Pedagogical Delivery shift towards Entrepreneurship
The East African Higher Education Quality Assurance Network is a consortia of Quality Assurance Country Chapters comprising quality assurance coordinators, officers, directors and the heads of National Higher Education Councils whose broad aim is to promote theory and practice of Quality Assurance across the East African Higher Education common area. One of the activities undertaken at this fora is capacity building and presentation of papers and posters as per the year’s theme. The Ndejje University Quality Assurance Directorate fully participates in these meetings and present papers and posters on an annual basis. The last edition of the conference was hosted by Uganda at Imperial Hotel, Entebbe from May 6 – 10, 2019. Sub theme 1: Entrepreneurial, innovative and Market driven programs in Higher Education.: Towards an Entrepreneurial Approach: Exploring the Key Challenges and Lessons. A case of Ndejje University, Uganda. Kayizzi Peter Lwanga- Quality Assurance Officer, Ndejje University.
Abstract
There is an increasing shift from the delivery of higher education which focussed on the teacher- classroom interaction to the contemporary entrepreneurship and commercialised approach that supports niche management. This is majorly due to the changing trend and emergence of new knowledge, ICT revolution, the biting economic turbulence to mention but a few. With the increase in the demand for higher education, coupled with the numbers of graduates churned out by every Higher Education Institution (HEI) around the world today, such attributes like skilling, innovativeness and the entrepreneurial aspects have become inevitable and paramount on almost all the Higher Education Institutions’ agenda. An entrepreneurial University is the existing solution to this shift of contributing and providing leadership for creating entrepreneurial thinking and actions (Audretsch & Keilbach, 2008). It undertakes the task of training future entrepreneurs who will be able to establish their own businesses and commercialising the outcome of their research and innovations. However suffice it to say, these attributes are not clearly spelt out (or even implemented) in the institutions’ curricular. In the University, a student is expected to be at the very highest epitome of new innovations on the problems that the society and the world grapples with; which may be of help to realise the UN global goals. Sustainable development Goal 1, ‘end poverty in all its forms everywhere’ is still a challenge because despite the great effort to alleviate poverty by 2030, there are still people living on less than $1.25 a day!(UNDP 2012). The effort and hope of reducing poverty, hunger and saving the environment around the world is therefore vested in the intellectual ability of this University product. At Ndejje University in Uganda, the strategic direction is geared towards innovations that will enable the graduate to become an own entrepreneur after completion of their programmes. The study was rooted in the triple helix model of innovations; with triangulation of methodology, employing purposive sampling, using questionnaires, key informative interview guide and observation to establish the authenticity of the two tools. Some peculiar findings included; the running business requirement for any student to graduate, the financial constraint in implementing innovations, and lack of commercialisation due to the poor sustainability of projects. The study recommended the strengthening of the innovations forum as a way of enhancing continuity in research and innovations. Key words: Economic turbulence, Innovations, Pedagogical shift, Higher Education, Entrepreneurship.