adminMorris Mtisi
DR Hardson Kwandayi (HK) recently with Africa University has left and started a private company Pioneer EduTrain Consulting in Mutare.
HK is an honourable scholar and educationist whose appetite for policy development training is known and acclaimed in Zimbabwe and surrounding regional centres of academic equilibrium.
He has travelled extensively in African universities on academic missions to do with research and training in various issues of policy drafting and implementation.
I caught up with Dr HK and asked him a few questions about his new EduTrain Consulting, what inspired its launch and what his target group look forward to benefitting from it. Read on:
MM: Dr Kwandayi welcome to this interview
HK: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be interviewed by you.
MM: In one word, what is Pioneer EduTrain Consulting?
HK: EduTrain Consulting is a newly launched company which provides professional independent advisory services focusing on college and university choice as well as programme choice.
MM: Clearly, independence brought with it better accessibility to education for blacks than colonial regimes. You will excuse me if there is a tinge of politics in my assertion. Butyou are a highly learned man doctor. You cannot mistake a fact of history for politics. Yet this noble achievement (accessibility to education for all) created serious challenges too in our education system, didn’t it? For example, the issue of making further education institution choices remains a challenge to-date, doesn’t it? What are some of these challenges and how do you suggest they can be dealt with?
HK: Thank you. In the past when there was one university, the University of Zimbabwe or the then University of Rhodesia, there was not much choice. Again, it was not easy to get the entry requirements given the competition then. Thanks to independence which ushered in hundreds of A- Level schools plus a dozen universities. Prospective students now have a wide choice. However, the challenge now is how to make the right choice. In today’s competitive world one needs authentic, relevant and practical 21st century education and skills. One should therefore get the right qualification from the right college or university.
Unlike schools which offer same subjects and examinations countrywide, individual universities decide their own courses, programmes and examinations, making it difficult to assess and compare their quality. A prospective student therefore needs expert advice to choose the right university and the right programme. This discussion is relevant this time of the year given that now A-Level results are out.
MM: Yes, they are all out, and what a media fuss even! It has become a boring journalistic habit, has it not? Displaying fact and figures without critically and intelligently interpreting sense from nonsense! Well, may be as breaking news that is fine. How would the public know if no one informed them? However my question is, How easy or difficult is it to choose a relevant degree program? Is special guidance not needed to all students to pursue relevant degrees at reputable universities, high schools, academies and colleges even?
HK: Choice of a relevant degree programme is not always easy. Given the amount of investment in college and university education, students need guidance to make an informed choice. A poor decision will affect the student the rest of his/her life. In fact, a poor decision can result in a vicious cycle of poverty, which is easily summarised by Matthew 13 verse 12, i.e “Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
For example, the student and his family will sell they have to get money to pay fees but may not do anything meaningful after graduation. Those who would have harvested the student’s money in form of fees will get richer and richer while the student and his/her family will get poorer and poorer, culminating in a vicious cycle of poverty. Hence, one needs advice on the education route to take.
MM: Could that be the reason, perhaps one of the reasons, many young degreed Zimbabweans are not employed, may be unemployable? Can that be ruled out?
HK: Correct. The high level of unemployment of university graduates shows that some students did irrelevant degrees after having spent their families’ hard-earned cash. Some students enrolled into some of the degree programmes without getting meaningful advice from experts. While some universities have advisors, the advice could be biased since the advisors tend to support their institutions irrespective of the quality of programmes offered. A good independent advisor is more likely to be impartial. While good advice cannot guarantee employment or better future after graduation, it certainly will make a positive difference.
MM: Interesting observation Dr, and how many of us ever think that way? We all know about career guidance but guidance into what colleges and universities to enroll is critically important you are saying.
HK: Exactly my point Mr MM. Some institutions are cash strapped, so to improve their finances they use hype to attract more students. As a result, institutions use all sorts of marketing gimmicks to attract students. Research has shown that most colleges and universities worldwide use hype to attract students. My research has shown that marketing gimmicks are very common on websites of most universities worldwide. In fact, some institutions of higher learning now behave like supermarkets which employ all sorts of marketing tactics to attract customers. This is why some universities now employ student recruitment officers.
A prospective student should therefore seek advice before enrolling into any programme. Getting advice before enrolling into any university is now international best practice. In developed countries, rarely will a student enroll into a programme without seeking expert advice.
College and university instructors sometimes design programmes to serve their own personal interests, e.g. to get employment. In such cases, students’ interests are secondary. One therefore needs an informed adviser to honestly guide the student when choosing a degree programme.
MM: Why is this not obviously understood in Zimbabwe for example, and how does it affect quality of designed curricula? How dangerously harmful can this oversight be to national curriculum reforms?
HK: In most developing countries higher education is poorly understood because few people study it as discipline. As a result, curriculum design is very poor. The result is poorly designed programmes. My research has shown that most African countries have very few people (sometimes none) schooled in higher education as a discipline yet in North America and recently China, for example, every meaningful university offers higher education as a discipline. This means that higher education in these countries is well understood and well planned. It is not guesswork like in most developing countries where people practice in an area they do not understand. It is like working in a general hospital as a clerk then pretend to be a medical practitioner by merely associating with medical doctors.
MM: Are you saying most of the glossy university prospectuses we see published by various varsities cannot be trusted? Are they mere marketing gimmicks? Who then can be trusted to give reliable information about these institutions?
HK: Overall, independent advisory services enhance objectivity in decision making since good advisors use research-based evidence.
For example, most parents and students assume that high university fees mean high quality yet the level of fees depends on a number of factors. Some universities are expensive because they have no other sources of funds so they depend on tuition fees for their income. Some universities especially state universities receive government funding in addition to student fees. As a result, such universities tend to be cheaper. Therefore, a student needs advice to decipher all these issues. It does not always mean that expensive goods are the most valuable. Sometimes it is just the mentality of the business owner.
MM: You have failed to clarify how even independent advisory service providers cannot themselves be guilty of empty marketing gimmickry. Anyway let us wrap up our talk. Finally Dr Kwandayi, your last word of caution to students.
HK: My word of caution is “students beware!” Bear in mind that not every degree is a degree. This is why we have fake or bogus degrees. In fact in some countries there are fake universities which are called diploma mills.
In the midst of all this confusion, students including parents who bear the pain of paying fees need professional advice before enrolling into any university and programme. This means that even those who intend to study abroad need advice because the situation is even worse there.
MM: The best point to end at! Thanks doctor and I will invite you again in future head-to-dead engagements to distill your EduTrain Consulting wisdom with my readers. The Manica Post wishes you more power in your elbow as you unleash new light to higher education aspirants.
HK: Thank you for allowing me to carry this torch in your paper.
MM: Only doing my job Doc. And you are ever welcome.
There you are! That’s Doctor Kwandayi for you. Don’t say you were not warned. A Shona proverb says, “Akurumanzeve ndewako’ literally meaning “He who bites your ear is yours”. Indeed there is purpose and love in good advice.
Online Reporter