International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume V, Issue VI, June 2021 | ISSN 2454–6186

Examining the Policy Implications of Massification of Higher Education in Zimbabwe, how Quality was Inevitably Compromised.

Professor G.N. Shava¹, S. Shonhiwa², S.J. Ngwenya³, D. Moyo^4
1,2National University of Science and Technology, Zimbabwe
³Brethren Christ Church Zimbabwe
⁴Global Institute Hospitality and Tourism, Zimbabwe

Abstract
The United Nations’ (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposal to achieve universal access to Primary and higher education in Zimbabwe from the attainment of independence in 1980 till the beginning of the new millennium has faced unprecedented massification of higher education. Any attempt to open up the system and introducing polices of deepening and widening access to higher education seems have inevitably led to the belief that mass education will be achieved at the price of lower quality education. Notwithstanding the wide array of challenges associated with the massification of higher education, the expansion of higher education in Zimbabwe has seen a major challenge of the decline in the quality of teaching and learning. This article examines the policy implication of mass education in Zimbabwe’s higher education and how it compromised the quality of higher education teaching and learning. The article adopts a qualitative paradigm, drawing on structure and agency theoretical view point to offer deeper insight into how higher education massification policies compromised the delivery of quality education in the Zimbabwean context of higher education. The article provides a detailed description of the way in which structures and agency have been constrained by the massification of higher education in Zimbabwe. The article also demonstrates how the critical realist theory of structure and agency can contribute towards a deeper understanding of mass education and quality decline.

Key words: Higher education, massification of education, policy, quality education, structure agency perspective, Zimbabwe.

Introduction

Since the attainment of independence in Zimbabwe, the government launched a dramatic expansion of its higher education systems through initiatives of widening and deepening access to higher education. Higher education in Zimbabwe is seen as a major driver of economic competitiveness in an increasingly knowledge driven global economy. There is a great need for countries to have quality employees and this can be achieved through a call for quality teaching and learning within higher education.