According to Spielvogel (2017), the university as we know it with faculty, students and degrees was not a product of ancient Greece or Rome, but of the High Middle Ages, which spanned from 1000 to 1300AD.
The meaning of the word university is derived from the Latin word, universitas meaning a corporation or guild of teachers and students.
Ozment (2020) maintains that the High Middle Ages was marked by the rise of universities and scholasticism and the recovery of the full corpus of Aristotle’s work.
Professional elites of physicians, lawyers, and theologians appeared for the first time, and trade associations and guilds were formed to protect the interests of merchants and skilled artisans.
At every level people discovered and defined themselves by making new boundaries, alliances, dogmas, laws, and organisations.
During this period, Western people began to assert their identity as they came to know and impose themselves on others.
Despite variations, most early universities shared similar characteristics in terms of imparting knowledge.
Sometimes bloody riots developed between the townspeople and students, hence the coinage of the phrase, “conflicts between the town and the gown.”
All in fairness, lecturers were fined for missing a lecture, beginning their lectures late, and failing to complete their scheduled programme for the term.
In contrast, many lecturers on some university campuses today miss lectures and fail to account for their absence, yet receive full salaries on paydays.
Spielvogel further mentions the similarities between medieval and modern students abusing alcohol, and sex and appeals for careless spending of money.
Earlier on, before the High Middle Ages the idea of a school of higher learning as a distinct and autonomous institution within an urban setting dates back to the academy founded by Plato around 387BC. The Academy was established as a sacred sanctuary for learning outside the city walls of Athens.
The University of Timbuktu around 1200 for example produced scholars of high reputation and knowledge like Ahmed Baba Es Sudane of Timbuktu, Mali, who devoted his time to learning until he surpassed all his peers and contemporaries.
He was a matchless jurist, scholar and imam of his time. His academic reputation spread all over Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa.
However, this spirit of rational thinking is rapidly dying away in many tertiary institutions as many scholars want to be given academic qualifications on a platter. As time rolled on, over many centuries, university education spread to many parts of Europe and later through colonialism brought to Africa.
The universities in colonial Africa were established along racial lines. In South Africa, there were universities of Zululand for the predominantly Zulu ethnic group, the University of the North (now Limpopo University) for the Northern and Southern Sothos including Vendas and Tsongas.
There were universities for Coloureds and Indians. Although these racially aligned universities offered tertiary education, the essence was questionable.
The essence tilted along the inferiority of knowledge offered to other groups. But after the dawn of nationhood, African authorities should have made the essence of university education one which produces critical thinkers who can steer developmental projects.
Thinkers should express their thoughts in writing and read the thoughts of others. The universities should become creators of new knowledge as recently portrayed by professor Kangira in his article, ‘Professors are creators of knowledge’, in New Era of 4 April 2023.
The article says in many universities, lecturers are creating and sharing knowledge. Many academicians today agree that the essence of university education among other things is to provide students with a broad and deep understanding of various educational disciplines.
In the process universities equally develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills and prepare them for their chosen careers. This type of education should also encourage students to be independent thinkers and pursue knowledge for its own sake and contribute to society in many meaningful ways.
In a similar vein, a university education should provide opportunities for personal growth, cultural enrichment and social engagement.
Finally, the essence of university education is to empower individuals to become informed, engaged and responsible citizens of the countries in which they live.
Although some of these features might be manifested in some universities, alas, they are being eroded in many others.
The main aims of creating universities have been overtaken by the desire to make more money out of universities instead of following the noble ideals the universities were first established for.
In this vein, many students who do not meet the requirements are simply taken to make money.
The money made is not fairly paid to the lecturers, especially in the case of private universities and colleges.
Even so, in the case of recruitment of lecturers, the owners of these universities prefer to pick the ones who fail to meet the university recruitment standards. The main aim is to employ lecturers who cannot challenge the authorities when things do not spin very well. The qualified ones are always left out for fear of being challenged to do the right things.
Of course, the end university products are not competent enough to be able to develop their countries.
There are many university graduates in the fields of engineering in countries like Namibia, but cannot construct roads and bridges.
This scenario forces the government to invite Chinese and other foreign nationals to do construction jobs for them. Namibia like other countries should not expect genuine educational fruits if it does not take the education of its citizens seriously.