If they are going to insist on high educational standards, regulatory bodies will become the next natural targets of fly-by-night universities. That is because the latter’s business model is based on doing things on the cheap and somehow dazzling very important decision-makers.
The coming into being of the Tertiary Education Council (renamed the Human Resources Development Council) and the Botswana Qualifications Authority should have put paid to fly-by-night tertiary education institutions but two decades later, that has not happened. In the early years of its establishment, TEC had to plead with one fly-by-night university to use British (and not American) English because such choice confused both students and members of the public. The fly-by-university refused and TEC caved in. Next to oversight institutions are political leaders who should themselves maintain oversight over educational oversight institutions. However, despite information in the public domain about the gross and willful inadequacies of fly-by-night universities, political leaders continue to validate these universities by featuring as keynote speakers at events (like graduation ceremonies) that they host.
Like certain chain stores that now litter most neighbourhoods, the business model applied by this type of university is a quite simple one: scam all the stakeholders and claim full payment. The chain stores in question scam customers by selling them poor-quality food, some of it in the form of stinking-rotten “fresh” produce. In order to save costs, these stores switch off power when they close down at night – which is why packages in their deep-freezers are defrosted in the mornings. Some sell expired goods and often advertise discount-price specials for those same goods at what are actually higher prices. They also underpay employees and for some reason, tend to have excellent relations with some officials at the Department of Labour and Social Security.
Likewise, the business model of the fly-by-night university is also built on scamming all stakeholders from the government to tuition-paying parents to students and to society itself.
At the University of Botswana or the Botswana International University of Science and Technology as examples, students are taught by lecturers with advanced degrees (from credible, mostly First World universities), often live on-campus and are properly resourced in terms of study materials and recreational facilities. The UB library is one of the biggest and most properly resourced in Africa.
Contrast that with a fly-by-night university where it has been credibly alleged that people who hold the equivalent of Botswana’s BGCSE have tricked their way into the lecture room to teach students studying for degree programmes. In most cases, the lecturers have bachelor degrees and study part-time to upgrade themselves to a masters. All students at fly-by-night universities live off-campus and these universities are woefully under-resourced in terms of study materials and in terms of recreational facilities, non-resourced. There are actually people in Gaborone who have more books in their private libraries than some of these universities.
Research is critical to a university because it fosters professional excellence in faculty and enhances the educational experience of students. UB has churned out tonnes of research and until not too long ago, was, after the University of Cape Town, adjudged the second best-performing university among a group of flagship African universities that participated in a multi-year study that was coordinated by a Cape Town think tank. On account of resource constraints, UB has never been able to adequately expand its geographical footprint across the country. Conversely, some fly-by-night universities are easily expanding at an alarming rate while the quality of the education they provide deteriorates further.
In properly-functioning societies, UB should never have to compete with universities where students studying for a bachelor degree are taught by another bachelor degree holder. That however, is what is currently happening.
BQA is evidently failing to ensure that all tertiary education institutions provide quality education. On paper, the Authority has a lot of power but in reality it is really just a paper tiger. It is supposed to ensure that students are properly resourced in terms of learning materials but at the campus of one fly-by-night university, two book-filled steel-and-glass cabinets passed BQA’s test for a library. In a country where internet service is erratic, where power supply is unreliable and where there is no national cyber security plan, it remains a mystery why e-books should be considered an alternative for print books. Still in its infancy stages, the e-book market also lacks standardized business and use models. That explains why most universities across the globe, including UB, embrace this new technology while continuing to expand their print-book collection. The business model of the fly-by-night university necessarily means that these universities are even going to spend as little as possible on paid digital access for e-books.
In private, some people whisper about highly effective methods that the management of fly-by-night universities use to “dazzle” political leaders and educational authorities. There is no tangible, court-ready evidence but still, one has to wonder what other credible explanation there can be for steadily deteriorating educational standards when there are institutional guardrails against such eventuality. For now at least, regulatory bodies stand as the last line of defence against sub-standard but high-priced education that fly-by-night universities provide. Most, if not all regulatory bodies, are affiliated to international bodies and for that reason, are motivated to maintain high professional standing lest they lose such affiliation. However, there is cause for worry.
Quality education is very expensive and the high standards that regulatory bodies insist on are clashing with the fly-by-night business model of providing education on the cheap while claiming full payment for it. As parliament establishes more regulatory bodies – which gradually affiliate with international professional bodies, fly-by-night universities will be forced to dramatically improve their educational standards. That will drastically affect their profit margin and threaten their survival as commercial enterprises. In much the same way that they have dazzled educational authorities and political leaders, fly-by-night universities will certainly seek to work the same sort of magic on the boards of regulatory bodies. These are elective bodies and in one respect, that would require fly-by-night university to lavishly sponsor the candidacy of people who would be more amenable to their treasonous agenda. If this is not already happening, it will in the not-too-distant future because the survival of the fly-by-night university depends on it.
