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THE STATE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
REPORT -
2013/2014
Council on Higher Education
(CHE)
1
Contents
Acronyms and List of Abbreviations 6
Definition of Terms .................................................................................................................................. 8
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................ 10
1.0 INTRODUCTION 14
2.0 METHODOLOGY 17
2.1 Limitations ........................................................................................................................................ 17
3.0 ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION 18
3.1 Higher Education Institutions in Lesotho ......................................................................................... 18
3.2 Admission rates at Higher Education Institutions ............................................................................ 20
3.3 New Entrants.................................................................................................................................... 22
3.4 Admission rates at Tertiary institutions ........................................................................................... 23
3.5 Enrolments at Tertiary Institutions .................................................................................................. 25
3.6 Enrolment by age ............................................................................................................................. 27
3.7 Enrolment by Type of Programme and Qualifications ..................................................................... 31
3.8 Enrolment by Field of Study ............................................................................................................. 33
3.9 Enrolment of students with disability .............................................................................................. 35
4.0 INBOUND AND OUTBOUND MOBILITY OF STUDENTS................................................................. 37
4.1Inbound Mobility/Enrolment by Country of Origin .......................................................................... 38
4.2 Outbound Mobility/Basotho Students studying abroad ................................................................. 40
5.0 SPONSORSHIPS 43
6.0 GRADUATES AT HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS 45
7.0 ACCESS TO INFORMATION ON HEIs 47
8.0 TEACHING AND LEARNING IN HEIs 49
8.1 Staff by Institution and Classification .............................................................................................. 49
8.2 Staff by Country of Origin ................................................................................................................ 51
8.3 Terms of Employment of Staff ......................................................................................................... 53
8.4 Staff by qualifications ....................................................................................................................... 55
8.4 Capacity building of Staff ................................................................................................................. 60
8.4.1 Continuous Professional Development 62
8.5 Staff Attrition Rates 63
9.0 RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN HEIs 65
9.1 Research output ............................................................................................................................... 65
2
9.2 Participation in conferences ............................................................................................................ 66
9.3 Incentives for Conducting Research ................................................................................................ 68
9.4 Research Collaboration Agreements ............................................................................................... 69
9.5 Programmes that have a research component ............................................................................... 71
9.6 Research Funding ............................................................................................................................. 72
10.0 FINANCES IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS 73
10.1 Financial record keeping ................................................................................................................ 73
10.2 Income patterns of institutions ..................................................................................................... 74
10.3 Revenue /Funding and proportion of funders to overall income .................................................. 75
10.4 Expenditure Patterns of Institutions .............................................................................................. 77
10.5 Annual Budget Allocation by Government to HEIs ........................................................................ 78
11.0 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT BY HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS 79
11.1 Programmes with work attachment and internship component .................................................. 80
12.0 QUALITY ASSURANCE MECHANISMS IN HEIs 81
12.1 Programmes that Have Been Accredited in the Last Three Years ................................................. 82
12.2 State of Registration of Private Institutions ................................................................................... 84
12.3 CHE Collaboration With Professional Bodies ................................................................................. 85
13.0 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES (ICTs) IN HEIs 85
13.1 Academic Staff with ICT skills ......................................................................................................... 86
13.2 Contribution of lecturers to E-Learning ......................................................................................... 86
13.3 Availability of computers to academic staff and students ............................................................ 87
14.0 ALIGNING HIGHER EDUCATION PROGRAMMES WITH NATIONAL PRIORITIES 90
14.1 Graduate Employment Rate .......................................................................................................... 91
14.2 HEIs that have done tracer studies ................................................................................................ 91
14.3 Business creation rate by new graduates ...................................................................................... 92
15.0 HIV & AIDS RESPONSE IN HEIs 92
16.0 COORDINATION OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION SUB-SECTOR 93
16.1 Regular and consistent monitoring of higher education policy implementation .......................... 94
17.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 95
17.1 Conclusions .................................................................................................................................... 95
17.2 Recommendations ......................................................................................................................... 97
ANNEX 1 99
References 102
3
List of Figures
Figure 1: Higher Education Providers in Lesotho…………………………………………… 19
Figure 2: Number of Applicants by Institution: 2012/13 – 2013/14………………………… 21
Figure 3: Enrolment by Institution and Gender for 2013/14………………………………… 26
Figure 4: Enrolment Trends by Type of Institution…………………………………………. 26
Figure 5: Enrolments by Gender: 2010/11 to 2013/14………………………………………. 27
Figure 6: Enrolment by age for 2013/14……………………………………………………... 28
Figure 7: Gross Enrolment Ratios: 2010/11 - 2013/14……………………………………… 30
Figure 8: Tertiary Gross Enrolment Ratios by Country/Region: 2010/11 to 2013/14………. 31
Figure 9: Enrolment by Qualification being studied………………………………………… 32
Figure 10: Postgraduate Programmes Offered at HEIs in Lesotho: 2013/14……………… 33
Figure 11: Proportion of Students in Science Related Fields by Qualification……………… 35
Figure 12: Foreign Students Enrolled at HEIs in Lesotho: 2013/14………………………… 39
Figure 13: Number of Foreign Students Enrolled at HEIs in Lesotho: 2011/12-2013/14…... 39
Figure 14: Non-Basotho Students Enrolled at HEIs in Lesotho by Field of Study: 2013/14.. 40
Figure 15: Students at Higher Education Institutions by Sponsor…………………………… 44
Figure 16: Completion Rates by Institutions: 2013/14………………………………………. 45
Figure 17: Performance of Students on End of Programme Examinations: 2011/12 – 2013/14 46
Figure 18: Performance of Students on End of Programme Examinations by Field of Study 47
Figure 19: Career Guidance Sessions by Institution: 2012/13 – 2013/14…………………… 48
Figure 20: Terms of Employment of Staff by Institution……………………………………. 54
Figure 21: Distribution of Staff by Terms of Employment: 2011/12 – 2013/14……………. 55
Figure 22: Academic Staff Quality Indices by Institution and Exit Level: 2011/12 -2013/14 59
Figure 23: Distribution of Staff who Went for Training by Institution and Qualification Sought:
2013/14………………………………………………………………………………………. 60
Figure 24: Programmes Pursued by Staff by Qualification Sought: 2013/14……………….. 61
Figure 25: Academic Staff on Training by Level of Study: 2013/14………………………... 62
Figure 26: Staff who Left by Institutions and Classification……………………………….. 63
Figure 27: Trends in the Number of Research Reports Produced: 2010 – 2014……………. 66
Figure 28: Distribution of Academic Staff with ICT Skills…………………………………..86
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List of Tables
Table 1: Number of Students Qualifying for Admission by Higher Education Institution:
2012/13 - 2013/14………………………………………………………………………. 21
Table 2: Admissions/New Entrants by Institution: 2011/12 – 2013/14………………… 22
Table 3: Admission Rates by Institution: 2012/13 – 2013/14…………………………. 24
Table 4: Admission Rates of Qualifying Applicants by Institution: 2012/13 – 2013/14....24
Table 5: Enrolment by Age: 2012/13 - 2013/14…………………………………………..29
Table 6: Fields of Study offered by HEIs in Lesotho……………………………………..34
Table 7: Enrolment by Field of Study: 2013/14…………………………………………..35
Table 8: Barriers of Access to HE by Persons with Disabilities and Possible solutions....37
Table 9: Students Enrolled at HEIs in Lesotho by Institution and Country of Origin:2013/14
......................................................................................................................................38
Table 10: Top 10 Programmes Pursued by Basotho Students Internationally: 2013/14…...42
Table 11: Top 10 Programmes Pursued by Basotho Students in South Africa: 2013/14….. 42
Table 12: Availability of Functional Websites by Institution ……………………………... 50
Table 13: Distribution of Staff by Institution and Classification…………………………... 50
Table 14: Annual Changes in Number of Staff Employed: 2010/11 - 2013/14…………… 51
Table 15: Distribution of Staff by Institutions and Nationality……………………………. 53
Table 16: Distribution of Staff by Institution and Qualification…………………………… 56
Table 17: Distribution of Staff by Qualification and Classification……………………….. 56
Table 18: Distribution of Staff by Qualification and Level Taught: 2013/14……………... 57
Table 19: Academic Staff Quality Indices by Institution………………………………….. 59
Table 20: Distribution of Staff who went for Training by Qualification Sought: 2011/12 –
2013/14…………………………………………………………………………………….. 61
Table21: Staff Attrition Rates by Institution………………………………………………. 64
Table 22: Number of Staff by Reasons for Leaving……………………………………….. 64
Table 23: Research Reports Completed by Institution and Type of Study: 2012 – 2014…. 66
Table 24: Conference Presentations by Institution: 2012 – 2014………………………….. 67
Table 25: Published Conference Papers by Institution: 2012 – 2014……………………… 68
Table 26: Staff Paper Publication Indices by Institution: 2012 – 2014…………………… 68
Table 27: Collaboration Agreements by Institution………………………………………... 70
Table 28: Collaboration Indices by Institution and Number of Organisations…………….. 71
Table 29: Distribution of Programmes With Research Component by Institution………… 72
Table 30: Funds Allocated to Research by Institution: 2013/14……………………………72
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Table 31: Income Gap by Institution: 2013/14…………………………………………….. 75
Table 32: Proportion of Revenue by Institution and source of funding: 2013/14…………. 76
Table 33: Expenditure Patterns by Institution and Some Key Budget Lines: 2013/14……. 77
Table 34: Budget allocation to HEIs……………………………………………………….. 78
Table 35: Programmes Reviewed for Accreditation in the last Three years ……………….84
Table 36: Contribution of Lecturers to E-Learning (2013/14)……………………………...87
Table 37: Distribution of Computers Available to Academic Staff……………………….. 88
Table 38: Distribution of Computers Available to Students by Institution and Internet
Connectivity: 2013/14……………………………………………………………………… 88
Table 39: Ratios of Students Per Computer by Institution......................................................91
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Acronyms and List of Abbreviations
1
ACCA Association of Certified Chartered Accountants
ASQI Academic Staff Quality Index
BOS Bureau of Statistics
CAS Centre for Accounting Studies
CHAL Christian Health Association of Lesotho
CHE Council on Higher Education
CIPFA Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy
CIPS Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply
COSC Cambridge Overseas School Certificate
ECOL Examination Council of Lesotho
GER Gross Enrolment Ratio
GOL Government of Lesotho
HAART Highly Active Antiretroviral Treatment
HEA Higher Education Act, 2004
HEIs Higher Education Institutions
HEQAC Higher Education Quality Assurance Committee
IDM Institute of Development Management
IE Institute of Education
IEMS Institution of Extra-Mural Studies
IPP Intellectual Property Policy
LAC Lesotho Agricultural College
LCE Lesotho College of Education
LeBoHA Lesotho Boston Health Alliance
LIA Lesotho Institute of Accountants
LIPAM Lesotho Institute of Public Administration and Management
LNC Lesotho Nursing Council
LNFOD Lesotho National Federation of Organisations of the Disabled
LP Lerotholi Polytechnic
LPPA Lesotho Parenthood Association
LRA Lesotho Revenue Authority
LUCT Limkokwing University of Creative Technology
MAC Maluti Adventist College
7
MBChB Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery Programme
M&E Monitoring and Evaluation
MoET Ministry of Education and Training
MoF Ministry of Finance
NEPI Nursing Education Programme Initiative
NHTC National Health Training College
NMDS National Manpower Development Secretariat
NUL National University of Lesotho
PMTCT Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission
PSI Population Services International
PSN Paray School of Nursing
QA Quality Assurance
QFL Qualifications Framework for Lesotho
RAHEI Rapid Assessment for Higher Education Institutions
RCN Roma College of Nursing
RSA Republic of South Africa
SADC Southern African Development Community
SECH Student Entrepreneurial Community Hand
SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
SRC Students Representative Council
SSN Scott College of Nursing
TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation
VMMC Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision
8
Definition of Terms
Academic Attrition Rate – It is the percentage of academic staff leaving the institutions. It is
calculated as the number of academic staff who left the institution for any reason over total number
of academic staff.
Academic Staff Quality Index – It is the proportion of PhD holders among academic staff in the
higher education institutions. It is calculated as number of staff with PhD degrees over total
number of staff.
Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) – it is the number of students enrolled in higher education
institutions regardless of age as a percentage of the total national population in the appropriate age
group for higher education – which is 18 -22 years in the case of Lesotho.
Higher Education Internationalisation Index - it is the proportion of foreign students and staff
in the higher education institutions. It is calculated as the number of foreign students and staff in
higher education institutions over total number of staff in higher education institutions.
Instructional/academic Personnel – These are personnel whose primary function is teaching
and research. Instructional personnel who are also part of management are included in this
category.
Management - These are personnel whose primary or major responsibility is the management of
the institution or a recognised department or sub-division of the institution. It includes vice
chancellors, deputy vice chancellors, rectors, deputy rectors, principal nurse educators, directors
general, personnel whose primary responsibility is quality control and management of the
institution, other high level administrative/management positions specific to the institution. Staff
members whose core function is management even if they are teaching and researching are also
included in this category.
New Entrants – New entrants to a level of education are students who, during the course of the
current reporting period, enter any programme leading to a recognised qualification at this level
of education for the first time, irrespective of whether the students enter the programme at the
beginning or at an advanced stage of the programme (e.g. by virtue of credits gained for work
experience or courses taken at another level). Individuals who are returning to study at a level
following a period of absence from studying at that same level are not considered to be new
entrants.
Private institution – means an institution registered or preparing to register as such under section
37 of the Higher Education Act of 2004.
9
Public institution – means a higher education institution that is established, deemed to be
established or declared as a higher education public institution under section 18 of the Higher
Education Act of 2004.
Research Funding Index – It is the total amount allocated for research expressed as a percentage
of total university expenditure in a given year
Research Publication Index – It is the average number of ‘Peer Review” research publications
per academic staff in a year per higher education institution. It is calculated as the total number
of peer-reviewed publications by all academic staff over total number of academic staff. In the
case of Lesotho, since no peer reviewed publications were provided, it was calculated on the basis
of publications reported.
Support staff - These are personnel who support the academic, administrative, management
functions and operations of the institution. It covers the academic support staff, health and social
support staff, administrative personnel, maintenance and operations personnel.
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Executive Summary
The Council on Higher Education (CHE) produces the State of Higher Education (HE) every two
years since 2011/2012. This report is aimed at monitoring implementation of the Higher Education
Policy together with its strategic plan. There is also Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) framework
for these key documents which includes a set of 82 performance indicators. This report assesses
performance on implementation of the policy and strategic plan by tracking these indicators.
About 55 indicators have been tracked. It has not been possible to track others due to lack of data
and lack of implementation in some areas. Policy goals which inform the strategic plan and the
M&E framework are as follows:
a) Improving teaching and learning in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs);
b) Strengthening research and innovation in higher education institutions;
c) Improving community engagement by higher education institutions;
d) Aligning higher education programmes with national priorities;
e) Harnessing new information and communications technologies in higher education;
f) Improving access to higher education in Lesotho;
g) Diversifying provision of higher education in Lesotho;
h) Strengthening institutional arrangements for improved coordination and regulation of the
higher education sub-sector;
i) Strengthening mechanisms for quality assurance in higher education;
j) Devising an equitable and sustainable approach to the financing of higher education; and
k) Regular and consistent monitoring of higher education policy implementation.
The information that informed this report comprised both quantitative and qualitative data. The
quantitative data were collected on an annual basis through forms which CHE sends to institutions
every year. Qualitative data were collected through a Rapid Assessment of the HEIs and other key
stakeholders. The data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS)
version 22.
Access to higher education is one of the areas that the policy pays attention to. In 2013/14, there
were 14 HEIs in Lesotho which varied greatly in terms of size and number of students enrolled.
Admission rates into these institutions were low and therefore, the number of new entrants has
declined. The total number of students enrolled in all HEIs in 2013/14 was 23,545. This was a
decline from 26,580 in 2010/11, 25,507 in 2011/12 and 24,073 in 2012/13. The National
University of Lesotho (NUL) has been the largest in terms of its enrolments. Enrolments by
11
programme across all institutions indicate that most students were studying towards diploma
qualifications followed by those in bachelor’s degree programmes. There were 11,535 diploma
students and 10,073 degree students in 2013/14. Of great concern is the fact that there are very
few postgraduate programmes and students at both master’s and doctoral levels. Lesotho’s Gross
Enrolment Ratios (GERs) between 2010 and 2014 declined from 12.4 percent to 11 percent. In
comparison to the Sub-Saharan Africa, Lesotho’s ratios were higher. However, compared to
Botswana and Mauritius which had 27.5 percent and 38.7 percent respectively in 2014, Lesotho
is much lower.
One of the indicators takes into account people with disabilities and their access to higher
education. There were 20 students enrolled in three higher education institutions. This is an
improvement from previous years, though still very low. Accessibility of facilities in HEIs by
people of varying disability varies from institution to institution. There were still barriers for
people with disabilities in a number of institutions which impeded movement and thus,
accessibility to some facilities and amenities. This ultimately affects their ability to access
facilities and therefore, their success rate. The enrolment was already low, for it was out of an
estimated total population of 3,434 people with disabilities.
In respect of inward and outward mobility of students, the number of foreign students studying in
Lesotho are declining, whereas, the number of Basotho studying in other countries are increasing.
In 2014 there were 2,912 Basotho students studying outside the country. About 897 of them were
enrolled in South African universities, which constitute almost 30.0 percent. Most of them were
financed by the state through National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) while others
were financed through other various foreign scholarships channelled through NMDS.
The report also looked at indicators relating to staff in HEIs and found that there was a very high
attrition rate resulting in fluctuations in staff moving in and out of institutions. For instance, in
2013/14 there were 226 staff members who left from 10 HEIs. This is very high and it results in
instability and lack of consistency in the offerings of these institutions. The staff quality index for
all institutions except NUL was calculated at masters’ level, while for NUL it was calculated at
PhD level. The reason for using master’s level for other institutions is that they mostly offer sub-
degree programmes which require lecturers with minimum qualification of a bachelor’s degree to
teach. Their overall staff quality index was estimated at 49.9 percent while for NUL it was at 33.7
12
percent. Capacity building for staff in HEIs takes different forms including long-term training
towards masters and PhD on the one hand and short-term skills development training on the other.
Research output is generally low in HEIs. There were 237 researches done from 2012 to 2014.
There has been an increase in performance from the previous period, but the figures were of a low
base. One of the reasons advanced for the low output was that there was no dedicated funding for
research from the government subvention for public institutions, thus, they had to make budgetary
allocations from their already meagre resources.
Indicators pertaining to quality assurance in HEIs indicate that establishment of quality assurance
mechanisms in HEIs are at varying stages of development with the majority of them having draft
policies and temporary quality assurance structures in the form of committees. A number of
programmes have been reviewed for accreditation at full/comprehensive review and partial
review. Most of those reviewed have been granted accreditation. There are only four programmes
from two institutions that were not granted accreditation.
An attempt was made to assess whether institutions’ programmes were in line with national
priorities. Most programmes were found to be aligned to the priorities except for the fact that the
majority of them were at diploma and junior degree levels whereas scarce skills are mostly at
higher levels. Furthermore, such factors as graduate employment rate and tracer studies by HEIs
were considered. However, data was not available on graduate employment. Almost all the
institutions did not conduct tracer studies of their graduates except for two. Despite lack of
information, there is a general sense that graduate unemployment is very high. Data from the
Ministry of the Public Service, though not fully reliable, indicates that only three people were
employed within one year of graduation in 2012. In 2014 there were 10, 525 job seekers on the
Ministry’s waiting list, with a backlog of graduate job seekers on the waiting list going as far back
as 2000, 2004 and 2005 depending on different programmes.
In terms of finances of HEIs the report explores their income patterns and revenue streams. It
emerged that public and Christian Health Association of Lesotho (CHAL) institutions which are
in the majority have two main sources of revenue, namely, government subvention and student
fees. With regard to audit of their books of accounts it is a mixed bag of unqualified, qualified and
outstanding audits. Another important trend observed is that audits for most public institutions are
not up to date.
13
The following recommendations have been drawn from the findings of the report:
i. The quality of statistical data from HEIs remains problematic. It is therefore critical for
them to improve their data management systems and data quality.
ii. Enrolments at HEIs are on a downward trajectory whereas demand for higher education
keeps increasing. Government through NMDS should increase student support and focus
it specifically on needy students.
iii. NMDS should expedite review of its law and policies in order to pave way for the
introduction of cost-sharing of higher education costs between parents and the state.
iv. HEIs should endeavour to work on staff retention strategies so as to address the massive
staff fluctuations which result in academic instability.
v. Government should increase capital investments into public HEIs so that they can increase
their carrying capacity without compromising quality of teaching and learning.
vi. Programmes offered by local HEIs are generally aligned to the national priorities though
not all priorities are addressed. One of the critical factors, as discussed in the report is that
most programmes are at the sub-degree level whereas the skills shortages are at higher
levels. Institutions should therefore work towards addressing this problem.
vii. There is a dire need for HEIs to diversify programme offerings at the post graduate level
and increase intake particularly at the master’s and Doctoral levels.
viii. Government should approve and implement the Funding Model for Higher Education
public institutions which will in turn improve on mandatory budget allocation to
institutions for research and other components that are critical for improved quality.
ix. Data indicate that some institutions have teaching staff who teach at the same level as their
own qualifications and even above. This is highly irregular, and CHE should enforce its
quality assurance standards to ensure that all institutions comply.
x. Local institutions are low on the internationalisation index which talks to their lack of
competitiveness internationally. They should therefore improve on this front.
xi. While there is an improvement on the institutions’ contribution towards E-learning, there
is still a great deal to be done by HEIs. They should therefore embrace technology fully in
teaching and learning.
14
xii. Numbers of students with disability are still very low in HEIs. Institutions should provide
the necessary support and facilities for students with disability to enable them to access
higher education.
xiii. Most institutions do not conduct tracer studies of their graduates. Thus they do not benefit
from feedback on how their graduates are coping in the world of work. Institutions should
therefore undertake periodic tracer studies and utilize information obtained from such.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
15
This is the second State of Higher Education Report produced by the Council on Higher Education
in Lesotho. The report presents progress on key performance indicators of the Higher Education
Policy covering the period between 2012/13 and 2013/14. It builds on the 2013 first State of
Higher Education Report and the Baseline Survey of Higher Education Institutions Report
produced by CHE in 2011/2012. The purpose of the report is to monitor implementation of the
Higher Education Policy and Strategic Plan which were approved by Cabinet in November 2013.
Indicators which are used to track progress on these documents are articulated in the Higher
Education M&E Framework. The report is informed by statistical data collected from higher
education institutions annually, together with the findings of a rapid assessment survey on higher
education institutions and other key stakeholders. The various sections of the report are therefore
linked to the goals of the higher education policy which are as follows:
a) Improving teaching and learning in higher education institutions;
b) Strengthening research and innovation in higher education institutions;
c) Improving community engagement by higher education institutions;
d) Aligning higher education programmes with national priorities;
e) Harnessing new information and communications technologies in higher education;
f) Improving access to higher education in Lesotho;
g) Diversifying provision of higher education in Lesotho;
h) Strengthening institutional arrangements for improved coordination and regulation of the
higher education sub-sector;
i) Strengthening mechanisms for quality assurance in higher education;
j) Devising an equitable and sustainable approach to the financing of higher education; and
k) Regular and consistent monitoring of higher education policy implementation.
The report covers the methodology used for collection of data, its processing and compilation. It
discusses access to higher education, focussing specifically on issues such as admission rates at
HEIs. It looks at enrolments disaggregated by types of programmes being studied, qualifications,
age, and students with disability, among others. It goes further to look at enrolment ratios and their
trends from 2010 to 2014 and compares them with those of other countries in the Southern African
Development Community (SADC) region and beyond. Moreover, the report deals with mobility
of higher education students from other countries coming to study in local institutions on the one
16
hand, and mobility of Basotho students studying in other countries on the other. The analysis of
inward and outward mobility of students is done with a view to understanding the extent to which
local institutions are able to attract foreign students, while on the other hand it is to establish how
many Basotho students are studying outside the country, fields of study they are in, and countries
in which they are studying.
The report delves into the analysis of graduates of HEIs looking at their performance, focussing
specifically on end of programme examinations. Pass rates and student completion rates form part
of the analysis. This analysis helps to engage institutions on their internal efficiency. For instance,
the assessment of the proportion of students who complete their studies successfully was done.
The assessment also looked at the performance of students by field of study to check which fields
are consistently failed or passed by students.
Teaching and learning is at the heart of the education enterprise. The report therefore, analyses
this important area. It discusses issues related to staff within different institutions looking at their
qualifications, countries of origin, attrition rates and the extent to which institutions build capacity
of their staff. The quality of staff is also dealt with in order to establish the proportion of PhD
holders in each institution, and the number of master’s degree holders in institutions that offer
bachelor’s degrees as the highest qualifications and sub-degree programmes. Moreover, the report
covers research and innovation in which such issues as research output by staff members, research
funding, collaborations on research with other institutions both in and outside the country, and
programmes in HEIs that have a research component.
Finances of HEIs are addressed in the report as well. The institutions’ revenue streams and their
sources of income are discussed in depth. The expenditure patterns of institutions are also
analysed. Community engagement by HEIs is one of the areas that are discussed in the report.
Quality assurance mechanisms in HEIs as a critical component for the success of HEIs are covered
extensively. The report also deals with the extent to which HEIs harness Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) to improve teaching, learning and research. It goes further
to check the extent to which HE programmes are aligned to National Priorities. Finally, the report
ends with a conclusion and outlines recommendations for consideration by CHE, Ministry of
Education and Training (MOET) and HEIs.
17
2.0 METHODOLOGY
As with the previous State of Higher Education Report, data were collected through a combination
of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Quantitative data were collected annually from
higher education institutions through the Annual Statistical Tertiary Return Form. Data sought
using the forms covered information on enrolments, staff and fees from 2011/12 to 2013/14.
CHE also undertook The Rapid Assessment of Higher Education Institutions (RAHEI) from
November 2015 to January 2016. The study collected both quantitative and qualitative data from
all HEIs relating to access to higher education institutions, teaching and learning, accessibility of
HEIs to persons with disabilities, state of infrastructures, financial status of HEIs, ICT, research
output, quality assurance mechanisms, involvement in community engagement and alignment of
HE programmes with national priorities. The findings of the study were used to supplement data
collected through the Annual Statistical Tertiary Return Form. A structured questionnaire was
administered by a consultant at higher education institutions.
In addition to information obtained from HEIs, secondary data were also obtained from other
sources with relevant information for tracking of various performance indicators. These include
National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS), Ministry of Social Development, Ministry
of Public Service, Lesotho National Federation of Organisations of Disabled (LANFOD), Bureau
of Statistics (BOS), Lesotho Revenue Authority (LRA) and Examination Council of Lesotho
(ECOL).
Furthermore, official documents which relate to the study were consulted and they include the HE
Act, HE Policy, the Higher Education M&E Framework, UNESCO publications and databases.
2.1 Limitations
• There were gaps on information on applicants to higher education institutions. 2010/11 –
2011/12 data were not available hence analysis relating to admissions was done only for two
years – 2012/13 and 2013/14. Data on applicants for other HEIs were not provided.
• Data on qualifying applicants were only available for a selection of institutions. Hence
analysis was based on a few institutions where such data were available.
18
• Information on students who passed the Lesotho General Certificate of Secondary Education
(LGCSE) examinations and qualify for higher education could not be determined due to the
nature of ratings done with LGCSE. As a result, admission rates were calculated on the basis
of the number of applicants.
• Admission rates could not be disaggregated by gender due to non-availability of gender
specific data on applicants.
• The rapid assessment left out some of the information crucial for calculating indicators for
higher education. The reasons were that data were not available or that the consultant missed
that data or that some organisations and institutions were not responsive.
• There were gaps in information relating to staff attrition at institutions. Such information is
normally collected annually. However, due to the challenges experienced with the quality of
that data, HEIs were requested to re-submit information. Some HEIs did not comply while
others submitted using different formats despite several follow-ups. Analysis was therefore
based on only those who submitted the required information.
3.0 ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION
It is critical that higher education is accessible to all qualifying Basotho regardless of their
economic or social standing. The Lesotho Constitution commits the state to making higher
education equally accessible to all Basotho who are eligible. The Higher Education Policy, which
aims to address the issue, states that the number of HE places is expected to more than double over
the next ten years in order to accommodate the demand from different groups of prospective
students including school leavers, delayed entrants to the system, those upgrading their
qualifications, mature age entrants and international candidates. In order to check whether any
achievements were made in relation to improving access to higher education, the report evaluated
the existing institutions, admissions, enrolments and provision of information to prospective
students to ensure access to information about different HE providers in Lesotho.
3.1 Higher Education Institutions in Lesotho
As one of the strategies to improve access to higher education, the higher education sub-sector
plans to increase the number of places available and to broaden the range of programme offerings
for Basotho who wish to pursue higher education. To this end, slight improvements have been
observed in relation to the number of places available. One institution runs in partnership between
19
the Ministry of Health and Boston University in the United States of America. The Lesotho
Boston Health Alliance (LeBoHA), based in Leribe district, was established in 2011 though data
collection in that institution only started in 2012/13. The institution offers a post graduate
qualification in Family Medicine Specialty for practicing doctors. One private institution was
registered and started its operations in 2015, the period outside the scope of this report. The number
of institutions therefore increased from 13 in the last reporting period (2011/12) to 14 in 2013/14.
Nine of these were public and 5 were private. Figure 1 shows that two (2) of the institutions are
universities, eight (8) are college-level institutions offering different disciplines including teacher,
technical, agricultural, health, professional training and other disciplines. The rest are nursing
colleges/schools owned and administered by the CHAL.
Figure 1: Higher Education Providers in Lesotho
However, more effort is still necessary by different parties/stakeholders to increase the number
of places available to improve access to higher education. More should also be done to encourage
private sector participation in the provision of higher education. Such an increase will help lessen
the burden on the existing institutions in the long run and thus provide access to all those who
qualify.
HEIs (14)
Universities (2)
•NUL
•LUCT
College-level HEIs (7)
•NHTC
•LAC
•LIPAM
•IDM
•LP
•CAS
•LCE
Centres (1)
•LeBoHA
Denominationally Owned and administered HEIs (4)
•RCN
•SSN
•PSN
•MAC
20
3.2 Admission rates at Higher Education Institutions
In order to assess the demand for higher education and check the absorptive capacity of
institutions, the report considered the number of students who sat for higher secondary school
leaving examinations, applications received by HEIs between 2011/12 and 2013/14 and those who
ultimately got admission into higher education institutions. The information was then used to
calculate the admission rates. Information on such variables was obtained from various sources.
ECOL pass lists were used for students who sat for examinations and information on applicants
was collected through the rapid assessment of higher education institutions undertaken in 2015 to
supplement the one collected annually from HEIs. The information was only available for two
years, namely: 2012/13 and 2013/14 for 13 institutions. LeBoHA was excluded as it did not have
any applicants during that period.
The findings showed that there were 21,530 and 18,977 applicants to HEIs in 2012/13 and 2013/14
respectively. This indicates notable decrease of 11.9 percent in the number of applicants to HEIs
from 2012/13 to 2013/14. Further classification of the number of applicants by institution in
2012/13 showed that majority (22.8%) applied to Lesotho College of Education (LCE) followed
by NUL, Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (LUCT), National Health Training
College (NHTC) and Lerotholi Polytechnic (LP) with 17.7 percent, 13.5 percent, 12.4 percent and
10.8 percent respectively (see Figure 2). In 2013/14, the decline in the number of applicants was
likely to have been caused by the decrease in number of applicants in seven of the institutions
namely: NHTC, LP, LCE, Centre for Accounting Studies (CAS), Lesotho Agricultural College
(LAC), Paray School of Nursing (PSN) and Lesotho Institute of Public Administration (LIPAM).
21
Figure 2: Number of Applicants by Institution: 2012/13 – 2013/14
The study also examined the number of applicants that qualified for admission into the higher
education institutions. The analysis was based on only seven (7) institutions that provided
information and the results are presented in Table 1. In both 2012/13 and 2013/14, more than 70.0
percent of the applicants qualified for admission into higher education institutions. This was the
case for most institutions with the exception of LP and LIPAM having proportions of less than
half in both years.
Table 1: Number of Students Qualifying for Admission by Higher Education Institution:
2012/13 - 2013/14
2012/13 2013/14
Institutions Applicants Qualifying
applicants
% of
qualifying
applicants
Applicants Qualifying
applicants
% of
qualifying
applicants
RCN 180 180 100.0 633 633 100.0
SSN - - - 350 350 100.0
PSN 400 320 80.0 383 286 74.7
LCE 5087 3765 74.0 4331 3748 86.5
LP 2814 1012 36.0 2044 901 44.1
NHTC 5515 5515 100.0 2360 2360 100.0
LIPAM 772 241 31.2 617 228 37.0
Total 14768 11033 74.7 10718 8506 79.4
22
3.3 New Entrants
Information was collected on the number of students admitted at institutions between 2011/12
and 2013/141. These included only new students who accepted their admission and were
considered as “new entrants into tertiary”, irrespective of whether they entered at the beginning or
advanced stage of the programme. In 2012, a total of 13, 739 students sat for secondary school
leaving examinations out of which 7,616 (55.4%) passed. Not all students who qualified for
admission to tertiary institutions were admitted. This was due to the limited number of places
available, coupled with the NMDS quota for students to be sponsored that is usually given to HEIs
at the beginning of every year. The quota system was introduced by NMDS in 2010 due to the
increase in the fees of institutions and increasing demand for sponsorships.
In 2013/14, the number of new entrants to institutions was estimated at 6086 with 58.5 percent
females and 41.5 percent males (see Table 2). The majority were enrolled in the four (4) largest
institutions, namely: NUL, LCE, LUCT and LP with proportions of 25.6 percent, 20.4 percent,
16.7 percent and 13.1 percent respectively.
Table 2: Admissions/New Entrants by Institution: 2011/12 – 2013/14
Institution 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total
NUL 1423 1087 2510 727 1079 1806 622 933 1555
IDM 78 110 188 55 57 112 83 158 241
RCN 5 16 21 14 39 53 9 30 39
SSN 7 17 24 13 51 64 15 81 96
PSN 0 21 21 14 50 64 14 39 53
MAC 7 26 33 17 46 63 9 57 66
LUCT 567 630 1197 464 498 962 498 518 1016
LCE 269 779 1048 306 532 838 397 847 1244
LAC 59 59 118 80 63 143 90 76 166
LP 878 352 1230 580 272 852 494 301 795
NHTC 72 234 306 71 215 286 45 149 194
CAS 203 284 487 201 297 498 215 256 471
LIPAM 52 144 196 48 149 197 36 114 150
Total 3620 3759 7379 2590 3348 5938 2527 3559 6086
% Total 49.1 50.9 100.0 43.6 56.4 100.0 41.5 58.5 100.0
% Change - - - -28.5 -10.9 -19.5 -2.4 6.3 2.5
1 No information was collected on new entrants in 2010/11
23
It is shown in Table 2 that the number of new entrants at tertiary institutions declined by 19.5
percent from 2011/12 to 2012/13. An overall improvement of 2.5 percent was observed in
2013/14. This was particularly due to increased number of new entrants in six (6) of the
institutions, namely Institute of Development Management (IDM), Scott School of Nursing
(SSN), Maluti Adventist College (MAC), LUCT, LCE and LAC. An improvement in the
admission of new entrants was largely observed among female students with an increase of 6.3
percent from 2012/13 to 2013/14.
3.4 Admission rates at Tertiary institutions
In order to check the absorptive capacity of institutions, the admission rates were calculated. It
measures the number of students admitted at tertiary institutions relative to the number of
applications received. However, due to unavailability of data on admissions for other years,
admission rates were only calculated for 2012/13 and 2013/14. According to the available data,
the number of applications received by HEIs far exceeded the number of students admitted at HEIs
in Lesotho. This is confirmed by the lower admission rates as presented in Table 3. The overall
admission rates for both years averaged 29.9 percent. In 2013/14, admission rates were lower than
50 percent in all the institutions. CAS was the only exception with 68.2 percent. It was followed
by IDM and NUL with 49.6 percent and 46.2 percent respectively. In 2012/13, NUL and CAS
had admission rates of 81.9 percent and 54.8 percent respectively. NUL admission rates were
higher during that period due to a special arrangement made with Government through NMDS for
additional students to be financed. This was due to the fact that NUL admitted more students and
therefore a decision had to be made by Government for additional funding for sponsorship.
Table 3: Admission Rates by Institution: 2012/13 – 2013/14
24
Institutions 2012/2013 2013/2014
Applicants Admissions Admission rates
Applicants Admissions Admission rates
NHTC 5515 286 5.2 2360 194 8.2
LCE 5087 838 16.5 4331 1244 28.7
MAC 149 63 42.3 160 66 41.3
PSN 400 64 16.0 383 53 13.8
RCN 180 53 29.4 633 39 6.2
NUL 2206 1806 81.9 3363 1555 46.2
SSN - 64 - 350 96 27.4
IDM 478 112 23.4 486 241 49.6
LUCT 2007 962 47.9 2560 1016 39.7
LAC 1014 143 14.1 999 166 16.6
CAS 908 498 54.8 691 471 68.2
LP 2814 852 30.3 2044 795 38.9
LIPAM 772 197 25.5 617 150 24.3
Total 21530 5938 27.6 18977 6086 32.1
The admission rates were also calculated on the basis of qualifying applicants as illustrated in
Table 4. However, they were based on seven institutions that provided information. Close to a
quarter (25.6%) of qualifying applicants were admitted into tertiary institutions in 2013/14, an
improvement of 4.3 percent from the 2012/13 overall admission rate of 21.3 percent. However,
the high admission rates of the students that qualified were only observed in LP and LIPAM while
the rest of the institutions admitted 30 percent of the applicants at the most. This still confirms
the low admission rates of qualifying students at most of the institutions.
Table 4: Admission Rates of Qualifying Applicants by Institution: 2012/13 – 2013/14
Institutions 2012/2013 2013/2014
Qualifying applicants
Admission Admission rates
Qualifying applicants
Admission Admission rates
RCN 180 54 30.0 633 39 6.2
SSN - 64 - 350 96 27.4
PSN 320 64 20.0 286 53 18.5
LCE 3765 838 22.3 3748 847 22.6
LP 1012 852 84.2 901 795 88.2
NHTC 5515 286 5.2 2360 194 8.2
LIPAM 241 197 81.7 228 150 65.8
Total 11033 2355 21.3 8506 2174 25.6
25
The low admission rates by local HEIs mean that these institutions have a low absorptive capacity.
Absorptive capacity of an institution is determined by its teaching and learning facilities together
with resources such as lecturers. If there is no improvement on the capacity of institutions to carry
more students without compromising quality of teaching and learning, institutions will always be
limited in the numbers that they can admit. This has dire consequences for qualifying students
who are not able to access higher education. The higher education policy has proposed
construction of new public institutions for both higher education and Technical and Vocational
Education and Training (TVET). Furthermore, the Funding Model for higher education public
institutions proposes increased capital investment by government into all public institutions over
a ten year period. The model has been approved at the ministerial level and is awaiting approval
by Cabinet. If it is implemented, it will go a long way in improving the absorptive capacity of
institutions, for it proposes capital injection into higher education public institutions for
infrastructure over a ten year period.
With Lesotho being one of the least developed countries, one of the main determining factors for
enrolments into HEIs, besides teaching facilities and resources, is financial support for students.
There are limitations on financial support by the state. This results in fewer students accessing
higher education. Thus, low admissions are a function of HEIs’ low absorptive capacity and
inadequate funding for qualifying students.
3.5 Enrolments at Tertiary Institutions
The Higher Education policy states that enrolment is expected to more than double in the next ten
(10) years. Progress relating to enrolment was measured from 2014 when the Policy was effected
and it was evaluated on the basis of students enrolled at local HEIs. The number of students
pursuing tertiary education in Lesotho was estimated at 23,545 in 2013/14, 58.5 percent were
females whereas 41.5 percent were males. Similar to the previous years, NUL, LCE, LUCT and
LP had the largest number of students enrolled (see Figure 3). More than 80 percent of the students
were enrolled in public institutions, mostly NUL, LCE and LP, as has been the trend since 2010/11.
Private institutions enrolled less than 20 percent of the students throughout the years as presented
in Figure 4.
26
Figure 3: Enrolment by Institution and Gender for 2013/14
Figure 4: Enrolment Trends by Type of Institution
It is hoped that with the establishment of new private institutions, more spaces will be created,
hence improving access to HE.
Figure 5 also illustrates the enrolment trends between 2010/11 and 2013/14. It is evident that
enrolments continued to decline since 2010/11 when CHE started collecting data from the HEIs.
For instance, the 2013/14 enrolment was lower than the number enrolled in the previous year
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
2248621529
20552 19888
4094 3978 3521 3657
Nu
mb
er
of
Stu
de
nts
En
rolle
d
Public Private
27
(2012/13) by 2.2 percent. The decline is in spite of the high demand for higher education. Further
investigation is necessary to determine reasons for the declining trends.
Figure 5: Enrolments by Gender: 2010/11 to 2013/14
3.6 Enrolment by age
As revealed from the previous reports, most students enter HE between the ages of 20 - 25 years
and 30-34 years. This was also the case in 2013/14 as these age groups constituted 59.7 percent
and 9.7 percent respectively (see Figure 6). More than half (52.4%) of the 30-34 year olds were
enrolled at NUL followed by LCE with 28.1 percent, understandably so as they offered adult part-
time programmes. The proportion of LCE and NUL students in part-time undergraduate
programmes at this age stood at a high figure of 53.7 percent, but lower as opposed to the 2011/12
figure of 69 percent. The rest were in post graduate and undergraduate full time programmes.
Figure 6: Enrolment by age for 2013/14
2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Male 10,802 10,355 9,959 9,761
Female 15,778 15,152 14,114 13,784
Total 26,580 25,507 24,073 23,545
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
Nu
mb
er
of
stu
de
nts
28
Trends in enrolments by age were also looked into. Data points for only two years were considered
due to differing age groups that were used for other years. Despite the declining trends in
enrolments over the years, more and more younger students were enrolled in higher education
from 2012/13 to 2013/14. This is evident from Table 5, which shows that the number of students
aged 18, 20 - 23 and 25-26 years increased, though by small margins ranging between 0.1 percent
and 10.4 percent.
Table 5: Enrolment by Age: 2012/13 - 2013/14
13
574
1031
2130
2784 2846
2623
2038
1559
1222
801726
624
2273
1261
553
303181
30
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
<18 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30-3435-3940-4445-49 >49 No
age
No.
of
stu
den
ts e
nro
lled
Student's age
29
Age 2012/13 2013/14 % change
<18 37 13 -64.9
18 520 574 10.4
19 1220 1031 -15.5
20 2081 2130 2.4
21 2609 2784 6.7
22 2764 2846 3.0
23 2526 2623 3.8
24 2091 2038 -2.5
25 1558 1559 0.1
26 1112 1222 9.9
27 930 801 -13.9
28 780 726 -6.9
29 661 624 -5.6
30-34 2428 2273 -6.4
35-39 1438 1261 -12.3
40-44 667 553 -17.1
45-49 390 303 -22.3
>49 261 181 -30.7
No age - 3 -
24073 23545 -2.2
Out of a projected total population of 1,9 million in Lesotho in 20142, a total of 23,545 students
were enrolled. This represented 1.2 percent of the population. However, the international
standards calculate participation rates of youths by comparing the total number of students aged
18-25 enrolled in higher education institutions relative to the population of youth aged 18-25. The
rate was estimated at 4.6 percent of the population of youth in that age group. The rate was still
low compared to the total population of the youth. On the other hand, the participation rate of
adult students from ages 26- 50 years enrolled in higher education institutions was much lower as
it was estimated at 1.5 percent of the population in that age group.
Another indicator that the report has to track relates to participation rates at HEIs measured using
the gross enrolment ratio. This refers to the total enrolment in tertiary education, regardless of
age, expressed as a percentage of the total population aged between 18 and 22 years following on
from secondary school leaving. The ratio was estimated at 11.0 percent for 2013/14. Contrary to
other Sub-Saharan countries such as Mozambique (GERs 5.0% females, 7.0% males), Zimbabwe
2 Bureau of Statistics
30
(5.4% females, 6.3% males), Ethiopia (3.7% females, 8.8% males) and Tanzania (2.5% females,
4.9% males), with lower participation rates of women, women in Lesotho are more advantaged in
terms of participation in higher education. This is confirmed by the GER of 12.9 percent for
females compared to 9.1 percent for males. The GER has been declining since the beginning of
the review period as confirmed by Figure 7. This is commensurate with the declining trends in
enrolments observed in Section 3.5.
Figure 7: Gross Enrolment Ratios: 2010/11 - 2013/14
When compared with the rest of the world, Figure 8 shows that Lesotho’s GERs over the years
have been higher (although declining) than that of Sub-Saharan Africa as was also revealed by the
previous State of HE Report. They ranged from 12.4 percent to 11.0 percent between 2010 and
2014 while Sub-Saharan Africa had 7.6 percent to 8.2 percent during that period. However,
compared to countries such as Botswana 27.5 percent in 2014 and Mauritius 38.7 percent,
Lesotho’s GERs are lower. They were however, very close to GERs for the African continent
averages which ranged between 11.7 percent and 12.1 percent over the same period. However,
they were far below the world GERs averaging 32.0 percent. The declining trends in participation
levels by the population eligible for higher education in Lesotho remains a challenge that needs to
be addressed to ensure that all eligible people are able to access higher education.
Figure 8: Tertiary Gross Enrolment Ratios by Country/Region: 2010/11 to 2013/14
2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Male 10.1 9.7 9.3 9.1
Female 14.7 14.1 13.2 12.9
Both sexes 12.4 11.9 11.2 11.0
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Gro
ss E
nro
lme
nt
Rat
ios
31
3.7 Enrolment by Type of Programme and Qualifications
HEIs in Lesotho offer both undergraduate and post graduate programmes. Most students (90.1%)
were enrolled at undergraduate level during 2013/14 as has always been the case in the past. As
shown in Figure 9, about half of enrollees (44.2%) were studying towards Diploma qualification
followed by degree with 44.7 percent. There were students studying for professional programmes
who made up a small proportion of 8.1 percent. These were students studying at CAS and those
in procurement and supplies programmes offered by IDM who could not be categorised according
to the normal qualifications offered by other institutions as they are not covered by the current
qualifications framework. It therefore emphasises the need for revision of the current framework
to accommodate such programmes.
Figure 9: Enrolment by Qualification being studied
0.0
5.0
10.0
15.0
20.0
25.0
30.0
35.0
40.0
Botswana Lesotho Mozambiqu
e
Zimbabwe Mauritius Sub-
Saharan
Africa
Africa World
2010 19.2 4.5 5.2 33.7 7.7 11.7 29.3
2011 17.1 12.4 4.8 5.8 35.2 7.9 11.5 31.0
2012 18.1 11.9 5.1 5.9 38.7 8.0 11.7 32.3
2013 25.0 11.2 5.0 5.9 39.7 8.2 12.1 32.9
2014 27.5 11.0 5.6 38.7
32
It is worth noting that only 1.8 percent of students were in postgraduate programmes such as
honours, masters and PhD. This may be due to the limited number of HEIs offering postgraduate
programmes as they were only offered at NUL, CAS and LeBoHA, as presented in Figure 10. It
should be noted that only programmes that were running in 2013/14 were included. Also, there
were limited options in the number and types of programmes offered in those institutions. This
therefore justifies why students go to study outside the country where there are a variety of options.
The implications of not having strong postgraduate programmes in the country are that the country
has a weak and limited research base. A closer look at the numbers showed that of the 442 students
in postgraduate programmes, 32 were master’s degree students and only one was PhD. During
the same year, Botswana had 208 PhD students while Mauritius had 280 out of 2442 and 3768
postgraduate students in those countries respectively. This made up 8.5 percent and 7.4 percent of
their postgraduate population. The value of having many PhD students is in the fact that they
broaden a country’s research base and generate new knowledge which leads to innovation and
solutions to societal problems, and the fact that postgraduate students tend to assist in teaching
and research which provides professors an opportunity to undertake research and mentor young
researchers. With this dire shortage at the post graduate research-based programmes, the country
is deprived of critical opportunities for growth. Already, Lesotho has a very low research output.
It does not have a structure at the national level dedicated to promoting and supporting research,
nor does it have consistent and dedicated funding for research. Furthermore, HEIs have low
research output and lack physical and human resources as a result of inadequate funding among
other things. This does not augur well for the developmental prospects of the country.
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
PHD Master Honours/Postgradu
ateDiploma
Degree Diploma Certificate
Advanced/higherDiploma
Professional
Male 1 10 248 3842 4341 428 76 815
Female 0 22 161 5811 6056 379 250 1105
No
. o
f St
ud
en
ts E
nro
lled
33
Figure 10: Postgraduate Programmes Offered at HEIs in Lesotho: 2013/14
3.8 Enrolment by Field of Study
In addition to increasing the number of places available, the higher education policy proposed
broadening the range of programme offerings for Basotho who wish to pursue higher education.
In 2013/14, there were 138 programmes running in institutions. For international comparability,
such programmes are categorised according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) fields of Education as presented in Table 6. It is evident from
Table 6 that most programmes offered are in social sciences with 21.0 percent and include
accounting programmes, marketing, business related courses, management and others.
Engineering and construction followed with 16.7 percent of the total programmes. The other
science related programmes account for 24.6 percent and include the nursing programmes offered
by SSN, Roma College of Nursing (RCN), MAC, PSN and NHTC categorised as health and
welfare programmes , computing, as well as pure sciences.
Table 6: Fields of Study offered by HEIs in Lesotho
Fields of Study Number of Programmes % Share
Education 18 13.0
Manufacturing and Processing 4 2.9
Computing 9 6.5
CAS
•Chartered Accountancy
LeBoHA
•Family Medicine Specialty Training Program
NUL
•Master of Arts in Education
•Master of Arts in Public Administration
•Master of Education
•Master of Education (Adult Education)
•Master of Science (Economics)
•Master of Science in Education
•Master of Science in Sociology
•PhD in English Language & Linguistics
•Postgraduate Diploma in Education
34
Journalism, broadcasting and information
4 2.9
Humanities and Arts 7 5.1
Social Sciences 29 21.0
Sciences 7 5.1
Engineering and Construction 23 16.7
Agriculture 8 5.8
Health and Welfare 18 13.0
Tourism and Services 10 7.2
Law 1 0.7
138 100.0
The programmes offered by HEIs across the country are supposed to be in line with the country’s
priority needs. However, a national human resources development policy and plan which are
aimed at identifying and addressing the manpower needs of the country have not yet been
developed. Most scarce skills are not addressed by programmes offered by the local HEIs as they
are specialised fields. Most of the programmes offered locally are at lower levels of diploma and
bachelor’s degree whereas scarce skills needs are at the higher levels of specialisation. This
therefore justifies why some students study in institutions outside the country.
Table 7 presents students by programmes that they were enrolled in during 2013/14. Roughly,
33.7 percent and 30.8 percent were enrolled in social sciences and education-related programmes
respectively. Both programmes were dominated by females. Even though there is a need for
graduates in science-related fields in the country, the results showed that students in these fields
that include computer related programmes, pure sciences and engineering and construction only
accounted for 15.7 percent of the student population. These programmes were largely dominated
by male students. With the addition of health and welfare programmes in science related fields,
the proportion increased to 24.3 percent of the total enrolment.
Table 7: Enrolment by Field of Study: 2013/14
Fields of Study Male Female Total % Total
Education 2287 4975 7262 30.8
Manufacturing and Processing 51 144 195 0.8
Computing 429 262 691 2.9
35
Journalism broadcasting and
information
155 244 399 1.7
Humanities and Arts 118 127 245 1.0
Social Sciences 3025 4915 7940 33.7
Sciences 356 183 539 2.3
Engineering and Construction 1940 536 2476 10.5
Agriculture 397 245 642 2.7
Health and Welfare 573 1449 2022 8.6
Tourism and Services 310 501 811 3.4
law 120 203 323 1.4
Total 9761 13784 23545 100.0
As shown in Figure 11, students in Science related fields were predominantly enrolled in lower
level qualifications as more than half (53.2%) were diploma students followed by degree with 34.1
percent. Not many students were enrolled in higher level qualifications as only 3.2 percent did
honours/postgraduate and were mainly in health sciences.
Figure 11: Proportion of Students in Science Related Fields by Qualification
3.9 Enrolment of students with disability
The Higher Education Policy makes reference to some of the international protocols that Lesotho
is party to. One such protocol is the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of Persons
with Disabilities adopted in 2006. Like other countries, Lesotho has made strides in dealing with
issues relating to persons with disability with a civil society organisation, with the LANFOD
Certificate9.4%
Diploma53.2%
Degree34.1%
Honours/postgraduate3.2%
36
serving as a platform for them. There is a government department dedicated to social welfare
which includes people with disabilities.
This section discusses issues relating to safeguarding the rights of equitable access to HE for
people living with disability. The total population of youth with disability was estimated at 3,434
in 2014. A total of 20 students with disability were enrolled in undergraduate programmes at only
three institutions, namely: NUL, LCE and LUCT. About 60 percent were males whereas 40
percent were females aged between 20 and age group 30-34 years. They were enrolled in
education, science, law, tourism, business management, broadcasting and journalism. Comparing
this to the population of students enrolled, they account for 0.08 percent of the students. This is an
improvement of 0.04 percent from the previous years where the ratio stood at 0.04 percent. Close
to half (40.0%) were visually impaired and a further 35 percent had intellectual disability. The
low enrolment may have been attributed to the fact that the key infrastructure within HEIs such as
laboratories, libraries, lecture rooms do not generally cater for persons with disabilities. Most
teaching and learning physical facilities are not accessible by wheel chair and computers have not
been adapted for the blind. Interviews held with LANFOD during the Rapid Assessment revealed
a number of barriers for disabled persons to access HE in Lesotho, as presented in Table 8, and
suggestions on possible solutions.
Table 8: Barriers of Access to HE by Persons with Disabilities and Possible solutions
Barriers to access to HE by disabled
persons
Possible solutions to problems faced by disabled persons in
HEIs
High school curriculum is not flexible to adjust
to different needs.
Policies within HEIs should be clear about how people with
disabilities are included. For example, application forms should
include section on what their needs are.
Limited support services in high school. For
example, equipment for sign language is
Government allocation of the budget for education should take
into consideration people with disability.
37
confined to a specific school, and only a few
high schools provide support for certain types
of disability.
Special education offered is not very practical
and is very basic. For example, sign language
differs according to countries
There is need to increase representation by people with disability
in policy-making decisions
Physical access to HEIs is still limited. For
example, most of the old sections of institutions
are still inaccessible by wheelchair and there are
no ramps.
Construction of new buildings should include this adjustment
Challenges in accessing information that
pertains to admission of people with
disabilities.
The application forms can be adjusted to have sections for people
with disability where they can indicate some of the structures or
equipment they might need.
It is therefore evident that Lesotho still does not meet its obligations in ensuring access to HE by
persons with disabilities hence more effort is necessary. For the country to address such barriers,
the Rapid Assessment findings have recommended that transparent policies be developed on the
inclusion of disabled persons. Budget allocations should include disabled persons, increase
representation of disabled persons in policy-making decisions and construction of infrastructure
to accommodate disabled persons in the HEIs.
4.0 INBOUND AND OUTBOUND MOBILITY OF STUDENTS
Student mobility between their own countries and foreign countries is an important factor to
consider in dealing with higher education. Worldwide, students pursue their studies either within
their countries or internationally. Factors which determine student movement internationally
include type, level and quality of programmes offered in certain countries; teaching and learning
environment; quality of teaching staff and opportunities for research and innovation, among
others. Inbound mobility sheds light on where foreign students in a country come from whereas
outbound mobility measures students from a specific country studying abroad. The former is
encouraged for its economic benefits because international students bring foreign currency. It also
has academic and social value. Highly rated institutions have large numbers of foreign students
and highly diverse student populations. The outbound mobility is mostly driven by inadequacies
in programme offerings in countries of origin and need for exposure. Lesotho, like other countries,
has institutions that have enrolled foreign students. There are Basotho students studying abroad as
well.
38
4.1 Inbound Mobility/Enrolment by Country of Origin
The SADC Protocol on Education and Training requires that HEIs in the member states reserve at
least 5 percent of their admissions to students from other SADC countries3. In 2013/14, a total of
23,545 students were enrolled in HEIs in Lesotho, as shown in Table 9. Comparing this to the total
population of Lesotho, it makes up roughly 1.2 percent of the population. The results revealed
that enrolment of local students occupied the largest share of 99.6 percent. There were only 103
students enrolled from other countries, down from 127 foreign students in 2011/12 and 105
students in 2012/13. This represents only 0.4 percent of the total students enrolled in 2013/14 and
is by far below the SADC recommended 5 percent. It is therefore crucial for Lesotho to improve
the quality of its HE system so that it can be able to compete and attract a larger share of mobile
students and achieve its international obligations like other Sub-Saharan African countries. This
includes Botswana and Mauritius which were able to attract a slightly larger share of 988 and 1546
international students, equivalent to 1.6 percent and 3.8 percent of their student population
respectively in 2013/14.
Table 9: Students Enrolled at HEIs in Lesotho by Institution and Country of Origin: 2013/14
Institution Lesotho RSA Botswana Swaziland Zimbabwe Uganda Zambia Nigeria Other Total
NUL 9498 4 17 11 10 0 3 3 8 9554
IDM 486 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 486
RCN 118 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 118
SSN 149 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 149
PSN 121 0 0 0 5 0 2 0 0 128
MAC 177 0 0 1 4 0 2 0 0 184
LeBoHA 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
LUCT 3069 2 0 0 5 2 0 0 0 3078
LCE 4128 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 4130
LAC 446 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 446
LP 2794 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 2797
NHTC 498 0 0 3 2 0 0 0 1 504
CAS 1631 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 1633
LIPAM 337 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 337
Total 23453 7 18 15 29 2 7 4 10 23545
% Total 99.6 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 100.0
About 98.9 percent of the foreign students come from Sub-Saharan Africa, largely Zimbabwe,
Botswana and Swaziland as has been the case in the past as presented in Figures 12 and 13.
3 1997 SADC Protocol on Education and Training, Article 7
39
Figure 12: Foreign Students Enrolled at HEIs in Lesotho: 2013/14
Figure 13: Number of Foreign Students Enrolled at HEIs in Lesotho: 2011/12-2013/14
It is shown in Figure 13 that although the majority of students were from the Republic of South
Africa (RSA), Botswana, Swaziland and Zimbabwe, the number of students from RSA has
remained steady throughout the years. The number of students from Botswana and Swaziland has
significantly declined while the number of students from Zimbabwe has increased and now tops
the other countries.
In order to examine what programmes mobile students are attracted to in Lesotho, an analysis was
done by the field of study and the results are presented in Figure 14. A larger fraction of 38.8
RSA8%
Botswana20%
Swaziland16%
Zimbabwe31%
Zambia8%
Nigeria4%
Uganda2%
Other11%
Other17%
05
101520253035404550
RSA Botswana Swaziland Zimbabwe Other
2011/12 7 46 17 27 30
2012/13 7 26 22 29 21
2013/14 7 18 15 29 23
Nu
mb
er
of
Fore
ign
stu
de
nts
en
rolle
d
2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
40
percent enrolled in health and welfare programmes. This includes nursing and social welfare
programmes offered by the four nursing institutions as well as NUL and NHTC. A further 22.3
percent enrolled in social science-related programmes.
Figure 14: Non-Basotho Students Enrolled at HEIs in Lesotho by Field of Study: 2013/14
A large international student population is a proxy indicator for good teaching and learning
facilities and resources which result in quality programmes offered by higher education
institutions in any country. The data shows that the international student population in Lesotho is
already very low and is generally on a decline. Evidently, this is not a good sign, for it suggests
that people’s perceptions of local higher education, which inform their decisions, are not positive.
4.2 Outbound Mobility/Basotho Students studying abroad
Similar to other countries, Lesotho has been sending some of its students to study abroad. This is
attributed to the fact that, as stated in the HE policy, the HE sub-sector in Lesotho is relatively too
small to accommodate all the students eligible for higher education and that some specialised
programmes necessary for national development are not offered at local HEIs. This section sheds
light on the number of students studying outside the country, referred to as “outbound mobility”.
In 2013, about 264,774 students from Sub-Saharan Africa were enrolled in HEIs outside of their
home countries. About 2,912 of them were students from Lesotho studying abroad. The majority
(93.5%) studied in Sub-Saharan African universities, mainly South Africa, while the remaining
6.5 percent studied outside Sub-Saharan Africa. This represents an increase of 0.9 percent from
Education9.7%
Computing1.9%
Journalism, Broadcasting and
Information2.9%
Humanities and Arts1.9%
Social Sciences22.3%
Sciences2.9%Engineering and
Construction6.8%
Health and Welfare38.8%
Tourism and Services
1.0% Law11.7%
41
the previous year’s figure of 2,887 Basotho students studying abroad. The fact that over 90 percent
of the students studied in Sub-Saharan African universities implies that more and more Basotho
students prefer to study closer to home. Comparing the number of students studying abroad
relative to those enrolled in local HEIs in 2012/13, the result was an outbound mobility ratio4 of
12.1 percent. The year 2013/14 could not be considered as information was not available.
In order to check which programmes students studying outside the country enrolled in, data on
NMDS sponsees and others whose sponsorships were administered by NMDS was used, since
NMDS was the only source with detailed information. The programmes that students enrolled in,
for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, were in specialised fields not offered by
HEIs in Lesotho. Table 10 presents the top 10 programmes that students enrolled in other
countries other than South Africa. These include countries in Africa and abroad such as Australia,
India, United Kingdom (UK), China, Botswana, Tanzania and Zimbabwe (See Annex 1 for
details). It should be noted that there were others who enrolled in some programmes offered in
Lesotho or not necessarily priority areas. Such students were those who got sponsorships from
elsewhere though it had to go through NMDS either because it was a requirement by that particular
sponsor or that NMDS had to top it up. Examples include education related programmes, law,
and public administration.
A total of 409 students were sponsored through NMDS to study at universities in other countries
other than South Africa. Of the top 10 programmes that they enrolled in, the majority of the
students enrolled in Medicine-related programmes accounting for 37.5 percent. Education and
engineering related programmes followed with 13.6 percent and 12.9 percent respectively. The
available data could not allow the determination of the level of programmes studied by students.
More collaboration needs to be forged with NMDS to ensure that data on outbound mobility meets
the requirements for tracking the mobility of students.
Table 10: Top 10 Programmes Pursued by Basotho Students Internationally: 2013/14
Top 10 Programmes studied internationally No. of Students % Students
Medicine related 105 37.5
Education related 38 13.6
Engineering related 36 12.9
4 Outbound mobility ratio is the number of students from a given country studying abroad as a percentage of the local tertiary enrolment in that country
42
Corporate management and accounting related 23 8.2
International Baccalaureate 22 7.9
Computing 16 5.7
Economics related 13 4.6
Administration related 12 4.3
Library studies 9 3.2
Forensic science 6 2.1
Total 280 100.0
In 2014, the majority (897) of the 2912 internationally mobile Basotho students studied in tertiary
institutions in South Africa, they constituted 30.8 percent. They studied in a range of programmes
aligned with the national priority areas. Table 11 presents the top 10 programmes that most
students enrolled in. It was revealed that the majority enrolled in engineering fields,
predominantly civil and electrical engineering, which made up 30.3 percent followed by medicine
with 19.8 percent.
Table 11: Top 10 Programmes Pursued by Basotho Students in South Africa: 2013/14
Top 10 Programmes studied in RSA No. of
Students
% Total
B.Com Actuarial Science 26 7.1
B.Com Hons Human Resource Management 37 10.2
B Psychology 18 4.9
B.Com Investment Management and Banking 20 5.5
BSc Civil Engineering 53 14.6
BSc Electrical Engineering 57 15.7
BSc Geology 30 8.2
Engineering 26 7.1
Medical Microbiology 25 6.9
Medicine 72 19.8
Total 364 100.0
Given the high number of students studying in engineering and medicine both in South Africa and
other countries, Government should consider engaging local institutions to offer such programmes
at higher levels of specialisation.
43
5.0 SPONSORSHIPS The National Human Resources Development Plan has not been developed by the Ministry of
Development Planning yet. It is not clear when it will be developed. In the meantime, the NMDS
allocates student bursaries to Basotho students studying abroad on the basis of national priority
areas as determined by the Ministry of Development Planning. However, bursaries for those
studying in local institutions are not allocated on the basis of national priorities. Institutions are
given quotas of the number of students to be financed by NMDS. Allocation of students in various
areas of study to be financed is done by institutions themselves.
Financing of students at higher education institutions is a critical component for increasing access
for Basotho. According to the HE Policy, limited bursaries or loans are some of the barriers to
access higher education in Lesotho. This is confirmed by the fact that not all students are
sponsored. There are different financiers of students as presented in Figure 15. It is clear that
Government is the main sponsor as 70.5 percent of students were financed through NMDS. Such
financial assistance is awarded on the basis of academic merit alone, without considering the
financial circumstances of applicants or their families.
The problem with this approach is that the state supports even students whose parents can afford
to pay for higher education and in the process denies access to those qualifying students who
cannot afford to pay. The Ministry of Education and Training undertook a ‘Review of Financing
Tertiary Education in Lesotho’ in 2010 supported by the World Bank. The review revealed that
85 percent of tertiary students come from families in the highest two income quartiles. The reason
for the low intake from the poorest families lies in the secondary sector and the scale of absolute
poverty, which is estimated to range from 36 percent to 47 percent of households in rural areas. It
costs parents money to send their children to secondary schools and as a result only 2 percent of
boys and 8 percent of girls from the poorest income quintile participate, compared with 38 percent
and 55 percent respectively in the richest quartile.5 Thus, the potential numbers of poor children
able to enter tertiary education would always be small. Since NMDS loans are currently available
to all regardless of income, students from the rich quintiles are receiving loans that they do not
need. Were NMDS funds to be restricted to ensure that only the genuinely needy students entered
higher education, the funding needed would be reduced (J. Fielden 2010).
5 Source: World Bank
44
NMDS has plans to introduce means testing in order to ensure that state support is geared towards
the most needy students while those who can afford to pay do pay for themselves. This will take
time to be realised because it has to be preceded by the review of NMDS policies and the law
regulating student financial support which has not started yet. In the meantime, access to higher
education by needy students will remain limited.
Figure 15: Students at Higher Education Institutions by Sponsor
A further 2.6 percent were students from IDM and CAS financed by Lesotho Government through
the Ministry of Finance. They are government employees in public finance management and
procurement enrolled in Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and
Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) programmes as part of their capacity
building in those areas. The second largest group is those who are self-sponsored constituting
25.4 percent. They were largely studying at NUL, LCE, LP, LIPAM and IDM. The remaining
proportion are other sponsors financing below 3 percent of the students and they include own
institution, the Nursing Education Partnership Initiative (NEPI), employer, own country, Union of
Mineworkers, Capernaum Trust and donor funding. Analysis could not be done by programmes
sponsored due to gaps in data provided by HEIs.
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
80.0 70.5
25.4
2.6 0.2 0.3 0.0 0.8 0.2
Pro
po
rtio
n o
f St
ud
en
ts s
po
nso
red
Sponsors
45
6.0 GRADUATES AT HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
One way of checking achievements of institutions is to measure the number of graduates produced
by institutions. Information was therefore collected on students who registered for end of
programme examinations. About 6,826 students registered for end of programme examinations.
The number of students who graduated made up a larger share of 82.1 percent of the total that
registered. The pass rates were above 80 percent for most institutions with the exception of IDM
and CAS with rates at 40 percent or lower (See Figure 16). The remaining 17.9 percent did not
succeed either because they failed (16.6%), withdrew (0.5%) or did not complete all the
requirements for one to graduate (0.9%). The highest failure rate was observed at CAS and this
was also the case in 2012/13. NUL and IDM followed with 16.7 percent and 16.5 percent
respectively. However, on a positive note, all the nursing institutions and LAC hardly had any
failures. Further research would be necessary to look deeper into the factors around the failure
rates in some institutions and the high pass rates in others.
Figure 16: Completion Rates by Institutions: 2013/14
Figure 17 compares the trends in the performance of students relative to the number of students
who sat for end of programme examinations over a period of three years (2011/12 to 2013/14). It
is evident that there were fluctuating trends in the total population that registered over the years
and those who graduated. From 2011/12 to 2012/13, the number of students registered declined
by 15.2 percent while those that graduated decreased by 20.1 percent. However, in 2013/14, there
was an increase of 20.7 percent and 18.0 percent of students who registered and graduated
46
respectively. On the other hand, the number of students who failed increased steadily by an
average of 29.9 percent per year from 2011/12 to 2013/14.
Figure 17: Performance of Students on End of Programme Examinations: 2011/12 – 2013/14
The analysis also looked at the performance of students by fields of study as presented in Figure
18. The fields of study that experienced highest failure rates were social sciences, education and
engineering and construction. There is also need to undertake research to check within institutions
why some courses are consistently failed by high population of students who register for such
courses.
Figure 18: Performance of Students on End of Programme Examinations by Field of Study
6668
5657
6826
5942
4747
5602
726 9101224
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
8000
2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Nu
mb
er
of
Stu
de
nts
wh
o S
at f
or
End
of
Pro
gram
me
Exa
min
atio
ns
Number registered Passed Did not pass
47
7.0 ACCESS TO INFORMATION ON HEIs
Access to information on higher education institutions enable prospective students to make
choices about which institution to go to and which programme to study. It is therefore important
for institutions to provide this information to the public. The HE Policy has a specific policy
provision on access to information about different HEIs in the country. There is a specific indicator
which is used to track performance in this area because it can have adverse effect on access to
higher education by students. This section looks at accessibility of information on different HEIs.
Higher education providers used various ways and platforms to provide information. For instance,
they produce publicity materials, directories, prospectuses. They further use internet and
mainstream media. They also engage in outreach programmes and career guidance to schools.
According to the CHE (2015), only six (6) institutions reported having outreach programmes
representing 42.9 percent of the institutions. In 2012/13, there were nine (9) outreach
programmes, with 66.7 percent of them being provided by LUCT. The number increased to 77.7
percent in 2013/14 due to IDM and NUL introducing outreach programmes during that year. In
addition to outreach programmes, career guidance sessions were also held in a number of schools
by a high proportion (64.3%) of the institutions as illustrated in Figure 19. A total of 120 sessions
48
were held in 2012/13 and increased to 175 in 2013/14. These were largely provided by CAS, IDM
and LAC. Unfortunately, data were not available to check the proportion of schools that have
received career guidance sessions.
In addition to HEIs undertaking their own publicity activities, CHE has held Higher Education
Fair since 2014. The aim of the Fair was to facilitate provision of information to the prospective
tertiary students about higher education institutions in Lesotho and to provide the institutions with
a platform to showcase their work. Sessions were also held at the Fair where experts in different
fields presented information about their professions.
Figure 19: Career Guidance Sessions by Institution: 2012/13 – 2013/14
Another mode exploited/used to increase access to information was through the websites by HEIs.
More than half of the institutions reported having functional websites with all essential information
as presented in Table 12. It is noteworthy that among the institutions with no websites, three of
them are public institutions that still operate as departments of Government ministries.
Table 12: Availability of Functional Websites by Institution
Institutions having functional websites Institutions with no websites
CAS LAC
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
CAS LAC LP PSN LUCT NUL RCN IDM
54 35 7 420
54 36
4 1
6 428
42
Car
ee
r G
uid
ance
Se
ssio
ns
He
ld
2012/13 2013/14
49
LCE LIPAM
LeBoHA MAC
LP NHTC
LUCT PSN
SSN RCN
NUL
IDM
8.0 TEACHING AND LEARNING IN HEIs
Generally, higher education has three main functions, namely, disseminating knowledge through
teaching and learning; conducting research; and through community outreach. According to the
HE Policy, HEIs can achieve these objectives through ensuring that staff are suitably qualified and
have sufficient expertise in the subjects that they teach and building their capacity through
professional development and training. Institutionalisation of quality assurance mechanisms
within HEIs which include putting systems in place and ensuring a systematic feedback from
students is important for improving the teaching and learning experience. The section discusses
different facets of staff as a critical component for teaching and learning in HEIs.
8.1 Staff by Institution and Classification
During the reporting period, there were 1,721 staff members across all the 14 higher education
institutions in Lesotho, with 47.2 percent males and 52.8 percent females. This is lower than the
2012/13 figure of 1,886 by 8.7 percent. This could be largely attributed to staff from institutions
such as NUL and LAC whose contracts expired as well as the LCE Distance Teacher Education
Programme (DTEP) part-time staff excluded from the analysis as information relating to them was
not provided. The staff complement varies a lot across institutions as presented in Table 13. NUL
had the largest number with 35.8 percent. LCE, LUCT and LP followed with 13.0 percent, 12.4
percent and 11.0 percent respectively. Other institutions including nursing institutions had
proportions of less than 3.0 percent of the staff complement. Academic staff members who are
very key to institutions constituted 47.0 percent of the staff complement, lower than support staff
by 1.3 percent. This is largely the case in LAC, LIPAM, LP, IDM, NHTC and PSN. This is
contrary to the previous years where the majority were academic staff with 50.0 percent and 52.3
50
percent in 2011/12 and 2012/13 respectively. More still needs to be done to recruit and build
capacity of teaching staff members who are core to improving teaching and learning at higher
education institutions.
Table 13: Distribution of Staff by Institution and Classification
Name of Institution
Classification of staff Total % Total
Instructional Personnel
Support staff
Management
NHTC 39 46 3 88 5.1
LCE 120 87 16 223 13.0
MAC 8 5 3 16 0.9
PSN 12 18 1 31 1.8
RCN 11 9 3 23 1.3
NUL 302 305 9 616 35.8
SSN 13 8 3 24 1.4
IDM 6 15 3 24 1.4
LeBoHA 2 2 3 7 0.4
LUCT 122 83 8 213 12.4
LAC 53 120 8 181 10.5
CAS 20 12 5 37 2.1
LP 83 94 12 189 11.0
LIPAM 18 27 4 49 2.8
Total 809 831 81 1721 100.0
The analysis also looked at the trends for the four year period, 2010/11 to 2013/14, in which data
were collected. Table 14 illustrates the fluctuating trends in the number of staff employed in the
different years. From 2010/11 to 2011/12, a decline of 5.1 percent was observed. It would be
expected that the decline was a result of staff members who left the institutions for various reasons.
However, this does not make up for the difference. Contrary to this, in 2012/13, the figure
increased by 7.9 percent from 1,748 in 2011/12 to 1,886 in 2012/13 but declined again the
following year by 8.7 percent. These fluctuations in staff complements of institutions do not
augur well for their academic stability. Academia is one of the areas in which it takes a long time
to develop PhDs and professors. Once the academic staff complement is fully established, it
improves academic stability which, in turn, improves public confidence in an institution.
Programme offerings get affected adversely by this constant movement of staff. The fluctuating
figures could be due to poor quality of data. However, further research needs to be done to
determine the source of the fluctuating figures and how the problem can be addressed.
51
HEIs also need to improve on the quality of their statistics to ensure it correctly represents what is
on the ground in their respective institutions. For instance, MAC and NHTC do not process their
own staff data. For the former it is kept by the hospital to which the school is attached, while with
the latter it is kept by the Ministry of Health under which the college is a department. This is
problematic because the institutions are not responsive to the needs for such data, and its accuracy
is in doubt.
Table 14: Annual Changes in Number of Staff Employed: 2010/11 - 2013/14
Name of
Institution
2010/11 2011/12 Change
2010/11-
2011/12
2012/13 Change
2011/12-
2012/13
2013/14 Change
2012/13-
2013/14
NHTC 80 93 16.3 88 -5.4 88 0.0
LCE 231 227 -1.7 235 3.5 223 -5.1
MAC 17 15 -11.8 16 6.7 16 0.0
PSN 22 12 -45.5 27 125.0 31 14.8
RCN 23 23 0.0 23 0.0 23 0.0
NUL 753 626 -16.9 754 20.4 616 -18.3
SSN 25 16 -36.0 21 31.3 24 14.3
IDM 24 24 0.0 24 0.0 24 0.0
LeBoHA - 0 - 10 - 7 -30.0
LUCT 167 180 7.8 213 18.3 213 0.0
LAC 218 228 4.6 207 -9.2 181 -12.6
CAS 35 34 -2.9 37 8.8 37 0.0
LP 194 223 14.9 188 -15.7 189 0.5
LIPAM 53 47 -11.3 43 -8.5 49 14.0
Total 1842 1748 -5.1 1886 7.9 1721 -8.7
Similar to the previous years, public HEIs play a major role in employing the majority (79.5%) of
staff while the remaining 20.5 percent were employed by private HEIs. Though this figure is
higher than the previous years, the involvement of private HEIs is still minimal. The results also
showed that most of the institutions that experienced a sharp decline in staff are public institutions.
It could be argued that some of the driving forces for the high turn-over are low budget and
attempts at institutional reforms.
8.2 Staff by Country of Origin
Internationalisation of institutions across the globe plays a central role in improving mobility and
employability of graduates beyond the borders of the country. It is therefore vital for HEIs to
recruit foreign staff and students for internationalisation of their respective institutions. As
mentioned in the previous State of Higher Education Report, employment of foreign staff
52
members is crucial for various reasons. It enriches the teaching and learning enterprises and also
exposes students to different ways of thinking and cultures from other countries. To assess the
extent to which local HEIs are internationalised, the report looked at the origins of staff employed
at institutions across the country.
Table 15 shows that not many foreigners were employed by institutions locally in 2013/14. Only
89 were employed, with 77.5 percent males and 22.5 percent females. This constitutes only 5.2
percent of the total number of staff employed by institutions. The rest were locals with a share of
94.8 percent. This proportion of foreigners is within the ranges obtained between 2010/11 and
2012/13 of 5.0 percent to 5.1 percent. NUL and LUCT had the highest numbers of foreign staff.
However, they only stood at 7.8 percent and 8.9 percent respectively when compared with their
total staff population. LeBoHA was the only Institution with more than 40 percent (42.9%) of
foreign staff relative to the total number of staff. PSN, MAC and CAS followed with proportions
ranging between 13.5 percent and 19.4 percent. Despite the importance of recruiting international
staff, there were still institutions with no international staff in 2013/14 and these were NHTC,
LCE, IDM, LAC and LIPAM. Among them, NHTC and IDM never had foreign staff since
2010/11. It is therefore imperative to assess the challenges obtaining at institutions constraining
recruitment of foreign staff and develop strategies for addressing them.
The majority of foreign staff were from Zimbabwe and Botswana with 30.3 percent and 11.2
percent respectively. Nigeria, RSA and Kenya followed with slightly over 6 percent each.
Table 15: Distribution of Staff by Institutions and Nationality
Name of Institution
Basotho Non-Basotho Total % Non-Basotho
NHTC 88 0 88 0.0 LCE 223 0 223 0.0
53
MAC 13 3 16 18.8 PSN 25 6 31 19.4 RCN 22 1 23 4.3 NUL 568 48 616 7.8 SSN 23 1 24 4.2 IDM 24 0 24 0.0 LeBoHA 4 3 7 42.9 LUCT 194 19 213 8.9 LAC 181 0 181 0.0 CAS 32 5 37 13.5 LP 186 3 189 1.6 LIPAM 49 0 49 0.0 Total 1632 89 1721 5.2
The internationalisation index was also estimated. This is an indicator that measures the
competitiveness and credibility of institutions and their programmes to national and international
development. It measures the proportion of foreign students and staff to total staff in HEIs. It was
estimated at 11.2 percent in 2013/14. This fell slightly from the 2012/13 figure of 12.4 percent
but higher than 10.6 percent obtained in 2011/12 indicating the low international competitiveness
of local institutions and their programmes.
8.3 Terms of Employment of Staff
Staff members at higher education institutions are employed on different terms as shown in Figure
20. As has been the case in the past, all institutions except LUCT and CAS employed staff in
permanent positions. The total number of staff on permanent contracts was 1240, which constitute
72.1 percent of the staff complement. LUCT and CAS were the only two with the majority of the
staff employed on contract basis.
Figure 20: Terms of Employment of Staff by Institution
54
While the levels of employment of permanent staff at HEIs have remained high since 2011/12,
there has been an increase in the number of staff appointed to contract positions. In 2011/12, 21.5
percent of higher education staff members were appointed on a contract basis and by 2013/14 this
had risen to 25.7 percent (Figure 21).
Figure 21: Distribution of Staff by Terms of Employment: 2011/12 – 2013/14
55
8.4 Staff by qualifications
Tables 16 and 17 present the qualifications of staff across institutions in Lesotho. Out of a total
staff complement of 1721, master’s degree holders were the most dominant with 26.6 percent. Of
these, instructional personnel constituted the majority with 46.7 percent. This was followed by
first degree holders with 21.3 percent, predominant in LUCT, health training institutions, LAC
and LP which offer diploma programmes. COSC holders also accounted for a significant
proportion of 18.7 percent and were largely support staff as presented in Table 17. LAC had the
largest number of staff with COSC as most were farm workers. Doctorate, which is the highest
qualification, was only held by 7.3 percent of the staff members, largely from NUL. It had declined
by 13.9 percent from the 2012/13 figure of 144 PhD holders. The smallest proportion of 0.3
percent of the staff held other qualification including advanced diploma and other programmes
which could not be categorised according to the current qualifications framework for Lesotho.
Table 16: Distribution of Staff by Institution and Qualification
Staff Qualifications Total
0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%
100%
2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
Other 9 17 10
Part-time 0 177 5
Temporary 23 28 23
Contract 375 409 443
Permanent 1341 1255 1240
56
Institution
Doctorate Masters Honours/ Postgraduate
Diploma
Degree Diploma Certificate Professional qualification
COSC and
below
Other
NHTC 1 14 3 22 11 4 0 33 0 88
LCE 7 85 24 40 24 11 4 27 1 223
MAC 1 2 0 7 2 1 0 3 0 16
PSN 0 1 5 11 3 3 0 8 0 31
RCN 0 3 2 8 2 1 1 6 0 23
NUL 107 226 13 74 60 40 8 84 4 616
SSN 0 3 0 11 4 1 1 4 0 24
IDM 0 6 2 1 4 2 3 4 2 24
LeBoHA 2 4 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 7
LUCT 1 59 23 67 26 10 5 20 2 213
LAC 2 12 5 34 20 4 1 101 2 181
CAS 0 1 3 3 3 0 23 4 0 37
LP 2 27 8 78 28 20 4 17 5 189
LIPAM 2 15 5 10 6 0 1 10 0 49
Total 125 458 93 366 194 97 51 321 16 1721
% Total 7.3 26.6 5.4 21.3 11.3 5.6 3.0 18.7 0.9 100.0
Due to the nature of programmes offered by CAS, they were categorised differently as professional
programmes. This includes Chartered Accounting (CA), Certified Accounting Technician (CAT),
General Accounting (GA), Chartered Institute of Management Accountancy (CIMA) and CIPFA.
They were held by only 3.0 percent of the staff members, 45.1 percent of whom were employed
by CAS followed by NUL with 15.7 percent.
Table 17: Distribution of Staff by Qualification and Classification
Institutions Instructional Personnel
Support staff Management Total
Doctorate 109 1 15 125
Masters 378 44 36 458
Honours/Postgraduate Diploma
69 20 4 93
Degree 209 142 15 366
Diploma 21 170 3 194
Certificate 0 97 0 97
Professional qualification 21 24 6 51
COSC and below 0 320 1 321
Other 2 13 1 16
Total 809 831 81 1721
% Total 47.0 48.3 4.7 100.0
According to the Minimum Programme Accreditation Standards developed by CHE, academic
staff members in HEIs are required to have a higher qualification than the level at which they
57
teach. To check whether institutions comply with the standards, the report looked at whether
academic staff members were suitably qualified and the extent to which HEIs take the
responsibility to develop staff. Table 18 shows that a significant proportion (60.2%) of staff
members held masters or higher qualification followed by first degree holders with 25.8 percent.
Staff with lower qualifications than the first degree made up 2.7 percent and mainly held diploma
and advanced diploma qualifications. There were staff members with professional qualifications
who made up 2.6 percent of the staff complement. Such staff members were mainly chartered
accountants and were therefore qualified to teach all professional programmes.
Table 18: Distribution of Staff by Qualification and Level Taught: 2013/14
Highest Level Taught by a Staff
Qualification
of Staff
Certi
fica
te
Ad
va
nced
Certi
fica
te
Dip
lom
a
Ad
va
nced
Dip
lom
a
Degree
Ho
no
urs
Ma
ster
s
Ph
D
CA
T
CA
To
tal
% T
ota
l
Diploma 0 0 21 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 21 2.6
Advanced
Diploma
1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.1
Degree 2 1 159 21 26 0 0 0 0 0 209 25.8
Honours/
Postgraduate
Diploma
2 0 41 6 13 5 0 0 0 2 69 8.5
Masters 1 0 140 2 201 29 5 0 0 0 378 46.7
Doctorate 0 0 4 0 62 27 15 1 0 0 109 13.5
Professional
qualification
(CA)
0 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 2 16 21 2.6
Other 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0.1
Total 6 1 367 29 304 61 20 1 2 18 809 100.
0
% Total 0.7 0.1 45.4 3.6 37.6 7.5 2.5 0.1 0.2 2.2 100.
0
It is worth noting that there were still two HEIs that had staff members teaching at the same or
higher level than the qualifications that they had.
As the core function of institutions is teaching and learning, it is highly necessary for institutions
to ensure that academic staff members are suitably qualified and have sufficient expertise in the
subjects or levels that they teach. In order to track progress on this, an Academic Staff Quality
Index (ASQI) was used. It is a measure of the quality of teaching staff and the capacity of
institutions to produce research degree holders. It is calculated by dividing the number of PhD
58
holders with the total number of academic staff. However, because most of the HEIs offer sub-
degree qualifications, this report has used a master’s degree as well as Chartered Accountancy in
case of CAS as a basis for one to teach at HEIs for purposes of comparison and uniformity across
institutions. Clearly, this standard is higher for institutions which offer diploma and certificate
programmes only. Similar to the previous reporting period, the index for NUL was calculated on
the basis of PhD holders only while for other institutions, it was on the basis of masters and PhD.
NUL had academic staff complement of 303 of whom 102 were PhD holders. This gave an index
of 33.7 percent. This is an improvement from the previous years’ figures of 24.8 percent and 25.1
percent in 2011/12 and 2012/13 respectively. It could mean that NUL had either trained more staff
or been able to attract staff with PhD qualification.
Table 19 presents the academic staff quality indices for other institutions. An overall academic
staff quality index was estimated at 42.2 percent. IDM, CAS, LIPAM and LCE had the largest
indices exceeding 60 percent. The same HEIs had indices of more than 60 percent even in the
previous reporting period (2011/12). This is a clear indication that the quality of staff at HEIs is
acceptable as close to half of the staff meet the standard requirement. All the nursing institutions
had lower indices of less than 20 percent. This was attributed to the fact that the majority of their
staff are degree holders and that they only offer certificate or diploma qualifications.
Table 19: Academic Staff Quality Indices by Institution
59
Institution MA + PhD Instructional Personnel Academic Staff Quality Index
NHTC 12 39 30.8 LCE 77 120 64.2 MAC 1 8 12.5 PSN 1 12 8.3 RCN 2 11 18.2 SSN 2 13 15.4 IDM 4 6 66.7 LeBoHA 2 2 100.0 LUCT 55 122 45.1 LAC 11 53 20.8 CAS 18 20 90.0 LP 17 83 20.5 LIPAM 12 18 66.7
214 507 42.2
A comparative analysis of the indices of other institutions was done to check whether there have
been any improvements from the previous periods and the results are presented in Figure 22.
Overall, indices improved by 3.5 percent from 2011/12 to 2012/13 but declined the following year
by between 1.3 percent and 42.2 percent across institutions. The changes in indices per year also
varied per institution. Some institutions realised declining trends while others such as LUCT
steadily increased over the years.
Figure 22: Academic Staff Quality Indices by Institution and Exit Level: 2011/12 -2013/14
60
8.4 Capacity building of Staff
Improving the capacity of academic staff through the professional development and training is
also crucial for high quality teaching and learning. During 2013/14, a total of 47 staff members
were sent for long term training, predominantly instructional personnel (80.9%) who perform the
core function of institutions as has always been the case in the previous years. This represents
only 2.7 percent of the population of staff during that period. Close to two thirds (66.7%) went
for masters and PhD. This was followed by 23.4 percent of the staff who went for undergraduate
programmes such as diploma and degree programmes. NUL sent the largest number (29.8%),
mainly to pursue PhD programmes and PSN and LP followed with 17.0 percent and 14.9 percent
pursuing different qualifications (see Figure 23).
Figure 23: Distribution of Staff who Went for Training by Institution and Qualification
Sought: 2013/14
The proportion of staff that went for training has always been very low relative to the staff
complement since 2012/13, ranging between 1.8 percent and 3.9 percent. It was 1.2 percent in
2011/12 and increased by 135 percent to 73 staff members but declined the following year by 35.6
percent as illustrated in Table 20. The low levels of staff sent for training could be attributed to
lack of funding earmarked for long term training. Most of the training programmes financed by
HEIs are short term. Therefore, more still needs to be done to improve the capacity of staff,
particularly instructional personnel, who perform the core function of institutions.
61
Table 20: Distribution of Staff who Went for Training by Qualification Sought: 2011/12 –
2013/14
Qualification sought 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
PhD 2 19 17
Masters 16 30 16
Honours 2 8 2
Degree 5 7 6
Diploma 6 8 5
Other 0 1 1
Total 31 73 47
% change - 135 -35.6
Figure 24 presents the programmes that staff members who went for training enrolled in. They
are categorised according to the qualification being studied.
Figure 24: Programmes Pursued by Staff by Qualification Sought: 2013/14
Academic staff members, who perform the core function of teaching were the largest group
trained. They made up 78.0 percent of staff who went for training. The majority went for masters
and PhD, as illustrated in Figure 25 and this made up 93.8 percent of staff who went for training.
Close to half were NUL staff members, mainly enrolled in PhD programmes. PSN and LP
followed with 21.9 percent and 12.5 percent. It is very rare for HEIs to send members of
Masters
•Nursing Education
•Public Health
•Health Sciences
•Social Science (Nursing)
•Education Leadership & Management
•Library and Information Studies
•Informatics
•Human Resources
Doctorate
•Computer Science
•Analytical Chemistry
•Artificial Intelligence
•Boitechnology & Molecular Microbiology
•Botany
•Control Systems
•Economics
•Education
•Poetry
•Private Law
•Sociology
•Textile Science
•Communication Management
•Water Resources Engineering
Degree/Honours
•Human Resource Management
•General Accounting
•Nursing Education and Management
•Business and Entrepreneurship
•Pastoral Care & Counselling
•Financial Management
Other
•Certified Accounting Technician
•Fellowship Medical Education (SAFRI)
•Diploma in Human Resources Management
•Diploma in Hospitality Management
62
management for training. This is confirmed by the fact that only one institution sent one staff
member for further training.
Figure 25: Academic Staff on Training by Level of Study: 2013/14
8.4.1 Continuous Professional Development
Continuous professional development also plays a central role in building the capacity of staff for
effective teaching and research in the area of expertise. The Rapid Assessment Report highlighted
such programmes available at HEIs. A total of 9 institutions offered continuous professional
development programmes to academic staff. This constitutes 64.3 percent of the institutions in
Lesotho. They range from short term courses, research workshops, seminars, visits to other
countries and participation in science fairs outside the borders of the country.
In addition to professional development, feedback from students can be an invaluable source of
information that can inform efforts to improve the quality of service delivery within institutions.
Such feedback can be obtained through student’s satisfaction surveys. The Rapid Assessment
study assessed whether HEIs conducted any satisfaction surveys from 2012/13 to 2013/14. Only
two institutions, namely: LP and IDM reported to have conducted the surveys and they represent
a small fraction (14.3%) of the institutions. Both institutions have been consistent in undertaking
the surveys throughout the period. The limited number of institutions which conducted the surveys
implies that institutions in Lesotho are not responsive to the needs and perceptions of students that
they serve. Institutions should therefore develop mechanisms through which students’ needs and
perceptions are communicated to management.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
LCE PSN RCN NUL SSN LAC LP LIPAM
11
5
1 1
2
12
1
1
13
2
1
Degree Masters Doctorate Fellowship Medical Education (SAFRI)
63
8.5 Staff Attrition Rates For HEIs in Lesotho to improve teaching and learning, institutions need adequate staff suitably
qualified and motivated to work effectively. As seen in the previous sections, efforts have been
taken by institutions to build the capacity and expertise of staff employed for them to be able to
deliver a high quality teaching and learning experience for their students. However, retention of
staff is a challenge for some institutions and these might have adverse effects on institutional
productivity. The analysis excluded institutions that either did not provide information for
2013/14 or whose staff members did not leave. A total of 201 staff members left in seven
institutions, as shown in Figure 26. This represents 11.6 percent of the staff population in all HEIs
and 15.1 percent of staff in the institutions that provided information. The largest proportion of
staff members that left was from NUL with 61.2 percent, followed by LCE with 14.1 percent.
RCN and LIPAM had the lowest number of staff that left the institution with 0.5 percent and 1.0
percent respectively. Staff attritions were common among both support and academic staff as they
constituted 54.7 percent and 43.8 percent respectively. Members of staff who left the management
teams were very few as they accounted for 1.5 percent.
Figure 26: Staff who Left by Institutions and Classification
In order to measure the environment for sustainable academic activities, one of the important
indicators considered was the academic attrition rates. It measures the proportion of academic
staff leaving the institution in a given year. Table 21 presents the rates for 2013/14. The overall
rate of attrition was estimated at 13.8 percent of staff in seven of the institutions. This is considered
to be low, relative to the academic staff population.
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
LCE RCN NUL SSN LUCT LAC LIPAM
8
1
694
4
2
24
69
3
3
11
1
1
1
Staf
f M
em
be
rs w
ho
Le
ft t
he
Inst
itu
tio
ns
Instructional Support Management
64
Table21: Academic Staff Attrition Rates by Institution
Institutions Academic Staff Complement Academic Staff who left Attrition rates
LCE 120 8 6.7
RCN 11 1 9.1
NUL 302 69 22.8
SSN 13 0 0.0
LUCT 122 4 3.3
LAC 53 4 7.5
LIPAM 18 2 11.1
Total 639 88 13.8
The academic staff attrition rates varied across institutions. Apart from SSN which did not
experience any academic staff attritions, the attrition rates ranged between 3.3 percent and 22.8
percent. NUL still dominated with 22.8 percent as has been the case in the previous reporting
periods followed by LIPAM with 11.1 percent. It is also worth noting that two of the largest
institutions, namely: LCE and LUCT had the lowest attrition rates of less than 8 percent.
There were a number of reasons cited relating to why staff left the institutions and these are
summarised in Table 22. More than half (62.2%) of the staff had reached the end of their contracts
as they were employed either on temporary or part-time basis and were mainly support and
instructional personnel. A further 14.9 percent resigned. There is need to assess why staff
resigned so that such issues can be addressed.
Table 22: Number of Staff by Reasons for Leaving
Reasons staff left Classification of staff Total % Total
Instructional Personnel Support staff Management
Resigned 18 11 1 30 14.9
Dismissed 1 3 1 5 2.5
Deserted 2 0 0 2 1.0
Early Retirement 1 0 0 1 0.5
Compulsory retirement
6 17 0 23 11.4
Deceased 2 9 1 12 6.0
End of contract 57 68 0 125 62.2
Transfer 1 2 0 3 1.5
Total 88 110 3 201 100.0
65
There were a few who left for other reasons accounting for less than 5 percent each. This includes
staff who were dismissed, transferred, retired early or deserted the institution.
Further analysis of staff attritions could not be done due to challenges experienced with the quality
and reliability of the data. In some instances, the number of staff members who were reported to
have left were more than the actual number of staff existing at HEIs, other required variables were
not provided and other HEIs did not provide data at all. It is therefore recommended that HEIs
improve on the quality and management of their data on staff attritions to enable effective
monitoring of the indicator.
9.0 RESEARCH AND INNOVATION IN HEIs
Research is one of the key functions of HEIs, particularly universities. It is through research that
new knowledge is generated and solutions to societal problems are solved through new discoveries
and innovations. It therefore contributes directly to economic development of a country. Clearly,
it is important for HEIs to undertake research consistently and continuously covering different
aspects of life. Undertaking research requires substantial financial resources. This section assesses
the state of research at higher education institutions, considering such things as research output,
funding for research, staff capacity building on research; participation in conferences where papers
are presented and collaborations with local or international HEIs.
9.1 Research output
The report looked at different types of research studies conducted. These include academic,
commissioned and other types of research. In the previous reporting period, five institutions
reported to have conducted research. A total of 160 research reports were produced between 2010
and 2012. Improvements were observed over the years, for instance, the number of institutions
that conducted research during the reporting period increased to 10. These institutions produced a
total of 327 research reports as shown in Table 23. Academic research dominated in most
institutions. However, NUL contributed most of the research reports (90.2%) although they were
not disaggregated by type of research. Looking at individual institutions, NUL, LUCT and PSN
were the only ones that showed improvements and consistency in conducting research.
Table 23: Research Reports Completed by Institution and Type of Study: 2012 – 2014
66
Institution Academic Commissioned
Total
2012 2013 2014 Total 2012 2013 2014 Total 2012 2013 2014 Total %
Total
LCE 0 4 1 5 0 0 0 0 0 4 1 5 1.5
LeBoHA 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 0.6
LIPAM 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.3
LP 1 0 1 2 1 0 0 1 2 0 1 3 0.9
LUCT 1 3 4 8 0 0 0 0 1 3 4 8 2.4
MAC 0 0 4 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 1.2
NHTC 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 2 0.6
PSN 1 1 0 2 1 1 2 4 2 2 2 6 1.8
NUL - - -
- - -
58 71 166 295 90.2
IDM 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0.3
Total 3 13 10 26 3 1 2 6 64 85 178 327 100.0
11.5 50.0 38.5 100.0 50 16.7 33.3 100.0 19.6 26.0 54.4 100.0
Figure 27 also shows that the number of research studies done has been increasing since 2010 to
2014. The number of reports rose sharply from 85 in 2013 to 178 in 2014. This could have been
due to increased budget allocation for research in HEIs.
Figure 27: Trends in the Number of Research Reports Produced: 2010 - 2014
9.2 Participation in conferences
Participation in conferences can also generate papers that can be published in peer reviewed
journals to enhance research quality and promote accessibility to the larger community. The report
focused on the presentations made by HEI staff at conferences that they participated in. As
shown in Table 24, 11 institutions reported to have presented papers at conferences over the past
67
three years. Generally, there have been improvements over the years, with 67 presentations having
been made by institutions at conferences, compared with 48 in the previous period. The increased
number of presentations was a result of the improved participation in conferences by institutions
(11) compared to six (6) institutions in the previous period.
Similar to research reports, NUL presented papers in more conferences, making up 29.9 percent
of the total presentations made. This was followed by LCE and PSN with 23.1 percent and 11.9
percent respectively. Presentations from other institutions were minimal as each contributed less
than 10 percent of the presentations. Variations were also observed with presentations made by
individual institutions over the review period. NUL and LUCT presentations increased while not
much change has been observed for other institutions.
Table 24: Conference Presentations by Institution: 2012 - 2014
Institution 2012 2013 2014 Total % Total
LAC 1 0 1 2 3.0
LCE 7 4 4 15 22.4
LeBoHA 0 3 1 4 6.0
LIPAM 1 0 1 2 3.0
LUCT 0 2 4 6 9.0
MAC 0 0 2 2 3.0
PSN 1 5 2 8 11.9
NUL - 6 14 20 29.9
RCN 0 0 1 1 1.5
IDM 0 1 0 1 1.5
LP 6 0 0 6 9.0
Total 16 21 30 67 100.0
% Total 23.9 31.3 44.8 100.0
It generally follows that papers presented at conferences would be published in peer reviewed
journals to enhance research quality and promote accessibility to readers. Table 25 presents the
number of published conference papers. A total of 139 papers were reported to have been
published by seven (7) institutions. NUL contributed 85.6 percent of the papers followed by PSN
with 4.3 percent. A closer look at both Tables 25 and 26 shows that there were more (139)
conference papers published than presented (67) papers. The possible explanation could be that
some of the published papers had been presented in previous years.
Table 25: Published Conference Papers by Institution: 2012 – 2014
68
Published conference papers
Institution 2012 2013 2014 Total % Total LeBoHA 0 3 1 4 2.9 LIPAM 1 0 0 1 0.7 LUCT 0 2 3 5 3.6 MAC 0 0 1 1 0.7 PSN 1 5 0 6 4.3 NUL - 65 54 119 85.6 LCE 1 1 1 3 2.2 TOTAL 3 76 60 139 100.0
% Total 2.2 54.7 43.2 100.0
Unlike in the previous review period where the HE institutions research publication index was
calculated on the basis of research reports not peer- reviewed publications as per the requirement
for calculating the index, the indices for this period have been calculated on the basis of peer
reviewed papers. It measures the average number of peer reviewed research publications per
academic staff in a year per higher education institution. The results indicate that an average of
less than one conference paper was produced per institution, per academic staff. This is despite
the fact that the number of publications increased. There is therefore a need to improve research
productivity of institutions. It should be noted that for NUL research papers that have been
included are not confined to conference papers; they also include peer reviewed papers published
in journals. This could not be done with other institutions because their submissions did not
provide the necessary details.
Table 26: Academic Staff Paper Publication Indices by Institution: 2012 – 2014
2012 2013 2014
Institution Papers Academic
staff
Publication
index
Papers Academic
staff
Publication
index
Papers Academic
staff
Publication
index
LeBoHA 0 3 5 0.6 1 2 0.5
LIPAM 1 17 0.1 0 12 0.0 0 13 0.0
LUCT 0 105 0.0 2 122 0.0 3 122 0.0
MAC 0 8 0.0 0 8 0.0 1 8 0.1
PSN 1 7 0.1 5 10 0.5 0 12 0.0
NUL - 315 - 65 462 0.1 166 303 0.6
LCE 1 132 0.0 1 127 0.0 1 120 0.0
TOTAL 3 584 0.0 76 746 0.1 60 580 0.1
9.3 Incentives for Conducting Research
In order for institutions to improve their research productivity, efforts should be made to encourage
staff to undertake research. The Rapid Assessment evaluated the incentives provided by
69
institutions to staff for conducting research and attending international conferences. With regard
to research, only three institutions reported providing incentives to their academic staff for
conducting research. These were NUL, PSN and MAC. NUL and MAC provide promotion points
as an incentive to conduct research. NUL and PSN provide free internet, unrestricted access to a
computer, access to EBSCO host online databases, per diem to attend conferences, research breaks
and participation in conducting science practicals in other countries. Apart from the incentives
provided, HEIs also built the capacity of academic staff to conduct research. Examples include
sending staff for long term training, holding research workshops, providing staff exchange
programmes, e-learning and partnerships to participate in international science laboratories.
Incentives for attending international conferences were also looked into. Eight institutions
provided incentives for attending international conferences. Such incentives included provision of
full rate per diems in some institutions while in others it was partial funding for per diem, and
promotion points to staff presenting in international conferences. Such incentives encourage
members of staff to undertake research individually and publish papers even during a year when
the institution would have not made any budget allocation for research.
9.4 Research Collaboration Agreements
Information was requested from the institutions on collaboration agreements established.
Collaborations promote networking with other researchers locally and internationally. Table 27
presents the results which reflect a diverse menu of collaboration agreements established by HEIs
in Lesotho. This includes collaborations in research and other areas. All institutions reported
having at least one collaboration agreement. About 93 agreements were established with national,
regional and international bodies. The highest number was established locally and internationally,
each accounting for 40.0 percent of the agreements. The lowest were regional agreements with
20.0 percent. NUL established the highest number across all regions with more than half of the
agreements on the overall. With the exception of NUL, not many agreements were signed
regionally. Five institutions established only one agreement each while others did not.
Table 27: Collaboration Agreements by Institution
Institution Collaboration agreements established
National Regional International Total % Total
CAS 1 1 1 3 3.2
LAC 1 1 0 2 2.2
70
LeBoHA 1 1 1 3 3.2
LIPAM 3 0 0 3 3.2
LP 0 0 3 3 3.2
LUCT 2 1 0 3 3.2
MAC 3 1 4 8 8.6
NHTC 3 0 0 3 3.2
PSN 0 0 1 1 1.1
SSN 2 0 2 4 4.3
NUL 16 11 23 50 53.8
RCN 1 0 0 1 1.1
IDM 1 0 4 5 5.4
LCE 1 3 0 4 4.3
TOTAL 35 19 39 93 100.0
% Total 37.6 20.4 41.9 100.0
Collaboration between institutions locally and internationally has always been very important.
Institutions collaborate in many aspects of their work, it can be in student and staff exchange
programmes, research and benchmarking of programmes and practices, among other things. An
indication of collaboration is the extent to which the local HEIs network and collaborates with
other institutions locally, regionally and internationally. Table 28 indicates how many
collaborative arrangements each institution has and also shows collaboration indices. There were
a total of 79 collaborative agreements across the 9 institutions which reported on this indicator.
NUL has the highest agreements at 50, but there was no information provided on the number of
organisations or institutions with whom it had the agreements. The rest of the institutions’
collaborative agreements ranged between 3 and 6.
Table 28: Collaboration Indices by Institution and Number of Organisations
Institutions Collaborative Agreements
Established
Number of organisations/
institutions with collaborative
agreements
Collaboration
Index
LP 3 3 1.0
71
PSN 6 1 6.0
RCN 1 5 0.2
SSN 4 1 4.0
IDM 5 5 1.0
LCE 4 4 1.0
LIPAM 3 4 0.8
NHTC 3 1 3.0
NUL 50 -
TOTAL 79 24 3.3
9.5 Programmes that have a research component
To further check on the efforts made by institutions relating to research, an assessment was done
about programmes that have a research component. This includes modules within programmes
offered by institutions. A total of 93 programmes were reported to have a research component.
This makes up roughly 62.8 percent of the total number of programmes offered by institutions
(see Table 29). Of the 93 programmes with research component, NUL had 47 programmes which
constituted 50.5 percent followed by LUCT with 15.1 percent. LAC, IDM and LeBoHA were the
lowest with 1.1 percent. Institutions were also asked whether they had any Intellectual Property
Policies (IPP) to ensure that the rights to any original research arising from both staff and students’
academic work were protected. The results show that only four institutions (LIPAM, LUCT, IDM
and NUL) had IPP documents while nine institutions did not have the policy.
Table 29: Distribution of Programmes With Research Component by Institution
HEI Total Number of
Programmes
Programmes that have
research component
% programmes with
research component
LAC 6 1 16.7
LeBoHA 1 1 100.0
LIPAM 2 2 100.0
LP 12 9 75.0
72
LUCT 32 14 43.8
MAC 2 2 100.0
NHTC 10 10 100.0
PSN 3 2 66.7
NUL 61 47 77.0
RCN 2 2 100.0
IDM 14 1 7.1
SSN 3 2 66.7
Total 148 93 62.8
9.6 Research Funding
Expenditure allocation on research reflects the commitment of institutions to encourage research
and innovation. It is shown in Table 30 that only three institutions had funds allocated for research
in 2014. This is an increase from two institutions in 2013, with NUL dominating in both years.
This could also explain the increased output in research in this institution in the past two years
compared to the previous reporting period.
Table 30: Funds Allocated to Research by Institution: 2013 and 2014
2013 2014
Institution Allocation Research Research
funding
index
Allocation Research Research
funding
Index
CAS 28,900,000 0 0.0 32,900,000 180,400 0.5
LCE 64,600,000 50,000 0.1 49,700,000 50,000 0.1
NUL 243,000,000 1,500,000 0.6 246,500,000 1,500,000 0.6
Total 400,500,000 1,550,000 0.4 393,000,000 1,680,400 0.4
A research funding index was also calculated. It is the total amount allocated for research
expressed as a percentage of the total HEI allocation in a given year. It measures the trends of
research funding to HEIs and research institutions annually. The results indicate that institutions
allocate an average of less than 1 percent of their total allocated funds to research. This is similar
to the findings of the previous State of Higher Education Report. This is not sufficient to improve
the quantity and quality of research within institutions. Since research is also a core function of
institutions, it is critical that institutions should allocate more funding to research.
Even though improvements were observed as compared to the previous review period, there were
still challenges that affected the research output of institutions. Most research studies done are
73
skewed towards academic studies, with little applied research. Research funding and incentives
were not sufficient to improve the quantity and quality of research within HEIs. Furthermore,
there is inadequate professional and financial support for academic staff to conduct research and
engage national and international discussions through collaborations and conferences. It is critical
that these issues are addressed so that research output of institutions can improve.
10.0 FINANCES IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
Public higher education institutions are financed by Government. In addition, they charge fees and
have other means of generating revenue. Private institutions mostly generate money through fees
and donations. It is important for government to ensure that private institutions in particular are
financially viable so that they do not get bankrupt and leave students stranded. It is for these
reasons, among others, that both public and private institutions have to account for money
consistently and systematically. It is a legal requirement that public higher education institutions
should report to the Minister of Education and Training on their overall performance. Specifically,
they are also required to present their audited books of accounts on an annual basis. Private Higher
Education institutions on the other hand are required by the same law to submit their certified
audited financial statements to the Registrar of Private Institutions within MOET on an annual
basis.
It is important therefore for this report to review the state of finances in HEIs focusing on such
things as their revenue streams, expenditure patterns, additional sources of funding and auditing
of books of accounts. Information on the financial status of the institution helps to evaluate the
state of financing higher education and the sustainability of the institutions’ revenue streams.
10.1 Financial record keeping
All institutions reported keeping financial records. Six institutions, namely CAS, LUCT, NHTC,
SSN, RCN and IDM received unqualified audits. LeBoHA and PSN reported having qualified
audits. For most institutions, the audit reports were still outstanding and these were LAC, LCE,
LIPAM, LP, MAC and NUL. It is worth noting that in some institutions, last audit reports date as
far back as 2008. It is imperative that institutions strive to ensure that audits are dealt with.
74
Similarly, in cases where there are qualified audits, relevant issues should be addressed
accordingly to ensure that the books of accounts are up to date and audits are clean.
10.2 Income patterns of institutions
The institutions were requested to provide reports on their income for the financial year 2013/14.
Table 31 shows income that was determined by the institutions as ideal to run their activities
efficiently during that period. It is not clear how institutions determined the ideal income. Each
institution used a different approach but it is unlikely that it was informed by a scientific
undertaking beyond analysis of their previous annual budgets. Table 31 also shows actual income
that institutions received during the same period and an estimated income gap which is the
difference between the ideal income and actual income in 2013/2014.
The results show that 13 institutions operate with insufficient financial resources, as indicated by
the positive income gap. The institution with the largest income gap was NUL. It had a gap of
M483 million which showed that it was operating with almost one third of its ideal income. LP
had the second largest income gap at M32.1 million operating with almost less than two thirds of
its ideal income. LAC had the third largest income gap of 23.7 million Maloti. However, there
were institutions with relatively low income gaps. For example, NHTC, MAC and LeBoHA all
had income gaps of less than 5 million Maloti, ranging between 3.2 million and 4.9 million. The
exception was IDM which had more actual income than what they would ideally need.
Information provided for LAC and LCE included all their campuses.
Table 31: Income Gap by Institution: 2013/14
Institution Ideal Income (In Million
Maloti)
Actual Income in
(2013/2014) in Million
Maloti
Income Gap (in
Million Maloti)
CAS 38 28.9 9.1
LAC 50 26.3 23.7
LCE 60 49.0 11.0
75
LeBoHA 5 0.8 4.9
LIPAM 20 14 6
LP 86 53.9 32.1
LUCT 70 63.9 6.1
MAC 10 6.8 3.2
NHTC 30 26 4
PSN 14 7.4 6.6
SSN 15 8.4 6.6
NUL 726 243 483
RCN 20 10.8 9.2
IDM 11 13.6 -2.6
The proposed Funding Model for HEIs was tested with the previous year’s Government budget
for HEIs and it emerged that some HEIs were over funded while others were underfunded. The
findings in Table 31 corroborate the test results of the Funding Model which revealed that some
HEIs financed by Government such as NUL and LP are underfunded. However, For NHTC,
contradicting results were observed. The findings reflect an income gap of M4 million, contrary
to the funding model document which showed that it was allocated more than what it needed. It is
expected that once the Funding Model is approved and implemented, additional funds will be
availed to bring those HEIs up to the standards required by the Funding Model.
10.3 Revenue /Funding and proportion of funders to overall income
Each institution has at least one main source of funding. PSN has the largest number of funders
followed by CAS and RCN with four funders. Institutions with the large number of main funders
(PSN, CAS, RCN and SSN) are also those institutions with less income gap. Similarly those
institutions with the smallest number of main funders, for example LCE and LP also have a large
income gap, with the exception of LUCT. This is consistent with the fact that the more funders an
institution has the more income it will obtain, and the lower the income gap.
Table 32 shows sources of revenue or funding for institutions and the corresponding proportion
of each source to the total income of the institutions in 2013/2014. The results show that the
government is the main source of income for the majority of institutions. This income is in the
form of government subvention, students’ fees through NMDS as well as Government financial
support for CHAL nursing institutions. Other main funders include NEPI-ICAP, JHPIEGO and
Global Fund for the institutions offering nursing and health-related programmes. Some institutions
did not provide all the sources of their revenue. For instance NHTC and MAC did not include
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student fees on their lists yet they all charge fees. The other key issue to note is that the proportion
of different revenue sources in some instances does not add up to 100 percent while in other cases
they add up to more than 100 percent. This might be attributed to poor quality of data. Institutions
should therefore provide accurate and comprehensive data to CHE.
Table 32: Proportion of Revenue by Institution and source of funding: 2013/14
Institution Main funders/Revenue sources Proportion of funding
(2013/2014)
CAS STUDENTS FEES 62.5
CIPFA 19.6
GOL Subvention 11.1
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT UNIT 2.0
LAC GOL Subvention 91.3
STUDENT FEES 8.7
LCE GOL Subvention
Student fees
Generated income
OSISA
UNICEF
CapEFA- UNESCO
71.3
21.2
5.5
1.2
0.5
0.2
LeBoHA Global fund -
Ministry of health -
LIPAM GOL Subvention 79.9
STUDENT FEES 20.1
LP GOL Subvention 52.0
NMDS 33.0
LUCT STUDENT FEES 96.5
MAC GOL-CHAL 54.1
CHURCH 1.3
NHTC GOL Subvention 100
PSN
GOL-CHAL 42.9
NMDS 51.3
Self- Sponsored students 0.7
NEPI-ICAP 4.7
JHPIEGO 0.2
Sisters of Charity 0.2
SSN
GOL-CHAL 39.4
NEPI-ICAP 13.1
JHPIEGO 3.0
Student fees 30.5
NUL GOL Subvention 43.6
Student Fees 40.9
Student Resident Fees 3.4
RCN GOL-CHAL subvention 40.3
Student fees 25.2
NEPI-ICAP 23.9
JHPIEGO 5.1
IDM GOL subvention (Maintenance Grant)
Student Fees
Government Ministries (Fees for staff
training)
Private Sector (Fees for training)
0.03
34.1
53.1
12.8
77
10.4 Expenditure Patterns of Institutions
Table 33 shows expenditure patterns of different institutions categorized into four areas, namely
personnel emoluments, travel and transport, operating costs and capital outlay. Four of the
publicly-funded institutions, namely: NUL, LAC, LP and LCE had more than 70% of their
expenditures on personnel emoluments. NHTC, LAC, RCN and IDM had the most significant
capital outlay at 36.3 percent, 19.8 percent, 17.2 percent and 14.3 percent respectively. Three
institutions, namely, LIPAM, LP and LUCT did not have any capital projects during the period
under review. The rest of the institutions’ capital outlay was low, ranging from 0.4 percent for
MAC to 7.2 percent for PSN.
Table 33: Expenditure patterns by Institution and Some Key Budget Lines: 2013/2014
Institution Personnel
Emoluments
Travel &
Transport
Operating Costs Capital Outlay
CAS 68.3 1.3 27 3.4
LAC 80.2 - - 19.8
LCE 70.2 5.2 24 0.6
LeBoHA - - - -
LIPAM 52.7 3 44.3 0
LP 74.6 3.3 22.2 0
LUCT 49.3 0.1 53.2 0
MAC 45 1 53 0.4
NHTC 26 1.4 36.3 36.3
PSN 28.4 2.9 61.5 7.2
SSN 38.4 2.9 54.6 4.1
NUL 81 1.1 15.1 2.8
RCN 33.2 1.6 48.1 17.2
IDM 53.3 2.5 29.9 14.3
LRA indicated that HEIs are allowed to include their expenditures on staff training in their costs,
thus reducing their tax liability. However, there was no record of the number of claims made to
LRA regarding tax exemption for donations to HEIs in the past three years. As a result, it is not
possible to indicate the rate at which the mechanisms of support have been utilized or taken
advantage of by HEIs during this period.
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10.5 Annual Budget Allocation by Government to HEIs
Government allocates subvention to higher education public institutions. There is also an
arrangement through which government supports CHAL nursing institutions financially. NMDS
administers a subsidized student financial assistance scheme to students studying at both public
and private HEIs. Table 34 indicates the proportion of expenditure on education to total
government expenditure as well as the proportions of expenditure on education allocated to each
HEI. In addition, Table 34 shows the proportion of student bursaries allocated to the HEIs in
relation to the total student bursaries. It is important to note that there is currently no policy on
selection of under-privileged students to be sponsored in HEIs. NMDS selects students based on
academic merit and the institutional quota. In addition, NMDS does not consider the priority areas
for the local institutions when allocating the bursaries.
The total government expenditure on education in the past three years has averaged at 2 billion
Maloti, which is around 16 percent share of total government expenditure on average. NUL has
the largest share of the MOET budget allocation to HEIs, (above 50%) although that share fell in
2013 but increased slightly in 2014. This fall was in line with the reduced ministerial share in the
overall government budget. IDM has the smallest share of the MOET budget. In terms of the
allocation of student bursaries, the share of bursaries allocated to HEIs has been falling
consistently in the past three years from 82 percent of NMDS budget (714 million Maloti) in 2012
to 70 percent (744.2 million Maloti) in 2014. NUL’s share of the student bursary has been falling
consistently during this period. LUCT’s share fell in 2013 but increased again in 2014. The share
of the other local institutions increased in 2013 but fell in 2014.
Table 34: Budget allocation to HEIs
Budget allocation 2012 2013 2014
Total Share Total Share Total Share
Allocation by MOET to the institutions (million Maloti)
NUL 100 62.1 100 56.5 110 58.7
LCE 31 19.2 40 22.6 34 18.1
LP 22 13.7 28 15.8 28 14.9
IDM 5.5 3.4 5 2.8 5.5 2.9
Allocation by NMDS to the institutions (Million Maloti)
NUL 227 38.6 192.8 34 187.2 33.8
LUCT 120.9 20.6 83.6 14.7 110.9 20
OTHER LOCAL
INSTITUTIONS
239.6 40.8 290.6 51.2 255.9 46.2
79
Budget allocation to bursaries for
HEIs (million Maloti)
714 82 708.7 80 744.2 70
Allocation of education sector
(billion Maloti)
2.1 17.3 2 14.2 2.3 16.1
CHE has developed a Funding Model for higher education public institutions as a framework for
government subvention allocation to the institutions. However, the model has yet to be approved
by Cabinet. Its main purpose is to enable MOET to allocate subvention to public institutions in a
systematic manner. The Fund has five components which cover operational costs of running an
institution, teaching and learning, research, incentive for improving performance and a component
for financing innovations within HEIs. Once approved, the Funding Model will not necessarily
increase allocations to institutions but it will improve the manner in which allocations are done,
since it proposes clear proportions that are dedicated to specific areas. Furthermore, it will bring
fairness into the allocation process in that such things as enrolments and performance of
institutions will be considered.
11.0 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT BY HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
It is critical for HEIs to engage the community around which they operate in a systematic manner.
This engagement can take different forms. For instance, it can be in the form of research studies
being undertaken within the community to solve societal problems and contribute towards
community development. It can also be through other means such as projects being undertaken in
communities by both staff and students. Student attachments and internships can also be classified
as part of community engagement, even though they have a slightly different purpose of exposing
students to the world of work with a view to giving them an opportunity to test the theories they
have learned in practice. This section discusses the efforts that HEIs have made towards
community engagement.
Higher education institutions are well placed to share expert knowledge and research-related
issues of concern with the wider society (MOET 2013). HEIs have made efforts to strengthen,
extend and formalize links between HEIs and communities. These include taking part in activities
of public and private sector bodies and of the community. The institutions were asked about the
programmes which have a community engagement component. All the institutions had at least
one programme through which either public or private entities were engaged. The results indicate
80
that out of a total of 158 programmes offered by HEIs, 46.2 percent had a component through
which communities were engaged. NUL reported the highest proportion of 65.8 percent of such
programmes where students, for instance, provided basic supplies to the needy communities.
Conversely, CAS, LeBoHA, PSN and IDM offered only one programme. The rest of the
institutions had programmes with community component that ranged between two and five. One
observation is that these programmes varied widely across the institutions. CAS, for example, had
designed its programme in such a way that students implemented what they had learned in class
to the community through a project called Student Entrepreneurial Community Hand (SECH).
LeBoHA, on the other hand, engaged in primary health care to the community. Other examples
through which there was community engagement were forestry and engineering offered by LAC,
auxiliary social work and environmental health offered by NHTC, school visits-physical
assessment and immunization offered by PSN; and community health project by SSN.
11.1 Programmes with work attachment and internship component
Institutions were asked to provide information on their programmes with work attachment and
internship components and the number of students who had undergone these programmes. The
results show that all institutions provided at least one programme that has work attachment or
internship component. The two terms, attachment and internship seem to be used interchangeably
across the institutions. For example, LP refers to it as industrial attachment whereas the nursing
institutions engage mostly in work attachments. About 75 programmes offered by HEIs had an
attachment or internship component. This made up 47.5 percent of the total programmes offered
by HEIs. LUCT had the highest proportion with 25.3 percent followed by LP and NHTC with
21.3 percent and 16.0 percent respectively. IDM and LeBoHA had the lowest proportions of 1.3
percent. About 3081 students have undergone work attachment or internship programmes across
all the institutions in the past one year. This implies that it was only 13.1 percent of the total student
enrolment.
Although LCE had only two programmes with work attachment, it had the highest number of
students who have undergone internships. Inversely, the institutions with the highest number of
programmes have very low numbers of students who have undergone work attachments. This
suggests that the number of students that have access to the external work environment while still
studying does not depend on the number of programmes offered. What is important is that
institutions should design programmes in such a way that they offer more opportunities for
81
students to adequately prepare for the world of work through practical experience in the workplace
while studying.
12.0 QUALITY ASSURANCE MECHANISMS IN HEIs
Establishment of internal quality assurance systems within HEIs is critical. It is important for HEIs
to put up proper mechanisms to ensure that the quality of their processes, teaching and learning,
and ultimately programmes is not compromised. Possible structures and mechanisms required
within a HEI to support quality assurance include development and implementation of quality
assurance standards, a dedicated office with sufficient resources to manage and coordinate quality
assurance activities, an approved and operational policy regulating quality assurance, clearly
defined mechanisms to ensure that lecturers are on task in terms of timely preparation of
timetables, course outlines and being in class on time, timelines within which feedback is given to
students on their assignments and tests, moderation of examination papers and peer review of the
quality assurance systems and processes initiated by the institution itself either conducted by peers
from other faculties, possibly chaired by somebody from outside the institution.
The institutions were asked to provide information that pertains to the quality assurance
coordination mechanisms that they employ. They were asked to say whether there was a body that
coordinates quality assurance activities and provides related information, and whether the
institution had quality assurance policies, mechanisms and tools.
Eleven institutions had a structure that deals with quality assurance within the institution.
Except for LP which had a quality assurance officer, all the other ten institutions had temporary
structures in the form of quality assurance committees, and did not have a dedicated Quality
Assurance (QA) unit. The three institutions that did not have any structure responsible for quality
assurance were CAS, LAC and LeBoHA. Only CAS and LAC did not have a quality assurance
policy. In the majority (8) of institutions, the operational QA policies were in draft form. A critical
question for which data is not yet available is extent to which the temporary structures are actively
promoting the enhancement of quality in the provision of programmes in each institution.
It is necessary therefore, for the institutions to expedite approval of policies for their effective
implementation. A critical question is whether HEIs can deliver quality without the internal quality
82
assurance mechanisms being fully established. Work can still be done in institutions without these
mechanisms being fully in place, but quality cannot be assured at the highest level and therefore
may not be achieved. It is critical therefore, that institutions work towards establishing fully
fledged internal quality assurance systems and mechanisms. When the mechanisms are established
and fully operational, quality does not only improve but problems can also be easily picked up and
addressed more effectively. It is therefore imperative that institutions should establish and
implement their internal quality assurance mechanisms. Resources should be availed to enable the
institutions to set up robust QA structures and mechanisms, using the best practices benchmarked
with similar institutions in other countries.
12.1 Programmes that Have Been Accredited in the Last Three Years
In November 2013, CHE embarked on the first round of programme review leading to possible
accreditation. Initially, the review started with 14 existing programmes sampled from the 13 higher
education institutions that existed at the time. LeBoHA’s Family Medicine Specialty Training
Programme had been reviewed prior to this round of review. Existing programmes are subjected
to full review. Typically full review starts with the self-evaluation leading to development of the
Self Evaluation Report (SER). Then the review panel reads the SER along with other programme
documentation before conducting a site visit. The process ends with the review report with a clear
recommendation on the accreditation status of the programme. Following approval by CHE
structure, the report is shared with the institution which then develops an Improvement Plan to be
monitored by CHE officials. The decision framework for new programmes is a summarized in
Box1.
The new programmes are subjected to a desk review process which follows a sequence of activities
similar to the ones listed above, excluding a site visit given the programmes are not yet running.
The decision framework for new programmes is also summarized in Box1 under new programmes.
As for existing programmes that were not part of the sample of the 14 programmes subjected to
full review, they have been classified approved programmes that can be offered by the institutions
until they have been reviewed by CHE. Typically, these programmes are subjected to a partial
review process which is essentially a desk-review process which excludes a site visit, tour of
teaching facilities and interviews with key stakeholders. The decision framework for these
programmes is shown in Box 1 under existing programmes.
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Box 1: Programme Accreditation Decision Framework
The CHE Minimum Programme Accreditation Standards provide a framework for review of programmes
which covers a number of areas including goals and objectives of the programme, programme design,
financing of the programme, staffing, quality assurance system, teaching and learning strategy, student
support, research and innovation, and community engagement. Programmes are classified into two categories,
namely, ‘Existing programmes’ and ‘New programmes.’ The decision framework for existing programmes
consists of the following five levels:
• Full Accreditation: An existing programme that has been subjected to full review meets standards and is
granted full accreditation for a period of five (5) years;
• Probationary Accreditation: An existing programme that has been subjected to full review partially
meets standards and shows potential to fully meet the standards within two years. The programme is
granted probationary accreditation for a period of two (2) years;
• Extended Probationary Accreditation: An existing programme that has been subjected to a partial review
meets some of the key standards and is allowed five (5) years to address the concerns raised in the review
report;
• Accreditation not Granted: An existing programme that has been subjected to full review does not meet
minimum standards;
• Accreditation Withdrawn: A previously accredited existing programme no longer meets minimum
standards.
The decision framework for new programmes consists of two levels:
• Admission to Candidacy: A new programme that has been subjected to either a full review or desk review
meets most of the standards except those that can only be assessed when the programme is running. The
programme is admitted to candidacy phase and allowed to run for two (2) years before it is subjected to
full review;
• Admission to Candidacy not Granted: A new programme that has been subjected either to full review or
desk review does not meet minimum standards. The programme is not admitted to candidacy phase and
is not allowed to run.
From November 2013 to 2015, a total of 38 higher education programmes have been reviewed
and their accreditation status declared. Table 35 provides a summary of the outcome of the process
of programme review.
Table 35: Programmes Reviewed for Accreditation in the Last Three Years
84
The fact that
CHE has
reviewed one
or more programmes in all the HEIs, with most of them accredited with certain conditions indicates
that HEIs are not fully compliant with CHE quality assurance requirements.
Some of the key issues that prevent institutions from complying fully with minimum standards
include insufficient budget and inappropriate state of teaching and learning facilities. More
importantly, institutional and programme-related policy documents that are either non-existent or
are not approved. In most cases, it is not clear whether quality enhancement activities are being
implemented. Full compliance will be realised when programmes attain full accreditation
following review by CHE. However, it is important to note that, after receiving the outcome of
each review, each institution develops an Improvement Plan whose implementation is monitored
by CHE. The plans are geared towards addressing the issues raised in each review report. CHE
is yet to collect data on how institutions cope with the challenges of implementing improvement
plans.
Currently, there are many programmes which CHE has not yet reviewed. It is important to
mention that these programmes are recognized and approved by CHE. The institutions are allowed
to offer them until such time that their status will have been determined by CHE after the review
process.
12.2 State of Registration of Private Institutions
The Higher Education Act requires that all private higher education institutions should register
with the MOET before they can operate. The process of registration involves among other things
institutions submitting their programmes to CHE for accreditation as one of the conditions for
registration. One institution was registered namely, Botho University. Six of its programmes have
since been admitted to candidacy for 2 years and allowed to run. The private institutions that
operated before CHE came into being have not yet registered in line with the requirements of the
Act, but they are recognised since the framework for registration had not been developed. Their
Programmes
Accreditation Decision
Number of
Programmes
Existing Full Accreditation 1
Probationary accreditation 12
Extended probationary accreditation 14
Accreditation not granted 4
New Admitted to Candidacy 7
Not Admitted to Candidacy 0
Total
38
85
situation will be normalised once all their programmes have been accredited. For instance,
programmes offered by the CHAL nursing institutions have been accredited, with only a few of
them being in the process of finalisation. Once this process has been completed, they will be
allowed to register. The same status will apply to other private institutions which are in the same
category.
12.3 CHE Collaboration With Professional Bodies
The CHE Policy also proposes that statutory professional bodies should be involved in CHE
Quality Assurance related activities. The professional bodies are systematically involved in the
CHE quality assurance activities in programme reviews. CHE works closely with them. For
instance, there is a well-defined working arrangement between CHE and the Nursing Council in
which CHE reviews the programme and the Nursing Council does the same using its own
standards. Though the reviews are done separately, a new programme cannot run until both bodies
have approved it. CHE is at an advanced stage of formalising an arrangement with the Lesotho
Institute of Accountants (LIA) which will work slightly differently from the one with the Nursing
Council. The professional bodies are also usually requested to provide professionals to be part of
the programme review panels in cases where there is no conflict of interest.
13.0 INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES (ICTs) IN
HEIs
One of the goals of the higher education policy is for HEIs to harness ICTs and keep abreast of
the highly globalised market for higher education. Effective use of ICTs improves efficiency and
quality of operations. The policy envisages utilisation of ICTs in higher education in such things
as the use of computers in teaching and learning, provision of learning materials through the use
of ICT platforms, contribution by academics towards creation of intellectual property for use by
their students and for sharing with others outside and enabling academics, researchers and students
to access a wide range of literature, research resources and learning materials. There is a need for
institutions to upgrade their facilities in order to enhance teaching and learning, research and other
operations. It is critical for them to have ICT infrastructure. Staff of the institutions should be fully
equipped to optimise utilisation of ICTs. It is for these reasons, among others, that it is necessary
to monitor performance indicators related to the use of ICTs in HEIs.
86
13.1 Academic Staff with ICT skills
Figure 27 presents the results on academic staff with ICT skills in only 10 HEIs that provided
information on this variable. There were 582 academic staff members in the 10 HEIs and all of
them had ICT skills. NUL and LCE had the highest proportions with 51.9 percent and 20.6 percent
respectively while MAC and IDM were the lowest with less than 1.5 percent each. All these
corresponded to the staffing situation prevailing in those institutions.
Figure 28: Distribution of Academic Staff with ICT Skills
It is to be expected that all academic staff would have ICT skills because generally teaching staff
use computers to prepare for lectures and to compile research reports. When data was sought from
institutions, ICT skills were not defined, hence the analysis was not able to go into the specific
levels of skills held by academic staff members. Future reports will endeavour to dig a little
deeper. HEIs would therefore, be well advised to keep up to date records of their teaching staff’s
ICT skills so as to enable tracking of different indicators in this regard.
13.2 Contribution of lecturers to E-Learning
Information was also collected on the contribution of lecturers to e-learning in higher education.
Only four (4) institutions provided information as presented in Table 37. LP was the only
institution that reported to have contributed in 2012/13 with one lecturer out of 88 staff members
and these made up 1.1 percent of its teaching staff. Improvements were noted in 2013/14 where
four institutions reported to have had staff who contributed to e-learning. A total of 103 staff
contributed to e-learning and this accounted for 29.9 percent of staff from those institutions and
to 12.8 percent of staff in all the institutions. LUCT contributed more with 74.6 percent relative
to its staff complement while LP was at 1.2 percent. The low proportions imply that institutions
NUL51.9%
LCE20.6%
NHTC6.7% LIPAM
3.1%LAC9.1%
PSN2.1%
IDM1.0%
SSN2.2%
RCN1.9% MAC
1.4%Other6.5%
87
are not doing enough to encourage academic staff members and researchers to contribute to e-
learning. This could be attributed to a number of factors including limitations in technological
infrastructure such as computer laboratories, electronic projectors, hot spots from which students
can seamlessly access Wi-Fi; technology literacy levels of staff members; and lack of on-line
forums where students engage in academic debates.
Table 36: Contribution of Lecturers to E-Learning (2013/14)
Institution No. of staff who
contributed to e-
learning
Total instructional
personnel
% of staff who
contributed to e-
learning
CAS 5 20 25.0
LCE 6 119 5.0
LP 1 83 1.2
LUCT 91 122 74.6
Total 103 344 29.9
13.3 Availability of computers to academic staff and students
Institutions were also asked to provide data on the number of functional computers available to
students and staff and information on those connected to internet and their condition. A total of
504 computers were available to a staff complement of 582 in these institutions, implying that
86.5 percent of staff members have access to computers.
Table 38 presents information on the ratio of academic staff to computer by institution. This ratio
measures the average number of academic staff members that use one computer. The results
showed that the overall ratio is 2:1, which means that on average two members of the academic
staff shared one computer. This is with the exception of four institutions, LCE, NHTC, SSN and
IDM, which had a ratio of 1:1; meaning that one academic member of staff had a computer at their
disposal.
Table 37: Distribution of Computers Available to Academic Staff
88
Institution Computers
available to
academic staff
Number of
Academic
Staff
Ratio of staff
per computer
LAC 37 53 2
LCE 65 120 2
LIPAM 18 18 1
MAC 6 8 2
NHTC 46 39 1
PSN 11 12 2
SSN 20 13 1
NUL 287 302 2
RCN 8 11 2
IDM 6 6 1
Total 504 582 2
Table 39 presents results on the computers available to students and their connectivity to the
internet. The results showed that a total number of 1,820 computers were available to students
across all the HEIs, which constituted 7.7 percent of the student population. Of these computers,
92.6 percent were connected to the internet. The majority of the institutions had all computers
available to students connected to the internet with the exception of NUL, MAC, LP and LCE.
Table 38: Distribution of Computers Available to Students by Institution and Internet
Connectivity: 2013/14
Institution Functional Computers
To Students
Computers for
students connected to
internet
% of computers
connected to Internet
CAS 83 83 100.0
LAC 43 43 100.0
LCE 132 119 90.2
LeBoHA 5 5 100.0
LIPAM 84 84 100.0
LP 148 108 73.0
LUCT 580 580 100.0
MAC 28 21 75.0
NHTC 91 91 100.0
PSN 12 12 100.0
SSN 20 20 100.0
NUL 537 462 86.0
RCN 34 34 100.0
IDM 23 23 100.0
Total 1820 1685 92.6
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The institutions were also assessed on the state of the internet and wireless connectivity. Slow
internet connectivity increases the costs of time spent searching for information on the internet.
About nine institutions reported having reliable internet connectivity and this represented 64.2
percent of the institutions. It is interesting to note that most institutions with slow connectivity
are public HEIs including NUL, LP, LCE, LAC and NHTC. With regard to wireless internet
connectivity, less than (35.7%) half of the institutions reported having satisfactory connection.
This includes CAS, IDM, LeBoHA, LIPAM and PSN although PSN showed that the wireless
connection had low coverage. About half (50%) of the institutions showed that the internet and
wireless connections were not so good. It was either due to limited coverage of wireless
connection or having limited hotspots. LAC and NHTC reported not having wireless connectivity.
Access to computers by students is important for them to do their work. Generally, students access
computers through stand-alone computer laboratories and those attached to facilities such as
libraries. Contrary to staff, where staff-computer ratio is expected to be 1:1, with students one
computer serves many, since they use it in turns. However, when the student-computer ratios are
too high that raises concerns because it means there are too many students competing for one
computer. This situation would mean they would spend a long time waiting in queues to access a
computer in the laboratory.
According to the Minimum Programme Accreditation Standards, the ratio of students to a
computer is 14:1. This means that on average, 14 students share one computer. Table 40 presents
ratios of students per computer in HEIs. A high proportion of 64.3 percent of the institutions meet
the international standards as they have low student-computer ratios. LeBoHA has more
computers than students, given its low enrolment due to the specialised nature of its programmes.
RCN and LIPAM have the lowest student-computer ratios at 4:1. Only 35.7 percent of the
institutions do not meet the standard, as they have high student - computer ratios ranging between
18:1 and 32:1. The implications of these high ratios are that some students do not have access to
computers in these institutions. They should therefore work towards rectifying this situation. The
high ratios might also be due to the fact that some students might have their own personal
computers. Efforts should therefore be made to collect information on the number of students
with personal computers for use in their studies and their economic background.
Table 39: Ratios of Students Per Computer by Institution
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Institutions Functional Computers available
to students
Total number of
students
Ratio of students per
computer
CAS 83 1633 20
LAC 43 446 11
LCE 132 4130 32
LeBoHA 5 1 1
LIPAM 84 337 4
LP 148 2797 19
LUCT 580 3078 6
MAC 28 184 7
NHTC 91 504 6
PSN 12 128 11
SSN 20 149 8
NUL 537 9554 18
RCN 34 118 4
IDM 23 486 22
Total 1820 23545 13
Opening and closing times of computer laboratories were checked because the time during which
laboratories stay open reflects the extent to which students have access to ICT facilities in their
institutions. There was a wide variation in opening and closing times of the laboratories across
institutions. The opening times ranged from 07:00am to 09:00am while the closing times ranged
from 4:30 pm to 10:00 pm. There is also variation in terms of the number of days that the
institutions opened their computer laboratories. Only five institutions (LIPAM, LUCT, PSN, RCN
and SSN) opened during weekends. Computer laboratories in most institutions closed early and
did not open on weekends yet these are the times when students have more time to spend in the
laboratories. Ironically, the computer laboratories opened when students were attending lectures,
and they closed when students had time to use them. For part-time students, the situation could be
worse.
14.0 ALIGNING HIGHER EDUCATION PROGRAMMES WITH NATIONAL
PRIORITIES
It is critical to align high education programmes with national priorities. One of the key objectives
of the education sector is to ensure that higher education programmes respond to the needs of
industry and the community in general. Therefore, there is need to ensure that programmes offered
by the HEIs do not just match with the demand of the world of work but also offer entrepreneurial
skills necessary to equip the graduates with skills to engage in self-employment. That
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notwithstanding, it is also important to note that HEIs have other priorities in addition to driving
economic development. These include research and knowledge production. It is therefore
imperative for them to balance between the priorities of the labour market and the relevance of the
curriculum taking a long term view.
14.1 Graduate Employment Rate
Data on graduate employment rate was not available at the Bureau of Statistics and Ministry of
Labour and Employment. Thus, this report is not able to provide a comprehensive picture on
graduate employment. The Ministry of the Public Service, which is responsible for recruiting for
all Government Ministries except for disciplined forces and schools is the only one from which
data was obtained. The data on the number of graduates employed within one year of graduation
by the Ministry of the Public Service indicate that only 3 graduates were hired in 2012 and none
were hired in subsequent years under the same category. It was indicated that there were 10, 525
job seekers on the ministry’s waiting list, with a backlog of graduate job seekers on the waiting
list going as far back as 2000, 2004 and 2005, depending on different programmes. However, the
integrity of this data is questionable because of the challenges related to how it is kept.
Information was sought on which programmes were easy to place within the public service and
those that were hard to place. The top five areas of study whose graduates were considered as the
most difficult to be placed in the civil service by the Ministry of the Public Service because of job
market saturation were reported as Pastoral Care and Counselling, Humanities, Bachelor of
Education, Tourism, general BSc programmes and Marketing. Graduates with these qualifications
were the most difficult to place in the civil service. The top 5 areas of study that were easiest to
place were said to be Human Resources Management, B-Com Accounting, Computer Science,
Economics and Social Work. There were other areas identified in which there was a shortage of
graduates. They included Library Studies, Sports Management, Cooperatives Management and
Accounting, Logistics Management and Internal Auditing.
14.2 HEIs that have done tracer studies
The institutions were asked to provide information on whether they have conducted any tracer
studies of their graduates in the past five years. The findings revealed that LUCT and LCE were
the only institutions that reported to have conducted tracer studies and this represented only 14.2
percent of the institutions. However, it is not clear the extent to which the institutions use feedback
to improve their programmes. The general reason given by other HEIs for not doing tracer studies
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was lack of funding. Without tracer studies, institutions do not know where their graduates end up
and how they perform in the world of work. This means that they are deprived of critical feedback
which could be used to review programmes and make them more responsive to the needs of the
world of work.
14.3 Business creation rate by new graduates
Entrepreneurship is the engine of growth for the private sector development and economic growth.
It is important that HE institutions ensure that the graduates have the necessary skills and
experience to start up a successful business that will create employment for themselves and others.
To check how far institutions have gone in addressing the issue, the institutions were asked to
provide information on their programmes that have entrepreneurship component. Three
institutions (LP, LUCT and NUL) offered entrepreneurship programmes and four (LAC, LP,
LUCT, and NUL) offered programmes with entrepreneurship modules, predominantly LUCT with
78.3 percent of its programmes. However, a worrying observation is that these programmes were
not open to all students.
It has not been possible to get information on the number of graduates creating their own
businesses from the Ministry of Trade and Industry as well as from professional bodies. Such data
would have given a sense of whether those students who go through entrepreneurial studies have
a higher likelihood of establishing their own businesses than those who do not.
15.0 HIV & AIDS RESPONSE IN HEIs
According to the Ministry of Health, Lesotho’s HIV and AIDS prevalence rate is at 23 percent
and being second in the world underscores the urgent need to effectively reinforce prevention,
treatment and impact mitigation interventions. HIV and AIDS interventions at most institutions
except for NUL and LCE are ad hoc and led by service providers from outside the institutions.
The interventions are predominantly on awareness and prevention. The majority of institutions
indicated that even though they do not keep statistics of students who received HIV prevention,
they distributed condoms to them as one of prevention strategies. This was with the exception of
one institution where it was indicated that the head was against the distribution of condoms to the
students. The head’s stance is against the prevention strategies adopted by the Government of
Lesotho.
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Roughly 6,789 students across all HEIs received HIV/AIDS prevention strategies and treatment.
Of these, 99.9 percent received prevention while only 0.1 percent received treatment. The HIV
prevention and treatment services generally include HTC, provision of condoms, male
circumcision, Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), and provision of ARVs to
those who have been infected and are eligible. These services were mostly not offered by
institutions but arrangements were made with medical centres close to them. In LAC, the students
were referred to the hospital. A police clinic also came in fortnightly for general health services
including HIV related services. There was a non-functional clinic on campus due to lack of funds.
LUCT invited Baylor College, Blood Transfusion Service Department, Population Services
International (PSI) and Lesotho Planned Parenthood Association (LPPA) to give health talks to
all the students periodically. PSI visited this institution twice a year.
NUL had a functional clinic on campus that provided Primary Health Care services to NUL and
the Roma community. It provides HIV Counselling and Testing, ante-natal care including
PMTCT to expectant mothers and Antiretroviral drugs (HAART). While some students utilised
the facility for testing and counselling, it was indicated that because of stigma, students preferred
to go to other medical centres away from campus. LCE also has a well established clinic. Students
and staff are tested and counselled by the college nurses. Besides this, the college organises
Awareness Campaigns and Health Expos in order to expose both the staff and students to
prevention and treatment of various diseases. Curriculum for all programmes at LCE has in its
courses a component on HIV/AIDS education.
16.0 COORDINATION OF THE HIGHER EDUCATION SUB-SECTOR
The Higher Education Policy has been implemented consistently from 2014 after it was approved
by Cabinet at the end of 2013. There has not been much progress on the alignment of policies
affecting the HE sub-sector across different sectors. There is still need therefore to harmonise
sectoral policies with those from other related sectors such as Science and Technology and
Development Planning in so far as the work of NMDS is concerned.
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In respect of improvement of capacity of the unit within the Ministry of Education and Training,
which is responsible for the higher education sub-sector, the level of capacity in terms of number
of staff members working within the unit has not changed since the last state of higher education
reporting period. Thus, the problem of understaffing and the concomitant challenges it comes with
persist.
16.1 Regular and consistent monitoring of higher education policy
implementation
The Monitoring and Evaluation Framework was developed and implemented to monitor the
implementation of the higher education policy and the strategic plan. The performance indicators
articulated in the framework are tracked consistently on a regular basis. Statistical data is collected
from HEIs on an annual basis. Additional qualitative data is collected from all key stakeholders
every two years to supplement the annually collected statistics. A comprehensive report is
compiled every other year out of the data while a statistical bulletin is developed during the
intervening year.
The quality of data from HEIs is very poor. This makes collection and processing of statistical
data by CHE very laborious and tedious. It seems that there is no proper coordination of different
sets of data within HEIs. There are vast variations between data management systems of different
institutions. Some have very complex and sophisticated systems while others have simple excel
based systems. However, the issue of poor data quality cuts across all institutions regardless of
their systems. HEIs still have not fully aligned their databases to the CHE data requirements. They
also do not keep comprehensive data in various areas of their operations. This makes it difficult
for them to provide data readily when CHE requires it. Utilisation of own data within institutions
seems to be very low. If usage were high internally, it would not be such a problem for them to
provide it to CHE or any other stakeholder. Data management personnel in the institutions vary
from qualified IT specialist and Statisticians in others while some institutions engage secretaries
for data management.
Once reports are compiled from the data, they are disseminated to MOET and the institutions as
key stakeholders. Every two years this comprehensive report on the State of Higher Education in
Lesotho is produced. Hence this one is the second. In addition to disseminating it to HEIs, the
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report is also presented at a higher education conference which is held biennially and convened
by CHE. It is envisaged that the same report will be presented to Parliament by the Minister of
Education and Training with a view to informing the nation about how the higher education sub-
sector is performing.
17.0 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
17.1 Conclusions
a) The state of higher education in Lesotho has improved in some areas while it has been
stagnant in others since the last review in 2011/12. Student enrolments trends are on a
downward trajectory for three years running. This is a cause for concern, particularly
because the demand is increasing every year. Not all of them are absorbed by the system
and yet enrolments are declining. This report makes a point that one of the key factors here
is financing of students by the state through NMDS. Those who cannot afford higher
education fall through the cracks and ultimately fail to access higher education. Lesotho’s
gross enrolment ratio is on a downward trend and is already low at 11.0 percent in 2014/15
compared to some countries in the SADC region where it is, for example, 38.5 percent and
27.5 percent in Mauritius and Botswana respectively. This suggests that Lesotho has to
address this issue urgently since it is a clear indication that a high number of students who
are eligible for higher education are not accessing it.
b) Programmes offered by the local HE institutions are varied but not sufficiently specialized.
Most of them are at the diploma and bachelor’s degree levels. This is not where most skills
shortages are. The skills shortages for the developmental needs of the country are at higher
levels. It is therefore important for HEIs to think seriously about introducing more
programmes at those levels where the need is higher. Post- graduate studies at the master’s
and PhD levels are very weak, with only 33 master’s students and one PhD in 2013/14.
The report has discussed the implications of this situation at length with regard to research
and innovation. Lesotho does not compare well with its sister countries in the region.
Botswana and Mauritius are cases in point.
c) The Higher Education Policy and the National Strategic Development Plan stipulate that
while sufficiently broad, programmes offered by HEIs should address national priorities.
Most of them are aligned to the national priorities. However a large number of them fall
96
short of addressing scarce skills because they are offered at lower levels. For instance,
students at the diploma level in science related fields account for 53.2 percent of the student
population while those at degree level account for 34.1 percent. Post graduate only account
for 3.2 percent.
d) One of the indicators tracked through this report is the internationalization index in HEIs.
Lesotho’s internationalization index hovers around 11 percent to 12 percent. The number
of international students enrolled in local HEIs is generally low and is on a downward
trajectory. Internationalisation gives a sense of how competitive a country is with its HEIs.
This means that local HEIs are not very competitive. Institutions are neither able to attract
large numbers of international students nor to attract sufficient international talent in terms
of teaching staff from other countries.
e) The body of the report has shown that there are massive fluctuations in the number of staff
of HEIs. Between 2010/11 and 2011/12 there was a drop of 94 people from the total staff
complement of institutions. There was an increase in staff complement by 138 people
between 2011/12 and 2012/13, while there was a drop by 171 between 2012/13 and
2013/14. This causes academic instability within institutions and affects the quality of
programmes and delivery thereof.
f) The CHE Minimum Programme Accreditation Standards require that a person should teach
one level above the qualification being taught. For example, a Diploma holder cannot teach
diploma students. Rather a degree holder should teach a diploma programme. The only
exception can be at the PhD level and in technical programmes such as IT, in which case
a bachelor’s degree holder can teach at higher levels in programmes that are not IT related.
It is an important standard for quality assurance. As shown in the body of the report, there
are some institutions which do not adhere to this standard with dire consequences for the
quality of delivery and ultimately the quality of their graduates.
g) The staff quality index for NUL is estimated at 33.7 percent which is an increase from
previous years. The overall index for other institutions is 41.9 percent which is not too bad
given that it was calculated using a master’s degree as a basis even though a number of
institutions offer only certificate and diploma programmes. The report also showed that
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most institutions make provisions for continuous professional development for their staff
which is in the form of long term studies towards senior degrees and short term training.
h) There seems to be some improvement on the area of information technology and the extent
to which institutions embrace it for enhancing teaching and learning. In 2012/2013 LP was
the only institution that reported contribution to e-learning by lecturers. In 2013/2014,
there was a significant improvement in the contribution to e-learning by lecturers from a
number of HEIs.
i) With respect to research, there are only a few institutions which made budgetary provisions
for research. This results in very low research output. Some of the key reasons for this
were insufficient budget for institutions and lack of capacity to undertake research in a
number of them. There were collaborations that institutions have entered into both at the
local and international level on research.
j) Public institutions are financed by Government through annual subvention allocations.
These, together with fees, are the main sources of revenue for them. Subvention allocation
has been fluctuating at a level where institutions say is low and does not meet their
demands. There are other supplementary funding sources for HEIs by various development
partners and some private companies. However, these seem to make a small percentage of
their budget.
17.2 Recommendations
The following recommendations have been drawn from the findings of this report:
Council on Higher Education
i. Data indicate that some institutions have teaching staff who teach at the same level as their
own qualifications and even above. This is highly irregular, and CHE should enforce its
quality assurance standards to ensure that all institutions comply.
Higher Education Institutions
98
ii. The quality of statistical data from HEIs remains problematic. It is therefore critical for
them to improve their data management systems and data quality.
iii. HEIs should endeavour to work on staff retention strategies so as to address the massive
staff fluctuations which result in academic instability.
iv. Programmes offered by local HEIs are generally aligned to the national priorities as
articulated in government policy documents such as NSDP though not all priorities are
addressed. One of the critical factors, as discussed in the report, is that most programmes
are at the sub-degree level whereas the skills shortages are at higher levels. Institutions
should therefore work towards addressing this problem.
v. There is a dire need for HEIs to diversify programme offerings at the post graduate level
and increase intake particularly at the master’s and doctoral levels.
vi. Local institutions are low on the internationalisation index which thing talks to their
competitiveness internationally. They should therefore consider developing strategies for
embracing internationalisation.
vii. While there is an improvement on the institutions contribution towards E-learning, there
is still a great deal to do by HEIs. They should therefore embrace technology fully in
teaching and learning.
viii. Numbers of students with disability are still very low in HEIs. Institutions should provide
the necessary support and facilities for students with disability to enable them to access
higher education.
ix. Most institutions do not conduct tracer studies of their graduates, thus they do not benefit
from feedback on how their graduates are coping in the world of work. Institutions should
therefore undertake periodic tracer studies and utilize information obtained from such.
Government of Lesotho
x. Enrolments at HEIs are on a downward trajectory whereas demand for higher education
keeps increasing. The government, through NMDS, should increase student support and
focus it specifically on needy students.
xi. NMDS should expedite review of its law and policies in order to pave the way for the
introduction of cost-sharing of higher education costs between parents and the state.
xii. Government should increase capital investments into public HEIs so that they can increase
their admissions without compromising quality of teaching and learning.
99
xiii. Government should approve and implement the Funding Model for Higher Education
public institutions which will in turn improve on mandatory budget allocation to
institutions for research and other components that are critical for improved quality.
ANNEX 1 Programmes that Basotho Students are enrolled in by Country
Australia China Tanzania
Media studies Education MSC International Trade Policy and Trade Law
100
Public Health Environmental sciences UK
Hospital management Biotech studies MSC Forensic science
Applied linguistics Computer science LLM in Business Law
Agriculture MBA Masters in Engineering in telecommunications
Public Policy Economics PhD in Education
Educational studies Commercial law MSC Office Management and Technology
International and development economics
Epidemiology and health statistics USA
Public sector management Corporate management Neuroscience
Botswana Office management and technology Pre medicine
MBA Public policy
MEd. Curriculum studies International relations Tanzania
MA economics Medicine Liberal Arts & sciences
MA Education Mining engineering Bio medicine Technology
Counselling psychology International Trade Engineering sciences
Development Studies Enterprise management B.Comm Monetary Economics
Public Administration Computer applications B.Comm Actuarial sciences
Social sciences Applied psychology General Engineering
LLB Global business journalism Mining Engineering
Information studies Political studies International Political Economy
Brunei Human resource planning and development Zambia
Public Policy Industrial engineering MA. in economics
Canada Property development and management Veterinary medicine
Chemistry Crop cultivation and farming MA. in Education
Czech Republic Occupational health France
MEd. Curriculum studies Development studies and psychology Policy studies
Economics and management Food science technology Zimbabwe
Clinical pathology Medicine
Cuba Project management MA in Public Sector Management
Veterinary medicine Medicine in medical microbiology India
Somatology Logistics Engineering and management M. Tech Electrical Engineering
physical education Geochemistry MSC Information technology
Actuarial sciences Nigeria MBBS
Medicine Ma in Strategic studies MBA
Hydraulic Engineering MA in Education Medicine
Chemical engineering Medicine MA. In Geography
Mechanical engineering Masters In Environmental Science
Malawi Malaysia MBA Finance/Marketing
Medicine MA in Public Admin
Ireland MA in Counselling Psychology
MA International Development
101
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