Windhoek
The Secretariat of the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) revealed this week that its new funding framework for higher education institutions (HEIs) would not be implemented during the current financial year.
The new funding framework was developed after research revealed the uneven levels of funding provided to the two major public higher education institutions (HEIs), the University of Namibia (Unam) and the Polytechnic of Namibia.
Unam received N$870 million for the 2014/15 financial years, while the Polytechnic of Namibia (PoN) received only N$449 million, according to the 2015/16 budget allocation for the Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Innovation.
Earlier this year, before the education ministry was split in two, the former minister of education, Dr David Namwandi said the funding framework – which was approved by Cabinet last year – would be implemented during the 2014/15 financial year.
This week the Deputy Director of the NCHE Secretariat, responsible for developing the new funding framework, Bertha Njembo, said the formula would only be implemented during the 2016/17 financial year, and not this year as earlier announced.
This is due to a delay in gathering the required data from all public HEIs, needed for calculating the estimated subsidies.
Njembo said, “Currently we are still collecting data to be used in determining the allocation of funding to public higher education institutions, which will only be used in the 2016/17 financial year.”
Once the NCHE has finalised the data collection process they will have consultative meetings with the two HEIs, regarding the agreed amounts, before forwarding the budget proposal to the Minister of Higher Education, Training and Innovation, Dr Itah Kandjii-Murangi.
It is widely expected that the introduction of the new funding framework will be a transparent and equitable system for determining the allocation of resources to public universities.
Subsequent to the approval of the new framework, the NCHE designed a Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS). It will be used to collect data from both public and private HEIs for calculating the estimated subsidies to these institutions, as well as for the production of the first-ever Namibia Higher Education Yearbook.
During 2014, the NCHE Secretariat worked closely with the HEIs to consolidate the funding formula and HEMIS, as well as adjusting the existing data collection systems to conform to the funding framework and HEMIS requirements.
The NCHE said government will also – in the course of the 2016/17 financial year – introduce the new public Higher Education Institutions Tuition Fees Adjustment Policy to ensure a fair distribution of the burden of covering operational costs between the government and taxpayer on the one hand, as well as parents and students on the other.
For oversight purposes, NCHE established a Funding Framework and Higher Education Management Information System Committee, in accordance with Article 14 (1) of the Higher Education Act (Act 26 of 2003), to, among others, advise on budgetary allocations, using the new funding formula.
It is understood the amount the public universities derive from tuition fees will affect the level of government subsidy to the said institutions.