Effectiveness and viability of revenue diversification in sub-saharan africa’s higher education: examining Zambia’s public universities.

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Date
2015
Authors
Masaiti, Gift
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education
Abstract
Universities world over especially in Sub-Saharan Africa are pressed by the severity of inadequate government funding. In Zambia, the government has attempted to respond to this austerity by putting different policies to improve the outlook of public universities based on decentralization and democratic principles of efficiency, equity, accountability and cost effectiveness. Since the 1996 Policy of Education, the financing of higher education is based on cost sharing, revenue diversification and student loan scheme. This paper examines the effectiveness and viability of the current revenue diversification policy in making Zambia’s public universities sustainable. A self administered questionnaire based on convenient sampling was used to collect data from 200 faculty respondents in three public universities. Data was subjected to descriptive statistics and Exploratory Factor Analyses. The findings revealed that the current policy of revenue diversification was less effective and viable in that universities were still experiencing a plethora of challenges because of lack of adequate funds. Revenue diversification only had a modest impact, as its percentage proportion contribution of recurrent expenditure budgets was still low. The study highly recommends that decision-making be decentralised and universities be allowed to charge economic fees and exploit other revenue generating activities. The study also recommends the adjustment of the current university act which is a hindrance to effective entrepreneurship
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Keywords
Public university and colleges--Zambia. , Education--Zambia--Finance. , Higher education--Zambia--Revenue diversification , Public universities--Finance.
Citation
Masaiti, G .(2015). Effectiveness and viability of revenue diversification in Sub-Saharan Africa’s higher education: examining Zambia’s Public Universities. International Journal of Humanities Social Sciences and Education (IJHSSE): 2(5), pp. 33-44.