Innovation, use of IT still low at 50 universities in East Africa

By Edris Kisambira
An e-readiness survey of higher institutions of learning in East Africa that was carried out in 2008 has indicated that region’s universities are limited on innovativeness and use of information technologies (IT).
The report, which was released last week in Kampala, the Uganda capital focused on accessibility, usage and availability of information communication technologies (ICTs) services in 50 universities around the East African region.
The East African region takes in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.
According to the study, which was commissioned and funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, only 43% of the student population at the 50 campuses were taking part in global IT competitions that would otherwise give them international recognition.
Such competitions involve students or lecturers in developing innovative software like the Google Cup that takes place annually in Paris, France.
“Innovative projects give the universities more credibility in the world,” Professor Meoli Kashorada from the United States International University (USIU), Kenya said. “This can be achieved both by students and lecturers.”
The report indicates that the limited innovation is due to the student computer ratio and the availability of cheap bandwidth.
Rwandan universities had the best ratio at an average of seven computers per 100 students, 6.8 per 100 students in Uganda, 5.2 per 100 students in Kenya, 2.7 per 100 students in Tanzania and 1.5 per 100 students in Burundi.
This according to Professor Kashorada, the senior investigator of the report, is below the target which is 10 computers per 100 students.
The limited innovativeness at the universities has translated into poor records management and admission processes that are characteristic of long queues at universities when new students are being admitted and old ones are renewing their status.
An example is Makerere University, Uganda, the oldest university in East Africa that has the best IT facility in the region but still there is no computer programme that has been developed and installed to electronically register students without them having to queue for hours if not days.
“There is need for IT department heads to clearly present projects that benefit the whole university and push for reforms. The young people need to be given the opportunity to be innovative,” Professor Venansius Baryamureeba, the dean of the faculty of Computing and IT at Makerere University said.
Rwanda despite having the best student to computer ratio and the cheapest internet costs in the region due to a government subsidy also has high number of students leaving campus to go to Internet cafes to do research online. This though is blamed on the stretched university budgets and few facilities.
Burundi, which is just recovering from years of instability, has 70% of the student populations at its universities using Internet cafes.
It is hoped the switch from the expensive satellite connectivity to fibre optics could reduce the cost of bandwidth which will make the connectivity much faster and closer to the students.
The report reveals that fibre connectivity could lead to a rise in access from between 300 – 700 kilobites per second to 1 megabite per second for 1,000 students.
“I hope we shall not be embarrassed if we fail to absorb the fast Internet that is coming to our region. We need to have the capacity to utilise it,” Proffessor Francis Tusubira of Directorate for ICT Support at Makerere University said.
The report mentions Uganda as one of the countries where university websites are non-interactive and there is still low budget financing for ICT programmes.
According to Professor Timothy Waema of the University of Nairobi, there is still time for this to change. He says that university heads need to play a major role because they needed to make sure atleast 3% of their budgets go to ICT in general.
This annual report is compiled by the Kenya Education Network in conjunction with the Tanzania Research and Education Network, Rwanda Research and Education Network and Research and Education Network of Uganda (RENU) with funding from the Rockefeller Foundation.