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The unintended consequences of liberalization and austerity on higher education in Mozambique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2021

Marlino Eugénio Mubai
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Abstract

Chronic shortages of resources to run the state have been a feature of Mozambique since the colonial period. Even before the adoption of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) in the late 1980s, conditions were austere due to the effects of Portuguese colonialism, a decade of liberation struggle, prolonged civil war and policy mistakes following independence in 1975. Drawing from archival research and oral accounts, this article analyses the impact of the liberalization of higher education in Mozambique. It explores the strategies adopted by intellectuals and academics to navigate reduced state support and donor conditionalities accompanying austerity measures from the late 1980s. It also highlights the paradoxical effects of austerity measures on fundraising, intellectual production, and the expansion of educational institutions. Austerity measures brought about by SAPs have forced universities and faculty to reinvent themselves by commercializing and privatizing higher education and seeking external funding for research. At the same time, scholars are now intellectually freer but more dependent on donors’ research agendas. Finally, the introduction of privately owned higher education institutions and the marketization of public institutions have increased divisions between the elites and the majority of Mozambicans who cannot afford to pay the fees charged.

Résumé

Résumé

Depuis la période coloniale, le Mozambique est marqué par un manque chronique de ressources pour diriger le pays. Même avant l'adoption des programmes d'ajustement structurel (PAS) à la fin des années 1980, les conditions étaient austères du fait des effets du colonialisme portugais, d'une décennie de lutte de libération, d'une guerre civile persistante et d'erreurs dans l’élaboration des politiques après l'indépendance en 1975. S'appuyant sur la recherche archivistique et des récits oraux, cet article analyse l'impact de la libéralisation de l'enseignement supérieur au Mozambique. Il explore les stratégies adoptées par les intellectuels et les universitaires face au soutien réduit de l’État et aux conditionnalités des bailleurs de fonds qui ont accompagné les mesures d'austérité dès la fin des années 1980. Il souligne aussi les effets paradoxaux des mesures d'austérité sur la collecte de fonds, la production intellectuelle et le développement des institutions d'enseignement. Les mesures d'austérité résultant des PAS ont forcé les universités et les professeurs à se réinventer en commercialisant et en privatisant l'enseignement supérieur, et en recherchant des fonds extérieurs pour financer la recherche. En même temps, les universitaires sont aujourd'hui plus libres intellectuellement, mais plus dépendants des priorités de recherche des bailleurs de fonds. Enfin, l'introduction d'institutions d'enseignement supérieur privées et la commercialisation des établissements publics ont creusé les divisions entre les élites et la majorité des Mozambicains qui n'ont pas les moyens de payer les frais demandés.

Type
Intellectual and cultural work in times of austerity
Information
Africa , Volume 91 , Issue 4 , August 2021 , pp. 602 - 619
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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