Why Were Universities Established, For Education?

A University is a Catalyst of Independent Thinking

Education is key to so much; It is important we begin this journey with a historical perspective of universities and entails education too. In this part we limit ourselves only to the modern western universities; as older universities were found in Africa; those ones are not part of the subject of this discussion for now.

The conventional definition states a University as an institution of higher education comprising of several fields of studies: arts, science, graduate and professional schools and has the authority to confer certificates, diploma and degrees. It is differentiated from a college by its broader curriculum and the offering of graduate and professional degrees . Moreover, the old modern institutions were also defined by a gathering of students (learners) and masters (dispensers of knowledge)

The modern Western universities

The modern Western universities that we take as models emerged from the medieval schools known as studia generalia which received students from different parts of Europe. These medieval schools had the purpose of educating clerks and monks to a level superior to the Cathedral and monastic school. The first true university in the West was founded at Bologna, Italy in the 11th century specifically in 1088 for the purpose of training students in canon and civil laws. It was followed by the university of Paris (between 1150 and 1170), university of Oxford in the end of the 12th century .

They received their charters from popes, emperors and kings. Universities were free to govern themselves, provided they did not teach atheism or heresy. Independent universities had to finance themselves and so teaching charged fees, and to assure themselves of a decent livelihood they had to please their students which means they could be obliged to favour their students so long as they paid them well.

With time and more especially from the 13th century more universities were established in major cities of Europe. For about five centuries, which is up until the 18th century, most Western universities based their curriculum on seven arts courses: logic, rhetoric, grammar, arithmetic, astronomy, music and geometry.

The 18th century universities taught their students what today we may call foundational courses; the courses indeed formed a concrete foundation which could be likened with that of a story building ready to receive several stories above it; the liberal art. The courses included: logic, grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, astronomy, music and geometry.

Grammar

Grammar is an art of putting the right word at the right place. The teaching of grammar to university students intended to help them possess the mastery of language. The mastery of language enables you to express your feelings, your experience, and your abilities in words and in the correct way. This calls you as a university student to learn and master grammar for correct expression of your knowledge. You may possess great connaissance which will need to be expressed correctly for you to share your knowledge and be well understood.

Logic

Logic is a branch of philosophy and the science of reasoning; it is a systematic, sensible arrangement of ideas and thoughts, the science of thought. Logic enables you express your thoughts in the correct ways. Ideas, thoughts are the beginning of all your undertaking in life be it engineering, insights, artistic oeuvres and all your plans need to be expressed grammatically and in the logical way for you to make sense before your customers. Such skills or tools align ideas in a systematic and acceptable way.

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is the art of effective persuasive, convincing speaking and /or writing by using specialized techniques. This tool which is equipped by grammar, logic and other liberal artistic skills enable you sell your ideas and thoughts to the customers. However, you need to be careful about this tool because conventional wisdom reveals rhetoric as a tool enabling speakers win over people even when their speech lacks content.

At the time of Socrates, rhetoric was taught by Sophists: teachers who were interested in their students winning debate arguments regardless of the content. What I am saying here is that as much as you put emphasis on becoming a rhetoric leader, you should also learn to acquire content; be a rhetoric leader with content too such as Julius Nyerere (1922-1999), Thomas Sankara (1949-1987), Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) etc.

Arithmetic as you may know it, is a branch of mathematics that involves numbers and their properties; the tradition and most important operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. This is more or less the same as basic applied mathematics for our college and/or high school. This was important as it empowered scholars with mathematical thinking; and gave them the skills of solving problems. You need this skill today as you could have your small enterprise that arithmetic skill should be of importance to the operations of your undertaking.

Astronomy

Astronomy is a branch of science in education dealing with celestial objects phenomena and noumena. It employs some science disciplines such as mathematics, physics and chemistry as it explores the nature, origin and evolution of those objects and phenomena. Those dealing with the discipline are called astronomers. Examples of outstanding astronomers in history that contributed greatly to scientific revolution in the 17th century include: Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) and Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) to mention but just a few.

Music

Music is an art and cultural activity found in all cultures of the world. Its medium is sound organized in time. It contains a number of elements/ components depending on its genre; pitch rhythm, dynamics, timbre and texture. The medieval schools should have borrowed/ adopted this from the Greeks who regarded a human person from the duality point of view: body and soul. The two components had their requirements; the body needed training; gymnasium, and the soul needed music.

Geometry

Geometry as arithmetic is a branch of mathematics in education. While arithmetic deals with numbers and their properties; geometry on its part deals with shape, size, relative position of figures, and the properties of space. There are different shapes as we know in mathematics such as the common ones triangle, square, rectangle, trapezium, octagon, hexagon etc

The seven fundamental disciplines taught during the medieval universities to all students contained what you may call in nutrition, balanced diet as it contained necessary intellectual nutrients before one joined a specialized discipline that would normally be their career.

From the art courses which were a foundation to all university students then they proceeded to the profession of their choice based on theology, law and medicine. During that time most universities were influenced by the Roman Catholic teachings and when the church reformation came in (1517-1648), universities defended their faiths; there were those that defended the correct catholic faith and those that defended the correct teaching of Protestantism.

The first modern university in Europe

The first modern university in Europe was founded in the 17th century precisely in 1694 by Lutherans; the University of Halle. Halle was the first university to reject religious conservatism in preference to rational and objective intellectual studies, and this was the first place where lectures were conducted in a local language; German, instead of Latin. The innovation of the University of Halle were picked up by Gottingen University founded in 1737 and followed later on by most German and many American universities.

By 18th and 19thcenturies religion was slowly but surely replaced as the major power house in the European universities. The change became possible as the curriculum, administration, learning and research became more secularized. The new trend was observed through the University of Berlin, founded in 1809, where by laboratory experiments replaced theological and philosophical speculations as for the other disciplines; they were investigated more objectively and it was, at the same, the University that the modern academic freedom in universities was born. The system of German universities which included advanced research and experimentation in their curriculum influenced other universities worldwide (Pelikan, 1992; Deridder, 2003).

European universities secularized

From the 19th century most European universities were secularized and mostly they became funded by states. For gender parity, it was only in the second half of the century that women began to be admitted for studies. At the same time, universities’ curricula continued to change. Modern international languages and literature were added; thus, in most cases replacing traditional study of Latin, Greek and Theology.

The natural science disciplines as we know them today: biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering became officially recognized in the universities’ curricula. And the disciplines that seem to have a great impact to the world today in my views are those that govern the world today: political science, economics, psychology, and sociology started being taught systematically only early 20th century (Pelikan, 1992; Deridder, 2003).

Modern African Universities

It was only in the 19th century that modern African universities were established as the list below tells it all: Fourah Bay College (1827), Freetown in Sierra Leone; University of Cape Town (1829) South Africa; University of Liberia (1862), Monrovia; University of Khartoum (1902); Stellenbosch University 1903, in South Africa; Cairo University 1908; University of Algiers 1909; University of Fort Hare (1916), South Africa; American University in Cairo 1919; and Makerere University in 1922.

Most of these universities were founded by colonial masters; colonialists founded these universities so as to implant skills to the local population who in turn would work efficiently for their colonial masters. Some of these universities started as schools and later on developed into universities, some of them were developed by missionaries as they taught the word of God; they also introduced some social services such as health care facilities and education such as the University of Fort Hare that was established by missionaries.

Expansion of African Universities

These early modern African universities’ expansion depended on the needs of the time. The case of the University of Cape Town was typical of this case; it expanded as it stretched to meet the demand of skilled personnel who were needed in the country’s newly discovered diamond and gold mining industry in South Africa . The Makerere University started with 14 students who were taught skills that were needed then – they were taught carpentry, building and mechanics . The University of Fort Hare which was established by missionaries in 1916 with both white and black students had purposes of meeting needs of the European colonizers; this purpose of the masters, though not stated explicitly could be witnessed by the Eurocentric curriculum.

Purpose of African Universities

The aspect of the purpose of founding universities in Africa is of great essential to modern economies in the continent as they engage with other economies of the world. We have seen from the above cases and this we may take as the case for most universities in the continent. Universities were established in Africa to train people of a given region, country with specific skills needed to prosper economies of the founders. This fact is essential for you, as a University student, to know why you joined the University where you are studying now. It is necessary for you to know the purpose / mission of the institution you wish to join.

Preparation of Skilled Workers

As seen on the purpose of most Universities that we have studied they aimed at preparing skilled workers – they did not prepare skilled thinkers, skilled entrepreneurs, or/and skilled job creators but rather those early Universities prepared an ocean of skilled job seekers; essentially Universities graduates especially in Africa were individuals trained to serve and work for others. Universities in Africa served as institution to recruit social elites for the colonial administration and later for political regimes.

This mission evolved with independence of African countries – the role of universities became that of producing human capital to meet the needs of the newly independent states. This standpoint is contrary to the American model which at the independence of America the democratic mission was that of training citizens–individuals to self-actualization and in turn serving the society.

The Mission in Nationalization

The service to the government of nation-state in the west modern universities became obvious when universities were nationalized by nation-states. The soundest examples are the monarchies of England, France, and Spain which nationalized their universities funded them and thus they had to serve their nation-state through preparing required personnel for the nation interest : security, innovation, development, technology. The experience today in both developed and developing countries is that most strong higher learning institutions with reliable funds are public universities. The United States of America (USA) is an exceptional case as it has not nationalized its universities.

Mission in Democratization

The epoch of democratization in the world was to a large extent, influenced by the USA . The USA became independent on July 4th 1776; that was the independence of 13 American colonies that detached their political links to Great Britain and thus becoming first democratic nation-state in the world (Scott, 2006). In those states, individual rights were highly respected and indeed protected by the nation-state’s constitution.

The early American leaders were very much influenced by the European Enlightenment which put a grave accent on individual rights and individualism (individual development). The leaders wanted a well educated population as they believed that it was only education that would have ensured the reign of republic values. The leaders in newly independent democratic nation-states saw the function of university education in the fulfillment of individual and community needs.

The university education had the mission of training an individual to discover his/her talents and abilities that would be used for the betterment of the community (Scott, 2006). This American model of “democrating university education” in my view is the best model and I suggest African universities adopt the model as it trains a person according to their passions and talents and thus preparing job creators through their abilities and talents. In the end individuals get fulfilled and in the due course the society benefits of University graduates.

The Community Outreach Mission

The University role of service to the public of the nation-state arose as a regular mission of USA’s Universities through the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 the practices from the American Universities were so pragmatic and indeed useful to the society so much that the experience influenced many universities in the world. This model could in a way have been influenced as well by the pragmatic philosophy that was championed by American philosophers such as Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, and John Dewey whose philosophies should have influenced Universities to come up with a curriculum that answers to public problems.

Graduates and Employment in Africa

Conventional wisdom is when a University student completes their studies, they would be engaged in a job putting to practice the skills he has acquired as a student. Engaging graduates is desired for a prosperous economy. The young person from school, in most cases, is full of skills and knowledge and at times completely new knowledge / technology that would improve production or better the offered services.

Bearing this fact to mind well organized economies foster University studies thus many young people join university studies, for universities act as incubators of development of talents and skillful personnel who would in turn, through their work, stir up economic growth which influence economic development.

However, this conventional wisdom does not apply to Africa or to most African countries. The continent has the least number of young people joining tertiary studies where the gross enrollment ratio for university studies is less than 10 percent for most African countries – specifically sub Saharan Africa with the exception of only three to four countries: South Africa, Botswana, Mauritius (Cloete, et al.2015). Having a small number of graduates would mean that they all get absorbed into the employment market- alas that is not the case in the continent. The graduates, despite the small number compared to other regions of the world, fail to secure an employment opportunity when they finish their studies (Going global, 2014).

There are a number of reasons leading to that situation; for some countries it is caused by stagnant economic growth failing to create job opportunities, for others it is lack of required skills in the job market. Indeed the causes of graduates’ unemployment are complex; other reasons include lack of information about job opportunities, lack of links between university and employers, graduates lacking skills needed in the job market, and stagnant economies failing to create new job opportunities. These reasons of lack of employment to graduates define our problem and indeed the purpose of writing this chapter and thus influencing the book’s idea.

Employability of African Graduates

Employability is defined by Going global as the possession of required knowledge, skills and other attributes that enable the obtaining and maintaining of decent employment. And the International Labour Office (ILO) defines employability as “portable competencies and qualifications that enhance an individual’s capacity to make use of the education and training opportunities available in order to secure and retain decent work, to progress within the enterprise and between jobs, and to cope with changing technology and the labour market conditions” (ILO, 2004).

In a study by Going global that involved four countries in the continent: Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya, – the figure of unemployed graduates and those of the age of graduates, for countries without specific figures of graduates, was right. In Nigeria the percentage of unemployment for graduates stood at 23.1%, South Africa at 5.9%, 41.6% in Ghana and in Kenya it was 15.7%. A survey by the inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) revealed in 2014 disturbing facts.

Their survey argued that between 51 and 63 percent of the graduates were found to be “half-baked” unfit for employment and lacking required job market skills. The worst were recorded in Uganda at 63% and in Tanzania at 61%. In a desktop study in Tanzania that involved 100 human resources officers, it was found out that Tanzanian graduates were of poor quality and/or of average quality and thus lacked required attributes of employability (Mwita, 2018).

Employers and the Ability of Graduates in Education

The Tanzanian case mentioned above is not an isolated one; there are concerns in the whole of sub Saharan Africa. Employers find some good qualities in graduates such as disciplinary knowledge of what they have studied, however, there are some important soft and hard skills that they miss such as IT, personal attributes such as trustworthiness, reliability and pragmatic skills such as team working and ability to solve problems. In a study carried out in Nigeria, among other findings, it revealed a significant “skills discrepancies” between what was required by an employer and what a graduate possessed. The discrepancy was more pronounced in the areas of communication, IT, decision making, and critical thinking (Oketch et al. 2014).

The case studies and findings of these kinds are in large number; in this study only a few are cited and these ones should suffice to explain the matter, and thus empower and encourage you and I develop skills that we need and are as well required by employers so as to solve the problems facing you, our youth, the communities around us and our economies.

Reference

This article is extracted from: Mandalu, M.P.2020. How To Think As University Student, Hidden Wealth, Mtwara.