Africa/universityworldnews
Resumen: En todo el continente africano, la educación superior está ampliando su alcance, tanto en términos de cantidad como de calificaciones. Al mismo tiempo, las universidades subsaharianas enfrentan enormes desafíos para mejorar la calidad y la relevancia. Hay muchas razones para esto: lo más importante es la cuestión de la falta de datos confiables y útiles sobre la base de los cuales planificar, supervisar y revisar. Hacer frente a este problema requiere una atención meticulosa a los detalles, la capacidad analítica, el aprendizaje adecuado o las plataformas estadísticas y el apoyo de gestión de alto nivel. Es importante destacar que también se considera que necesita un aporte financiero continuo y significativo. Por lo tanto, es particularmente interesante observar el progreso de un pequeño proyecto piloto que promete desafiar algunos de los factores que limitan la capacidad de las universidades del África Subsahariana para unirse al juego de «grandes datos». El proyecto, dirigido por el British Council, persigue dos objetivos: (i) realizar una encuesta de salida de postgrado sobre estudiantes graduados de Bachelor of Pharmacy de tres universidades importantes de la región (las universidades de Ghana, Lagos y Western Cape), y al mismo tiempo (ii) probar el potencial de los teléfonos móviles para la recopilación de datos.
Addressing this problem requires meticulous attention to detail, analytical capacity, adequate learning or statistical platforms and high-level management support. Importantly, it is also viewed as needing ongoing and significant financial input.
It is therefore particularly interesting to note the progress of a small pilot project that promises to challenge some of the constraining factors militating against Sub-Saharan African universities’ ability to join the ‘big data’ game.
The project, run by the British Council, seeks to achieve two aims: (i) to conduct a graduate exit survey on graduating Bachelor of Pharmacy students from three major universities in the region (the universities of Ghana, Lagos and the Western Cape), and at the same time (ii) to test the potential of mobile phones for data collection.
The first aim has intrinsic interest, given the significant curriculum developments in the field that impact on the role of pharmacists in national health systems. Graduate exit surveys also provide important information about the kinds of jobs students obtain after graduation – for example, how long it takes them to find a job, what resources they employed to do so, who is employing them (including self-employment) and this helps institutions to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with employers.
Rolling out the survey
Plans are under way to roll out the graduate exit survey project from the small, highly specialised field of pharmacy to a very large qualification such as the Bachelor of Commerce (or Administration), and to a higher number of universities. This will allow the approach to be fully tested.
At the same time, another higher education project in Sub-Saharan Africa is working on the provision of capacity development programmes for senior professional staff in universities. The four priority topics identified in the regional needs analysis workshops held to date include the capacity to work with data as a planning, monitoring and developmental tool for universities. It is envisaged that staff from universities participating in the early phases of the graduate exit surveys will be among the earliest beneficiaries of these opportunities.
Modern universities need to be much more than centres of teaching and research excellence; they need to be preparing their undergraduates for the world of work, going beyond the formal curriculum to provide pastoral support and improve skills across the board.
There is, however, a relative lack of capacity for many universities, not only in Africa but around the world, to go beyond traditional university improvement efforts (such as increasing the numbers of staff with PhDs) to meet these aspirations.
International internet-based market research firm YouGov recently conducted a survey which discovered that 52% of employers believed that no or few graduates were ready for the workplace, with just 19% believing that all or most were ready – and 17% said that none at all were prepared. This chimes with several of the findings of the recently concluded ‘Universities, Employability and Inclusive Development’ study commissioned by the British Council.
So this is why, in Sub-Saharan Africa, our proposed higher education development priorities are focusing on two areas where we think that we can make a real difference: data collection, analysis and use and support for university staff in this area.
Dr Nan Yeld is a senior adviser in higher education development at the British Council.
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