Pandemic exposes need for new university funding strategy

As governments around the world redirect capital spending towards mitigating the socio-economic impact of the pandemic and health sector requirements, universities are bracing themselves against the financial impacts on their own operations.

Jamil Salmi, tertiary education expert and former World Bank tertiary education coordinator, told University World News the most urgent task for African countries was to “design and implement a sustainable financing strategy” to support their higher education systems.

“As in other parts of the world, African universities are going to be hit hard by the economic recession brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said.

“Unless governments are able to provide a financial package to rescue the higher education sector, the loss of fees will most likely result in private institutions closing down and public universities, which also rely heavily on fees, for example in Kenya and Uganda, also being forced to cut expenditures drastically,” he said.

Salmi said very few universities in the world had learned the lessons of previous crises, such as the SARS epidemic in 2002-03 or the Ebola epidemic in 2014, and included risk management in their strategic planning and daily operations.

Unprepared

“As a result, most universities have been caught totally unprepared by the current crisis, first, in terms of their capacity to switch rapidly and effectively to online teaching and learning and, second, in terms of building financial reserves to protect them through difficult economic times,” Salmi said.

“The only universities able to ride the storm more easily are those that have the capacity to participate in research programmes to find a treatment or vaccine against COVID-19, or produce medical supplies to help during the health emergency.”

Salmi said coming up with a sustainable financing strategy involved two dimensions: resource mobilisation and resource allocation.

“In the first instance, they need to mobilise sufficient resources, public and private, to be able to expand enrolment in an equitable manner, improve the quality and relevance of all programmes, and strengthen the research and technology transfer capacity of African economies.

“Among the possible income generation strategies that universities can put in place, continuing education and fundraising may be the most effective approaches. Parallel fee-paying programmes are highly inequitable and should be eliminated,” Salmi said.

”In the second instance, it is important to rely on funding allocation mechanisms that are directly linked to the performance of universities,” he said.

New operational and funding models

Juma Shabani, director of the Doctoral School at the University of Burundi, said “new models” were needed in the face of an expected decline in government grants to African universities owing to the need to address new priorities such as the revival of economic activities and support for basic social services.

“Regional associations of universities should initiate consultations with universities to determine new models for the operation and financing of African universities, including online distance education programmes and research funding,” Shabani told University World News.

“Some African universities have started to deliver programmes online, but it will be necessary to continue these initiatives and ensure that the proposed models are responsive to equity and gender issues.”

Ahmed Atia, head of department of advisory and research at the faculty of medical technology of the University of Tripoli in Libya, told University World News that in order to turn financial hardship into funding gains, African universities should broaden their revenue sources away from the traditional sources, which cause financial instability.

“African universities must formulate effective policies for fund generation by reorienting their programmes towards stimulating national economic development, towards societal needs and market demands as well as industrial innovation,” Atia said.

“This could be done by promoting knowledge transfer, commercial operations and public-private partnerships,” Atia said.

Such activities could include the launch of virtual marketing campaigns to determine the services needed by various stakeholder audiences and establishing spin-off companies in cooperation with investors, hosting virtual conferences and workshops along with online educational courses and professional training programmes for public and business communities, Atia suggested.

African universities could also set up online consultancies for industry or launch “virtual exhibitions” showcasing scientific ideas that could be translated into products and services.

In addition to working with regional and international publishing houses to produce digital and printed books and providing expertise and advice in setting up e-libraries, Atia said African universities could work with media houses to establish educational TV channels or produce scientific and educational programmes.

University foundations

International education development expert Fabrice Jaumont, currently a research fellow at Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris, said there was a clear need to examine the creation and development of university foundations in African universities, as well as analyse new opportunities and challenges associated with this “new philanthropic model”.

”University foundations in developing nations can be alternatives for generating more funding for research and training, encouraging innovation, improving student life, increasing access to higher education, enhancing the host university’s international influence through students and teacher-researcher mobility, the reception and support of foreign students or researchers, and the granting of scholarships.”

Jaumont, who is the author of a 2018 book titled Unequal Partners: American foundations and higher education development in Africa, said several interesting cases of university foundations exist in Africa, such as Ashesi University Foundation in Ghana, the University of the Witwatersrand Foundation in South Africa, University of Cape Town’s US and UK funds, the African Academy of Science Fund in Kenya, and Makerere University Endowment Fund in Uganda.

“Other examples, like the Africa Science and Technology Endowment Fund, established by African-based multilateral agencies in 2010, offer compelling insight.

“Francophone universities are also experimenting with these fundraising platforms, as is the case with Fondation de l'Université d'Abomey-Calavi in Benin or Fondation Université Cheikh Anta Diop in Senegal,” Jaumont said.