Africa Focus

NUMBER 57, FALL 2009

Postgraduate Studies in Africa: The Looming Crisis

Wisdom J. Tettey
Wisdom J. Tettey is professor in the Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada T2N 1N4. E-mail: tettey@ucalgary.ca.

Academic staff shortage has become a huge challenge for African universities, and no respite seems to be in sight. In fact, observers of the higher education scene on the continent unanimously identify this issue as one of the most critical challenges to the mission of these institutions. They contend that, if urgent concerted action is not undertaken soon enough to address the problem, the African academy will not only lose its ability to produce the requisite number of personnel to support the countries’ human resource needs, but the quality of intellectual life will continue to erode. The foregoing concerns call for evaluating how well African institutions are developing the next generation of academics to combat the decline and thereby boosting academic staff capacity and reinvigorating intellectual life. A critical area for such efforts, and the focus of this article, is postgraduate training. The sample is made up of 15 universities and seven countries that are members of the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa (see http://foundation-partnership.org/).

Postgraduate Student Enrollment
Some institutions seem to be making progress on the number and proportion of these enrollments. At the University of Ibadan, the percentage of postgraduate students increased from 18 percent of the total student population in 2001 to 35 percent in 2006. Other institutions, however, are registering declining rates. At the University of Ghana, for example, the proportion of postgraduate students reduced from 14 percent in 2000 to 7 percent in 2008. At the University of Kwazulu-Natal, the decline consisted of 32 percent in 2000 to 26 percent in 2007. Postgraduate enrollment at Makerere University dropped from 7 percent to 5 percent between 2006 and 2007, while only 3 percent of students at the Catholic University of Mozambique, in 2008, were postgraduates. The percentage of postgraduate enrollment remains relatively low in all countries—15 percent in South Africa, 7 percent in Nigeria, and 4 percent in Ghana.

Gender Distribution
Apart from South African institutions, which are close to gender parity in postgraduate enrollments, the rest of the continent is characterized by male dominance. The University of Kwazulu-Natal saw a reduction in the proportion of postgraduate females, between 2000 and 2005, from 54 percent to 50 percent, while at the University of Dar es Salaam the proportion dropped from 35 percent to 27 percent between 2002 and 2007. Hopefully, these trends will recover upwards, instead of going down further. At the University of Ghana, females made up only 25 percent of postgraduate enrollments in 2000, growing to 33 percent in 2008.

Master’s and Doctoral Enrollees and Program Choices
Analyses of the distribution of students, by program level, give cause for concern. In 2008 doctoral students at the University of Ghana stood at only 6 percent of total postgraduate enrollment, a marginal increase from the 2000 figure of 5 percent. The proportion at the University of Kwazulu-Natal went up from 7 percent in 2000 to 10 percent in 2005. The proportion of doctoral-level enrollments among postgraduate students in South Africa, stagnated at 1 percent between 2000 and 2006. While master’s degree enrollments have increased over the years, the percentage of postgraduate students constituting the potential pool from which to draw the next generation of academics (i.e., master’s and doctoral students) is still very small.

These enrollments raise an even more sobering prognosis of the pipeline’s potential to turn out adequate numbers of future academics. The majority of postgraduate students are pursuing programs at levels and in fields that are considered to provide them with opportunities for career advancement outside of academe. An inordinate number, over the last decade, has been in professional management programs such as the master of business administration.

Graduation, Retention, and Completion Rates
The doctoral graduates, compared to their master’s degree counterparts, represent quite a small proportion. Only 11 of postgraduate students at the University of Ghana received doctoral degrees at the University of Ghana in 2006, representing a mere 2 percent of the postgraduate cohort. Just 6 percent and 1 percent of postgraduates from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, in 2006, obtained master’s degrees and doctoral degrees, respectively. The corresponding proportions for Stellenbosch University, in the same year, was 14 percent and 2 percent. In fact, only a quarter of postgraduate degrees awarded by South African institutions each year, between 2001 and 2006, were for master’s programs, with a mere 1 percent for graduates of doctoral programs. The skewed gender distribution of master’s and doctoral graduates is commonplace. Just 30 percent of the 182 doctoral graduates at the University of Ibadan, in 2006, were female. Only 34 percent of postgraduate degrees awarded at the University of Dar es Salaam went to females.

While postgraduate enrollments are a useful proxy for determining the potential pool of future academics, an even more crucial determinant is the percentage of students who complete their programs. The following illustration from the University of Kwazulu-Natal is instructive in alerting us to the need for such data and its importance for any strategic plans at growing the number of future academics. In the Faculty of Health Sciences at this university, the average dropout rates for thesis-based master’s students, from 2000 to 2006, was about 56 percent while the corresponding figure for their doctoral counterparts was about 35 percent. With more than half of master’s students and over a third of doctoral students dropping out of their programs, the next generation of academics is going to be negatively impacted. The statistics are even more worrisome when the related indicator of completion rates is assessed. The rates for thesis-based master’s and doctoral students average about 11 percent and 10 percent, respectively, for the 2000–2006 period. With only a tenth of these cohorts graduating, there is obviously a huge disconnect between intake and output, with serious implications for replenishing the professoriate with requisite numbers and appropriate levels of training.

Conclusion
Without a vibrant system of postgraduate training and viable strategies to support students for careers in academia, it will be nearly impossible to cultivate the next generation of academics. To regenerate academe, African tertiary institutions will not only have to improve the relative numbers, proportion, distribution, and quality of postgraduate students who enter but also ensure that these same characteristics are reflected in postgraduate output. Low enrollment, graduation, and time-to-completion rates, as well has high dropout rates in some programs, do not augur well for developing an adequate pool of high-quality future academics. Concerted efforts are needed to design and implement creative and complementary funding models, forward-looking curricula, and strategies for growing future academics. Increasing the low proportion of females in academe, for example, has to start with efforts at improving their numbers in postgraduate programs. Institutions’ sensitivity and responsiveness to work-life circumstances and career development are particularly helpful in attracting and retaining the next generation of academics for the continent.

[Online] Available: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/soe/cihe/newsletter/Number57/p13_Tettery.htm