Challenges and Strategies in the Implementation of Civic Entrepreneurship in the Governance of the University of Zambia

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume III, Issue VII, July 2019 | ISSN 2454–6186

Challenges and Strategies in the Implementation of Civic Entrepreneurship in the Governance of the University of Zambia

Sydney Mupeta¹, Gistered Muleya²

¹Chreso University, ²University of Zambia, Zambia

Abstract-This paper is an extract from the master’s study which was investigating the implementation of civic entrepreneurship in the governance of public universities with a focus on the University of Zambia. Therefore, this paper focuses on exploring the challenges encountered in the implementation process of civic entrepreneurship and suggests strategies that could address such challenges. The study followed a qualitative case study design. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data from 56 respondents who were sampled using snowball and convenient sampling. Document analysis was equally employed in the collection of data. Data analysis was done on the basis of themes that emerged from the study. The findings of this study indicated that lack of financial resources and strong financial framework for funding public universities was a major challenge in the implementation of civic entrepreneurship in the university governance system. The study further indicated that there was a lot of bureaucracy in the governance of the University of Zambia. The study therefore recommends that there was need to re-engineer the governance system at the University of Zambia. The university management should devise and adopt less bureaucratic systems of governing the university. The government is implored to devise a financial framework for funding public universities in order to enhance effective delivery of education services and good governance of public universities in Zambia.

Keywords: Civic entrepreneurship, Governance system, public universities

I. INTRODUCTION

The advent of globalization and neo-liberalism in the 21st Century has profoundly transformed the nature, purpose and values of higher education as well as the global knowledge economy. These transformations have imposed increasingly dynamic demands and changes, not only on the governance and funding of higher education institutions, but also in the logic guiding academic and non-academic activities (Carlos and Daniel, 2002).The neo-liberalization ideology which favors free market economics and advocates for privatization, marketization and performance as well as the shift of the cost of higher educa¬tion from the state to the individual has a major effect on the traditional roles of universities and their management practices (Sifuna 2014, Byaruhanga 2002).

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