • Commodification of higher education • National, regional, global ranking (rating?) of universities and programmes

8. Global trends in higher education …… • Increased diversity of higher education systems • Need to adapt teaching to new demands (from students, labour market, development of knowledge, society, democratization trends, etc.) • Need to adapt academic structure to new forms of teaching and research

9. Global trends in higher education …… • Growing competition for programme orientation between universities and polytechnic institutions, leading to some polytechnic institutions transforming into universities and vice versa • Drive to professionalize university education to produce professionals in all programmes; • Proliferation of programmes in some disciplines, e.g. BBAs, MBAs, etc., with potential to compromise quality

10. The management and governance responses …. • Appropriate frameworks for harmonization of education systems and mutual recognition of qualifications to facilitate free movement of human capital, students, study programmes, etc. • Enhanced regional collaboration in education delivery and cross-border education systems as a contribution to promoting regional integration • Harmonized regional systems of higher education, frameworks for quality assurance, and accreditation systems • Institutional pro-activeness

11. Future Roles of Higher Education Institutions • Enhanced emphasis in maintaining excellence together with relevance of higher education programmes • Enhanced university/industry partnerships and multidisciplinarity of academic programmes and research • Maintenance of international competitiveness in quality triggered by international ranking systems and commercialization of higher education • Maintenance of regionally/internationally accepted quality assurance and accreditation systems • Promotion of e-learning enabled distance education systems by taking advantage of developments in ICT environments • Increased drive for cross-border education provision • Responsiveness to results from ranking (rating) leagues

12. Conclusion… Future trends in higher education impinges on the need for continuous reforms and systematic repositioning of university management and governance systems

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