Repositioning Budget-Constrained Universities as Third-Generation Universities

The primary goal of establishing public universities in Ghana was to provide higher education, research, and skilled labor to accelerate the country's development. The universities' scientific and cultural roles in specific disciplines provided direction to the country's growth. University education was therefore free — successive governments supported and promoted discipline-specific courses like science, engineering, planning, and law to enhance development of the country in the short and long terms.

At the turn of the 21st century, however, the fundamental roles and position of Ghanaian universities changed significantly, largely due to a decline in government subvention — a funding decline seen in many other countries as well. By the middle of the 1980s the government of Ghana had decided to cut universities' funding budgets. Despite this, universities were not allowed to charge realistic fees. By 2000, the public universities were permitted to decide the overhead fees they charged their students. Legislative alternatives were also made to allow private universities to operate and absorb some of the enrolment pressures on public universities at commercial rates.

Today, then, why do universities continue to ask for funding while students lament high fees? They face the continuing reality of funding challenges faced by higher education in both developed and developing countries. In Australia, for example, the government heavily subsidized university education and provided attractive loan incentives for students — until recently. In the 2014 budget the government reduced its funding for university education. Universities are being encouraged to set the fees they want to charge their students, which will affect the accessibility of higher education in Australia, but these funding issues also have ripple effects on research and educational delivery.

With competition from industry and alternative research institutions, universities globally have generally lost their position as centers of scientific, cultural, and intellectual life. For example, centers for scientific and industrial research have taken over some research roles once held by universities. The advent of information and communications technology (ICT) in education and its role in enhancing education and research further challenges the assumption that universities are the only complex institution (having both educational and research activities) that can aspire to represent human knowledge. Although universities' management teams monitor global trends and design strategies meant to make them sustainable, this article highlights some of the challenges, and a possible way forward, for the universities in Ghana.

The Challenges Facing Universities

I have grouped the challenges universities face into five themes: global; government; institution/management; faculty research and students; and technology.

Global Challenges

The global competiveness of higher education research and delivery has raised the quality benchmark beyond that achievable with government funding, challenging the national and regional monopoly universities once held in discipline-specific areas for skill and competencies (which attracted students). Consider the University of Ghana Medical School's faculties of law and social sciences, which were once regarded the best in Africa, or the University of Cape Coast, once noted for its leading role in teacher education — where countries in the sub-region and Southern Africa sent their citizens to be trained in education. Or look at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, once acknowledged as among the best universities for science and technology education in Africa. All these universities are arguably no longer recognized as elite, because they no longer emphasize the core specialized disciplinary areas for which they were established. These universities have redefined their policies and strategically positioned themselves to attract more funding to stay competitive. Core courses that were traditionally run by the other universities can all be studied in any of the public universities, making them compete for the best students in all the disciplines. Universities in the sub-region have also strategically positioned themselves to be competitive to attract local and foreign students.

Some of these challenges resulted from competition and improved opportunities for study abroad (physically or electronically). Universities now compete globally for the best students. The increasing demand for higher education in developing countries has resulted in the proliferation of private universities and distance education to fill the gaps public universities cannot. In developed countries like Australia, industry efforts to boost workforce production have attracted many promising students. Instead of enhancing their professional careers through higher education, they have opted to work in industry. Efforts to attract them prove difficult as industry also provides workplace learning options that are usually flexible in nature.  Consequently, well-resourced universities in developed countries commonly use various means to attract and enroll students from developing countries. Foreign recruitment of students lessens the shortfall in funding operations and research.

Government Challenges

Governments around the world continue to cut educational budgets for economic reasons and set up alternative funding options that make the universities suffer instead. In Ghana, the government supports infrastructure development, research projects, and scholarships through the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund). Use of the GETFund has extended beyond university education funding to basic and tertiary education funding. Its support base has also been extended to private basic and tertiary schools. The public universities therefore continue to rely on alternative means of funding (fees from students, lease investments) to supplement government funding.

Currently, there are three categories of fee-paying students: students who make high grades and gain admission on merit pay the normal government-approved fees; full-fee paying students qualify on merit, but do not meet the cut-off point for government-approved fees; and international students pay higher fees than either group of Ghanaian students.

Globally, governments cannot support cutting-edge research because the costs of such projects exceed the funds they can provide universities. In its 2014 budget, for example, the Australian government announced cuts in education and research funding, prompting student demonstrations. In some cases governments outsource the research and training services once provided by public universities, or set up ministry-based research centers. As the decline in government funding for quality education and research has grown, so has the threat to universities' financial stability. Despite this, governments continue to encourage universities to enroll more students. Higher education has become vulnerable to political interference. They need to search for alternative sources of funding to support quality education and research.

Institutional and Management Challenges

Institutionally, while university managers face the challenge of managing the limited resources available to them and seeking alternative sources of funding, they also confront the need to improve the quality of faculty and research and their university's national and international ratings. In Ghana today, parents have shown their interest in the training quality and international rating of universities their children attend. Faced with full-fee options, parents are prepared to send their children to private universities or sponsor them to study abroad. Most wealthy parents prefer to send their children to universities in the UK, Europe, and the Americas. Hence, while academics press for better working conditions, students demand an increase in the quality of education.

In most African countries, like Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Zambia, the demand for higher education continues to grow without a corresponding increase in infrastructure. The public universities' inability to meet this explosion in student demand — because they lack a long-term, well-developed strategic plan and the political power to absorb them — has negatively affected student/lecturer ratios. Poor planning and lack of forecasts based on the logical links between increases in basic and secondary education and university infrastructure further explain why universities adopt firefighting approaches to solve admission and enrolment problems each year.

In most African countries today, it is easy to predict industrial action by faculty due to cuts in their salaries and unrealistic research funding. The growing competition for quality research and education from capacity-building, training, and research establishments (the monopoly of university faculties in the past) puts further pressure on the sustainability of universities' traditional roles. While private universities and research institutions can easily collaborate to raise funds for research projects, which they can then implement and monitor, public university faculties are largely limited from doing the same. The faculties also face the challenge of moving away from single discipline–focused research to multidisciplinary research. All these changes have direct effects on the quality of students' research and competencies to meet global challenges. Lecturers have become more mobile in search of their best career opportunities. Well-resourced universities can hire high-standing research academics, which heightens their competitiveness, to the disadvantage of universities struggling with funding.

Furthermore, technology support for higher education has moved beyond administrative support (managing student information systems) to e-learning. The challenge confronting the universities is how to effectively integrate e-learning in the curriculum and research without significantly compromising standards and value of a university education. In most developing countries, some experienced academics continue to question the advantages of e-learning, largely because (in current practice) the e-learning applications are used mainly as repositories for lecture notes and reading material, not authentic e-learning. E-learning offered by well-resourced universities in developed countries has gained wide acceptance by many workers who want to gain a tertiary education due to the flexible nature of the programs, which meet international university standards. It is evident that no university can survive as a competitive 21st century university without e-learning and technology integration in research.

Ghana's Experience in Funding Higher Education

Traditionally, all public universities in Ghana were funded by the government, but with cuts in public funding, university management argued that times have changed from when university students enjoyed a free education and received pocket money to study. They urged the need to charge fees in the face of declining government support. While basic education must be supported by the government, went one argument, the cost of a university education should be borne by parents. The debate involved little concern about the socio-economic effect of fees on students, maintaining that university standards must be maintained in the face of rising challenges. Students protested, drawing attention to major stakeholder discussions. In the end, the National Union of University Students (NUGS) proactively proposed a workable solution aimed at permanently solving the needed funding problems for university education: a 0.5–1.0 percent tax on fuel to be managed by the government. This resulted in establishment of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), which has the goal of helping disadvantaged students access higher education. Universities were allowed to charge moderate fees to cover overhead costs, and a government-established student loan program (now Ghana Students Loan Trust) offers students loans at a low interest rate (3 percent).

Students perceived these alternative means of funding to be the end of funding problems and fee-paying conflicts with university management. The GETFund generated funds beyond what stakeholders and students expected. Over the years, the objectives have changed, with government using the funds to support infrastructure development, scholarships, and research projects. Private universities charging commercial rates are also benefiting directly from the fund. The students are not enjoying the long-term benefits they hoped for, however — student fees continue to increase. Brilliant but financially needy students cannot access higher education because they cannot pay the fees. The universities also generate income from residential facilities and the leasing of university lands for private development of student hostels. Although some question the universities' strategic priorities for academic expansion in future, for now this approach is working. Funding achievements notwithstanding, the cry for increased research funding and faculty support continue — (declining) government budgets and internally generated funds continue to be the primary sources of funding for the universities.

The Way Forward

Sustaining universities in their traditional roles and in achieving their strategic goals for the future will require practical, synergistic approaches among universities. Globally, universities and regional bodies of university associations continue to assess their operations to meet the challenges presented by the global changes, declines in government funding, institutional management problems, faculty dissatisfaction, and changing technology. While regionally specific proposals for solving problems are being explored, J. G. Wissema has proposed a third-generation universities (3GU) model that posits nine fundamental characteristics of universities that want to position themselves well for the future:

1. Fundamental research was and will be the core activity of the university. Some public universities in Ghana are strategically positioning themselves to focus in the long term on postgraduate research programs. They plan to increase postgraduate numbers by accepting more researchers. This is at a time that space for fewer graduate programs (available space for the limited courses) face political pressure to enroll more graduating students from the senior secondary schools. I believe group research projects are still possible by adopting authentic e-learning approaches, which would allow course units to be structured into projects to solve industry-specific problems or enhance performance. Innovations emerging from the projects could be a source of funding for faculties. The projects might also provide bases for future research. This requires reviewing the present curriculum to meet the challenges and changes in higher education delivery in the 21st century.
2. Research is largely transdisciplinary or interdisciplinary. Research may also transcend discipline-specific projects. For example, researchers in education might collaborate with faculties of science and computing. With computers and Internet resources proving to be great tools for educational delivery, such collaborations might yield appropriate pedagogical approaches for authentic learning in a digital age. Such interdisciplinary research could lead to groundbreaking discoveries, for which the universities and researchers might hold the right to its use when patented.
3. 3GUs are network universities. They collaborate with industry, private research and development (R&D), financiers, professional service providers, and other universities via their knowledge carousel. For example, some well-resourced universities in America, like Harvard and MIT, are sharing well-developed learning contents that can be adapted to suit the learning context in developing countries. Well-established collaboration may lead to joint projects, where experienced researchers will work with less experienced researchers to build capacity. Local research with international dimensions is more likely to attract funding than local research only. Universities in developing countries are more likely to gain from such collaborations. While theoretical projects are good, collaborative research projects should center primarily on solving practical industry and social problems.
4. 3GUs operate in an internationally competitive market. They actively compete for the best academics, students, and industry research contracts. Some older courses might be revised to reflect current realities and better meet students' needs. Students now want more flexibility in courses they select and how, what, where, and when they want to study. They have the tools to verify institutional claims. Technology now provides those tools to permit comparison of courses and the quality of education provided. It is therefore no surprise that the present proliferation of foreign and local private universities in Ghana has increased the competitiveness of access to a university education, attainment of industry sponsorship, and extent of government funding.
5. 3GUs are two-track universities. While they cannot in general escape from mass education, universities can create special facilities for the best and brightest students and academics. Laudable as this strategic approach may be for developing high-quality students and faculties, it also has a tendency to polarize the country into a class society when not done properly. In public universities where all students receive equal opportunity access, some courses may be considered more important than others. In the long term, improperly structured faculty programs may lead to fading away of some courses. Any suggestion to adopt this approach must be carefully reviewed.
6. 3GUs embrace the concepts of consilience and creativity. They see both as driving forces with a combined importance similar to the scientific method. This is critical for developing countries where some groundbreaking research findings sit on dusty shelves. Budget-constrained universities partnering with industry for research across discipline-specific platforms would have far-reaching value for funding development. For example, in countries like Australia and the Netherlands, most major policy decisions are informed by research, governmental regulations, behavioral sciences, and physical sciences, which are all synced. In developing countries, the universities can proactively lead the way by ensuring that governmental policies are informed by unified knowledge from the sciences, arts/humanities, and social sciences. However, the challenge they must overcome is the politicians' strong desire to win votes (they compromise principles in enforcing policies that will enhance research and development if they compete with their political interest and gains).
7. 3GUs are cosmopolitan. They operate in an international setting with a diverse range of staff and students. In this respect, they resemble medieval universities. They employ the English language for all courses as the new lingua franca. Significantly, effective technology integration in educational delivery is making this cosmopolitan approach meaningful in adding value to student learning. Infact, e-learning is redefining staff and student collaboration by changing the paradigm of learning: using mobile and varied technological devices to enhance knowledge creation anytime, anywhere. But the technology must be well integrated as a tool that effectively supports every aspect of educational delivery in order to become authentically cosmopolitan. In Africa, where the dominant medium of instruction is either English or French, adopting a common lingua franca will enhance collaborative research between universities in Anglophone and Francophone countries.
8. Exploitation of know-how becomes the third university objective. Universities are seen as the cradle of new entrepreneurial activity in addition to performing the traditional tasks of research and education. Currently, most universities in Australia jointly own groundbreaking innovations with researchers. With the great research potential in developing countries, where innovations are barely rewarded, commercializing research can generate funds to supplement the constrained budgets.
9. 3GUs will be financed by output financing rather than input financing. For developing countries, socio-economic factors are necessary to redefine this approach before adaption. Input financing concerns the creation of capacity, which is then combined with a government inspection system. Output financing means that universities can seek available research grants, a process in which any university can participate and only the best offers win. State financing will no longer be direct; the state's funds will be transferred through independent institutions that finance research and education on a tender basis. In developing countries the government still has the responsibility of providing grants and scholarship for students. The GetFund model in Ghana combined with output financing would be one of the best means of funding higher education if properly managed without political interference.

The 3GU concept has emerged at a time when academics and stakeholders remain divided on full cost recovery for public university operations and the need for higher education to adopt business approaches. The model certainly may be described as a business strategy for change and innovation in higher education: The 3GU model promotes private funding of universities. While comprehensively based on research, however, the 3GU model requires considerable care in adoption. Universities must interrogate 3GU's suitability in the context of public universities and how legislation and government policies affect them. With the 3GU model, the fittest/most financially stable universities will survive; others might not unless government funding models reverse their trend downward, which nobody expects.

Although government funding continues to decline, it remains the primary funding source for public universities. An inadequate approach to adoption of the 3GU model might produce complex new challenges if the model does not fit well into the university's cultural, social, and political context. The model will pose particular challenges in developing countries where economies are not research driven and implementation of research projects is limited by funding, poor monitoring and evaluation, and reservations about sustainability.

Comprehensive evaluation must be considered specifically within the context of public universities, which serve the majority of students. In some developing countries, when governments withdraw funding and universities pursue business approaches, the result is a drop in the number of nationals enrolled in favor of full-fee international students. In this situation, most local parents and employers could not bear the financial burden of higher education for their children and workers.

Recommendations for a 3GU

My position in this essay is that, while global trends continue to challenge public universities, ongoing monitoring and evaluation of institutional operations should be maintained. For universities in developing countries, the 3GU is achievable, but requires strong leadership with political will, redefining strategic objectives and goals and institutional policies. In developed countries, where the 3GU models are succeeding, workable structures are clearly defined. Their adoption approach was linked to their context-specific challenges and economic situations. Although government subventions are important, public universities can achieve 21st century university status without depending so heavily on their governments — if systems are allowed to work without financial leakages and political interference. Universities should also consider instituting the following options to address funding shortfalls.

Focus Strategically on Graduate Research

Universities in Africa are located in environments with relatively little research to inform policy and accelerate development. But, well-resourced universities, multinational institutions, and governmental development agencies are willing to sponsor research projects that can impact the nation's development. Graduate programs may therefore be more research-focused in partnership with these universities or multinational institutions. With a focus on research, the universities may invest in research-enhancing technologies. Innovative products resulting from research can then be commercialized, like in universities in most developed countries, jointly owned by the researchers and the institutions.

Recruit Foreign Students

Public universities may send scouts to strategically positioned regions and countries with high demand for tertiary education and affordable access to enrolment. They might establish foreign enrolment centers, offering an initial preparatory course online that could provide an overview of the program that interests an individual student. During this period of student recruitment, the university could make arrangements for potential students to visit, establishing a strong presence in the students' native countries. With enhanced visa and travel arrangements, universities could use this process to recruit foreign (hence full-fee paying) students to help bridge the funding gaps for education and research.

Partner with Others

Collaborative partnerships with government research institutions offer another way forward in getting more government funding while pursuing alternative funding approaches. Collaborative exchange programs with well-resourced universities have the potential of enhancing the education and research programs each university can offer. Furthermore, industry demand for young workers and competition from polytechnics require universities to adopt strategies that may require win-win scenarios for the university, prospective students, and industry.

For national students, universities could adopt what may be described as the "supply push" approach toward prospective students who move straight to industry from college. Universities might redesign courses to meet both student and industry needs while not conflicting with alternative, easily accessible programs. Aims of the courses may vary, but with an emphasis on research. For example, middle- and senior-level managers might benefit from executive research programs that would build problem-solving capacity within industry. The structure could allow candidates to take courses that meet all the requirements for a university degree.

Apply IT to Research and E-Learning

Research and higher education driven by information technology and authentic e-learning have the potential to bridge the growing funding gap facing public universities. Thoughtful implementation of technology can enhance universities' operations, for example, with minimal costs in the long term. For universities in developing countries, however, getting the technology implementation right in the midst of environmental, social, and economic difficulties poses a particular challenge. Getting the e-learning implementation right must be followed by a workable policy of continuous monitoring, evaluation, and maintenance. Taking these steps sustains the quality of a university education and research in universities. Collaborative partnerships, payment of fees through flexible terms, strategic enrolment of foreign students, and alumnae-sponsored projects can all facilitate appropriate levels of funding in the 3GU model of the public university.