Guardian

African academics grapple with rising rate of graduate unemployment

For five days last weeks, some 300 delegates, many of who were vice chancellors from 30 African countries, met in Libreville, Gabon, to examine the relevance of courses being offered in universities across the continent, against the backdrop of the rising phenomenon of graduate unemployment. ROTIMI LAWRENCE OYEKANMI was there.

EMEKA Okeychukwu (not real name) was barely 14 years old, when he decided to join the thriving automobile spare parts business owned by his uncle, John, at popular market in Lagos in March, 2001. He was already in the Senior Secondary class (SS1) in a public school, back in his Nnewi town in Anambra state, when he decided that he had had enough of schooling.

“I couldn’t think of any better way out of poverty,” he told The Guardian in Pidgin English, at an adult literacy class, organized by a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) for Alaba Market traders in 2003. “I have two brothers who had graduated from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) one after the other, and for three years after graduation, my most senior brother was still looking for a job. My other older brother joined him and he, too, could not get a job for two years. So, I reasoned: why go the University when you will only end up looking for jobs long after graduation?”

Okechukwu recalled that his school’s infrastructure had turned so bad that the learning environment in which he found himself had largely become repulsive. His teachers did not help matters as well.  He alleged: “They were harsh,” thus fuelling his disdain for the rigours of schooling. One day, he got to his so-called school, took one final look around and made up his mind never to return. His father would have none of it, but his mind was made up. His mother also persuaded him to have a rethink, but he stuck to his guns.

Two years after that decision, Okeychukwu is still convinced that he took the right step. “My uncle is not educated, but his two daughters are attending Universities abroad. He has built two houses, one in Lagos, one in Nnewi where we all celebrate Christmas. He has many cars. “Big, big people; gofment people dey come see am for house. Wetin remain?”

Okechukwu is grateful that his uncle allows him to make some money, which enables him send allowances to his parents in the village. He had attended the adult literacy class because his uncle had encouraged him to do so.

If university graduates were unable to secure jobs three years after graduation as far back as 2001, the situation in Nigeria today is far worse. At the moment, there are 129 legal universities: 40 (federal), 38 (state), 51 (private) and still counting. Thousands graduate from them every year, and also from the country’s 78 (21 federal; 38 state; 19 private) legal Polytechnics. Without any visible strategic development plan for the country, the politicians in power have left Nigeria’s largely youthful population with an uncertain future.

However, other African countries are also feeling the heat. The world economic downturn that crept in about two years ago, has also increased unemployment rates in the developed world. Many Nigerian families have relocated from the United States (U.S), Britain, France and many European countries, after losing their jobs and investments. One particular individual lost 13 houses in London when crisis hit the United Kingdom’s economy two years ago. Spain, Italy and Greece are equally battling with large numbers of unemployed educated youths and fractured economies.

For many African countries, the case is worse. Nigeria, with the largest population in Africa, a larger percentage of which is under the age of 30, a major crisis in the job market has already set in.

Concerned about this phenomenon, the Association of African Universities (AAU) held its 13th General Conference from May 28 to 31, in Libreville, Gabon to specifically discuss “How to Transform African Higher Education for Graduate Employability and Socio-Economic Development.” The World Bank, which also came to the table with a new project, sponsored the summit. About 300 delegates from 30 African countries, nine Ministers, including Ghana’s Education Minister, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, attended.

The main objective was “to examine the disturbing issue of graduate employability which is confronting African countries to a greater extent than had been perceived, and to develop strategies for higher education institutions that will facilitate self reforms needed to tackle this growing menace.” Besides, it was convened to rub minds with governments and international development partners, “to share knowledge, collaboratively negotiate and proffer models and solutions to stem the rising tide of graduate unemployability on the continent of Africa.”

There were 11 plenary sessions, three working group discussions and an AAU business session. Other presentations focused on five sub-themes: The Connect Between Higher Education and the Productive Sector; Graduate Employability; The Role of the Organized Private Sector; Socio-political Environment and Employability; and Funding Issues.

Vice Chancellor of the University of Nairobi and former Acting President of the AAU, Prof. George Magoha set the tone at the opening ceremony when he observed that the present high rate of unemployment among graduates of African universities should make African academics ask serious questions about the curricula and mode of training going in universities across Africa. He queried: “Are we really training and producing graduates that can improve the lot of Africa? Finding employment has become an issue, so, which is the best way to produce a holistic product (graduates) that can be useful in a variety of ways?”

The association’s Secretary General, Prof. Etienne Ehouan Ehile said it had become imperative for African Universities to become centres of excellence in the face of a rapidly changing world. He agreed with Magoha that the courses being offered in African universities must reflect the ability to solve the continent’s multifaceted problems. He reminded the audience that that the AAU was formed in 1967 and that several African countries had gained independence both before and after its birth.

The World Bank announced at the conference that it had concluded plans to launch a project to establish 15 Centres of Excellence in selected universities across West and Central Africa. The countries include Nigeria, Benin Republic, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal and Togo.

Ritva Reinikka, the bank’s Human Development Director (Africa Region) who made the announcement, explained that the objective is to promote regional specialization among participating universities in areas that address specific common regional development challenges. The initiative will also strengthen the capacities of the participating institutions to “deliver high quality training and applied research” and would also “meet the demand for skills required for Africa’s development, such as the extractive industries.”

Anchored on the bank’s new “Learning for All” policy, the initiative will focus on strengthening between seven and 10 existing universities in West and Central Africa, for which $8 million will be provided for each of the anticipated 15 centres. Some institutions will be qualified to have two of such centers. The institutions will be competitively selected, based on the criteria benchmarked to best international practices. The qualifying universities would be required to strengthen postgraduate proprammes for a regional students’ body; offer specialized courses for industry professionals in the region; establish a regional faculty and attract additional top-level faculty. They would also provide learning resources, laboratories and minor rehabilitation of existing facilities.

Besides, they would be mandated to establish linkages with companies, government agencies and research centres for workplace learning, input into curricula, consultancies and joint research. The envisaged beneficiaries will include students in supported institutions and their partner institutions, who will benefit from quality research based education in high demand areas; companies, governmental organizations that partner with the envisaged centers, and both academic and non-academic staff of the benefitting institutions.

Reinikka also revealed that the bank’s new focus on higher education in Africa would, in general terms, be anchored on five main areas: quality and standards; courses that are relevant to Africa’s needs in real terms; transparent system of governance, especially in filling academic positions; standards and evolution of private universities; funding of public universities; and the ways through which soft loans could be granted to students from low income families to study in universities.

But the World Bank official faced some sharp comments from mostly Nigerian academics. The immediate past Secretary General of the AAU, Prof. Olugbemiro Jegede advised the bank to evaluate what existing centres of excellence in some universities across Africa were doing before introducing its own agenda. The association’s immediate past President, Prof. Ishaq Oloyede agreed. He also advised the bank not to bring new initiatives that would deviate from the course the existing universities had taken. And to the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof. Olufemi Bamiro, the bank’s change of policy should be lauded. He said: “This is a major paradigm shift by the World Bank. I was at a meeting of African Vice Chancellors in Harare (Zimbabwe) in the 1990s when the World Bank made a presentation that Africa should lay less emphasis on higher education. But if this bank is now asking us to take tertiary education more seriously, it is a welcome development.”

Several postulations were unloaded before the delegates by the presenters, to underscore the need for universities to review their programmes and make them respond to societal needs.

Prof. Pai Obanya, the Chairman of Council of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) underlined the need for African universities to treat their triple mandate of knowledge generation (research), transmission (teaching) and sharing (responsive social engagement) “as integral parts of a single academic session.” According to him, the argument implies that the three elements would form the tripod on which the mission of universities stands; “a situation in which research feeds teaching, and both feed societal engagement, while lessons from societal engagement serve to inform the processes of research and teaching, the result of which are again fed into societal engagement.” His paper was titled: “Africa Challenging and Trusting Her Socially Responsive Universities.”

Bamiro, who spoke on “From the Middle East and North Africa to the Sub-Saharan Africa: The British Council Regional Efforts on Graduate Employability,” said reports of studies carried out in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana revealed that the curricula and materials being delivered in the universities were often not related to employer needs, thus affecting graduate employability.

According to him, these findings led to the current research focus for 2011-2015 by the British Council with the questions: How do learning, teaching and research in universities link with employability and inclusive development? Bamiro said the research took off early this year and involves the United Kingdom, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana.

Commenting on the research findings on graduate employability carried out in the Middle East and North Africa, Bamiro stated: “The development of graduate employability is assumed to be a shared responsibility that engages the individual, educators and employers. Consequently, the qualitative research explored the views and perspectives of three key groups of stakeholders in employability – students and recent graduates, employers of labour, higher and vocational institutions in eight countries in the region - Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the UAE.

“Most significant, among the findings, are: a call for more active-learning and skills-based approaches from employers, students and from within higher education institutions; capacity issues with respect to designing and assessing outcomes-based curricula and in the delivery of less traditional teaching and learning approaches - a critical area for capacity building within higher education institutions; extra-curricular opportunities to develop employability - such as work placements, work experience, internship and mentoring (which) are not being fully exploited by higher education institutions; employability is often a peripheral activity, led by the careers office of an institution with employability being mainly viewed as the role of a single department, or is outsourced; and the absence of country or region-wide collaborations or platforms to develop and share practice.”

Findings from various countries were also discussed. Ms Deepa Gokulsing, who teaches Sociology at the University of Mauritius (UOM) revealed that Mauritius produces between 3,000 and 4,000 graduates every year. Her study, which examined the inter-connection between higher education and employment in her country, based on the experiences on the 2009 graduates of UOM, revealed that most of the graduates found employment within one year of graduation, with the highest demand coming from fields in engineering, management and social sciences.

Dr Kwabena Adu Poku who works with the Office of Students with Special Needs, University of Ghana, carried out a study on why employers in Ghana are reluctant to employ blind graduates.  His findings: “By ranked-order, factors mitigating against blind graduates’ employability are: use of “noisy and archaic” Braillers at workplace; having to provide extra hand/assistive devices to support blind graduates at workplace; employers’ negative attitude toward the blind, job inexperience; and potential to distract others.

“Factors that may improve blind graduates’ employability are: doing away with archaic Braille/learning typing; government providing resources/incentives to employers; provision of specific labour laws on disability employment; blind graduates being job- ready, improvement in general graduate employment; creation/ reservation of specific jobs for blind graduates.

Mr. Charles Nyandusi Mottanya, who teaches at Moi University, Kenya, carried out a study on the perceptions of employers in Nairobi of the employability of university graduates in Kenya.

His words: “Data were collected from 341 employers, selected through simple random sampling from a target population of 3000 members of the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE).

“Complementary data was collected from three key informants representing the three main organizations that have a relevant stake in the employability debate: The Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE), the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), and the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI).

“The study found out that employers in Kenya generally recruit graduates with any degree irrespective of specialization. The employers generally prefer graduates from private universities. Employers rate the employability of university graduates quite lowly; and they perceive the involvement of commerce and industry in university education to be quite low.

“The implications of these findings are that universities need to embed employability in their core curricula, and that they should initiate collaborative agreements with employers so as to be in tune with the expectations of the world of work.”

After discussing for five days, the participants, in a communiqué, reaffirmed higher education as a major determinant and source of graduate employability in Africa. They were of the opinion that in order to build a strong foundation for societal development, higher education in Africa must ensure collaboration and partnership, rather than competition, amongst institutions of higher learning, the organised private sector and international development partners.

They agreed that higher education curricula appear not to be in resonance with the prevailing requirements of the 21st century employment markets. They acknowledged the need for more research on areas that make major contributions to development in Africa. They shared the view on building a strong research culture in African universities. They also resolved to evolve and engage in every available means that could provide effective solutions to graduate employability and transform higher education in Africa.

To address the high rate of unemployment among African graduates, the participants asked African universities to pay serious attention to relevant curricula, teaching and research to guarantee graduate employability. They insisted that African universities “must engage in socially responsive, research-backed activities to make the needs of our society the centre of activities by universities.” They also declared that universities must be accountable through the public presentation of reports of their activities and be transparent in the management and allocation of resources.

They also averred: “African governments should declare the next decade as one to address, in a concerted effort and comprehensively deal with unemployment of graduates in Africa.”