It was a tricky race! But Ts’epang Khumalo, a fourth year National University of Lesotho (NUL) Economics student was willing to take it on! She faced not only tens of students from 15 other African Universities in the area of Economics, but 11 of her own NUL colleagues.
Ultimately, only she and her counterpart from Kenya came out triumphant—ready to represent African Economics students!
Day by day, NUL Teachers and Students are proving their worth not only in Lesotho’s landscape, but the world over. It is, for lack of finer words, the most wonderful thing to watch as it unfolds; unabated!
Ts’epang Khumalo and her Kenyan partner would then join 14 other students who competed and won in areas such as Agricultural Sciences, Applied Geology, Civil Engineering, Medicine and so on! Off to Ghana, they went!
Her engagement in this competition was part of a bigger dream by Tuning Africa which describes itself as “a network of communities of academic experts who discuss, design and elaborate learning instruments and share the results.” The network is supported by European Commission and African Union.
Its objective is concise, “to contribute and support the harmonization of higher education Programs and the creation of a revitalized, distinctive, attractive and globally competitive African higher education space, through an enhanced intra-African collaboration.”
In her attempt to decode this statement, Khumalo explained, “Tuning Africa tries to bring a harmony in African university Programs, say in the workload policies,” she said.
“For instance, it has found that the African credit hour system could not be more diverse, with each university designing its own.”
More important, the organization seeks to help African universities develop curricula that are squarely based on, and satisfy the needs of stakeholders who, in this case, mean students, businesses, academics and even government.
Tuning Africa has what they call design competencies which guide universities to evaluate their Programs. The idea is for universities to see if what they still offer is relevant.
Thanks to the efforts of the NUL Center for Teaching and Learning (NUL CTL), which applied to Tuning Africa on behalf of NUL and the NUL Department of Economics which participated in this project, NUL has effectively joined the movement!
“The testing of these design competencies for NUL Economics Department was quite a revelation to us when the local stakeholders were approached,” said Khumalo.
“For instance academics, employers, students and graduates were asked to tell what they wanted to see in our Programs.” She said the responses could never be so different between groups.
Academics valued such things as conceptual thinking skills, while students and the industry demanded more of the entrepreneurial skills in the programs.
“That is where we came in, me and other students from Africa,” Khumalo said. “We were supposed to give a student’s perspective on the Programs offered by our universities.” These perspectives were to be presented in the Tuning Africa Phase II meeting in Accra Ghana.
However, Tuning Africa wanted the sharpest minds to represent different subject areas. So many Economics students from 16 different African universities competed to represent the area of Economics in the meeting in Ghana.
In the competition, the students were quizzed on their ability to analyze their universities Economics Programs, the perceived impact of the Programs on their lives and future and how they thought the Program could be improved.
They were also quizzed on their ability to think outside the box on many issues critical to them. In fact they even had to make PowerPoint presentations in critically assessing these issues.
Ts'epang Khumalo was dedicated to winning and won she did.
Then came a time to fly to Accra, Ghana, where she met a group of winners in other areas!
Together, the students were called “Student Voice.” That was because they were, “seen as representing the voices of other students all across Africa in their respective areas,” she said.
Khumalo was, indeed, the voice of Africa in Economics, the privilege she could have never imagined!
But the grilling did not end with the competition. It went on in Ghana, now before a panel of Economics gurus from all over Africa. “I had to face these people and to defend my views before them in Accra, Ghana. That was not easy but I managed,” she consented.
She was quizzed on her views on harmonizing African universities Programs, “the idea is such that one can enroll for a course in Lesotho for, say two years, and end the last two years in Kenya without a hiccup,” Khumalo said.
On the issue of students’ workload, the agreement was almost unanimous. African universities over-teach and give students little time to reflect, she revealed. And that, she said, had to change.
