What next for UNZA?

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The Pilgrim, May 27, 2022*

Dismissals are like funerals. They’re both a cause for sadness and regret. But when they’re celebrated, they pique your curiosity at once. This seemed to be the case recently with Prof Luke Mumba, when he—including his deputy—was fired as vice chancellor of the beleaguered University of Zambia (UNZA). It’s beleaguered because it’s steeped in crisis.

Those of you who follow this column know that I’ve a special appreciation of the challenges UNZA faces. In fact, last year I seemed to agree with Prof Mumba when I wrote that “UNZA still needs him,” as an unsolicited third party reply when he came under fire from politician Fred M’membe over staff grievances at the country’s leading university.

But I’ll be candid in this piece. As an UNZA alum myself and a journalist who covers the university, I want to help shed light on the question: what’s next for UNZA? With the imminence of a new administration, we must tackle this question not only with sobriety, but also ingenuity. It must be an ongoing discussion on what we must do to radically improve UNZA as the most important source of critical human resource for Zambia.

Political will

It sounds like vapid sloganeering, but it’ll still take deliberate political will to lift UNZA out of its current crisis. The institution is dogged by a debt legacy issue which can be traced to as far back as 2011.

Besides millions of Kwacha owed to multiple service providers, for example, UNZA is yet to pay K3.2 billion to National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA) and K2.2 billion to Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) in income tax.

Nothing may have changed with any of these figures since last year November, when they were exclusively obtained. But another thing that’s clear is that such debt won’t be dismantled by cultivating a farm of cowpeas or producing bags of mealie meal. It’ll require a historic effort led by government to restore the university’s financial footing.

As a solution to the debt crisis, the previous administration under Prof Mumba had urged government to substantially increase its grant to the institution and also emulate other universities in the SADC region by paying the wage bill.

While these are progressive ideas, they remain some of the most contentious on the table. Not to mention that there is another school of thought that argues that UNZA should run purely as a business, thus negating its public service function.

But UNZA is also lucky that it has its own graduate, President Hakainde Hichilema, running government. This might mean giving serious consideration to the university’s long call for help.

Without political will, debt will remain a legacy issue at UNZA. It’ll eventually reflect in delayed salaries and go-slows, including failure to pay retirement packages. Industrial unrest will continue to rear its ugly head at the university, and it’ll continue to host a demotivated workforce.

Government should once again recognise the role UNZA plays in Zambian society. It’s time to guarantee the provision of quality education through strong academic institutions as a legacy of the current government.

Quality assurance

I’ve spoken to UNZA professors about what unique challenges they’re currently experiencing.

Due to apparent neglect from the PF government, the university resorted to so-called on-the-spot admissions, arguably to raise money.

What that means is that a student is accepted even before blinking their eye, without giving due consideration to their high school performance.

While that’s a wonderful thing in a society that doesn’t value meritocracy, what has happened is that now UNZA has some of the most shocking students in its history, students who allegedly cannot write or spell a word.

Some of these students have challenges in terms of quantitative intelligence and yet they’ve been posted in what were previously hallowed schools such as Natural Sciences.

For a university that claims to produce the best engineers and doctors for the country, you want to be careful about the selection criteria and thus uphold some of the highest standards in quality assurance.

Personally, it took me a year to be accepted at UNZA. I know that’s not ideal. But what is unheard-of, even internationally, is on-the-spot admission, which should be stopped and condemned, no matter how bankrupt UNZA is.

But this again won’t happen if the university isn’t supported to the best of government’s ability.

Staff development programs

Another sore point at UNZA has been the lack of a replacement strategy for ageing faculty, or academics who retire or untimely pass away.

What the university instead has is what I might call a tutor system, which overworks some of its brightest graduates, without giving them any hope in sight for their academic careers.

They’re paid through a painful claims process, and many are not even supported to take up advanced degrees at masters and doctorate levels.

What you’ve is a university that’s a shell of its former self, an institution without the power to renew itself.

Without staff development fellowships in place, UNZA cannot produce great scholars of its own, but neither can it hire them because it doesn’t have the money. This is already a crisis in many academic departments because the university lacks highly qualified scholars to teach not only master’s, but also PhD programs.

The problems I’ve described essentially come down to political will and innovation. UNZA needs government, but more than anything it now needs an innovative management system that will embrace change and define the future of higher education in the country.

There are many problems than what I’ve presented. But the future looks good for the university if the current crisis is dealt with in all its ramifications.

*This column is published every Friday in Zambia's best-selling newspaper, the Zambia Daily Mail