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Making the case for private investment in universities and tertiary institutions

Human Resource Management is the organizational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training.

Despite significant economic recovery and improved macro-economic indicators since 1986, Uganda's economy continues to face considerable challenges. There is a close relationship between economic and human resource development in the country. It is essential to identify deficits in capabilities, skills, know-how, experience, linkage building, and technology use as well as undesirable business practices.

These shortcomings limit economic diversification, productivity enhancement, job and income creation, as well as poverty reduction. This calls for more efforts towards human resource development. The current mainstream economic policy focus on macro-economic stability, a favorable investment climate, and improved physical infrastructure alone will not foster economic development and broad-based well-being. It is essential that greater investment (both government and private sector) be made in developing human resources.

Effective Human Resources Management enables employees to contribute effectively and productively to the overall company direction and the accomplishment of the organization's goals and objectives. Human Resource Management is moving away from traditional personnel, administration, and transactional roles, which are increasingly outsourced. HRM is now expected to add value to the strategic utilization of employees and that employee programs impact the business in measurable ways.

The new role of HRM involves strategic direction and HRM metrics and measurements to demonstrate value. The Ugandan employees and employers and the private sector need more government support - in addition to the existing education and health focus of the government and donors – in order for them to develop the required human resources.

Increased and improved opportunities for training, on the job learning and an improved business culture are essential. It is critical to focus on technical, organizational, managerial, entrepreneurial, learning, innovative, social, and institutional capabilities.

Efforts towards dealing with these challenges will require attention to the political-economic climate of the country. This will contribute immensely towards Uganda's manpower planning and improvement. Manpower Planning which is also referred to as Human Resource Planning consists of putting right number of people, right kind of people at the right place, right time, doing the right things for which they are suited for the achievement of goals of the organization. Human Resource Planning has got an important place in the arena of Uganda's industrialization.

Uganda's track record of relative political stability, comparatively low general government debt levels, and strong relations with donors, the economy has witnessed rapid and consistent growth. This growth has led to increased demands for trained manpower. This area thus offers great opportunities for investment. Uganda's education system has been in place since the early 1960's.

It consists of seven years of primary education following which students have a wide range of options for both public and private education institutions depending on their aptitude, ambitions and resources. The Government of Uganda introduced the Universal Primary Education more than a decade ago. This has led to increased enrollment at the primary level, with a multiplier effect at other learning institutions such as secondary and tertiary institutions.

Students completing Uganda Certificate of Education have four possible outlets:

After the completion of the advanced certificate of education the students can either: proceed to university; join a two-year course leading to ordinary diploma in teacher education, technical education; business studies or join departmental programmes.

There are currently, 32 universities in Uganda all accounting for a student population of about 110,000, turning out over 30,000 graduates annually. Makerere University alone accounts for over 30% of this total. There are also technical and commercial business colleges that enroll another 20,000 students studying various disciplines, some of these are of particular relevance to the needs and development of the private sector. For instance, Technical colleges enroll about 2,000 offering disciplines such as metal works/foundry; carpentry, ICT skills, hotel and tourism, agriculture, fisheries, and forestry; etc. There are efforts currently geared at fostering cooperation between the training institutions and the private sector which will ensure that courses and graduates are relevant to the need of the private sector.

The role of higher education as a key factor and major driving force for sustainable development in knowledge-intensive and information societies is fast growing in Uganda. To generate a functionally literate work force that can support the economy is one of the principle functions of higher education. Private higher education continues to contribute to the solution of major national and international challenges. These include elimination of inequalities, alleviating poverty and environmental degradation, improving health among others. It also plays a central role in building social cohesion and in establishing the foundations of healthy civil societies, based on good governance and participatory democracy.

Government cannot provide all these crucial services single handedly. This calls for investment by the private sector in human resource training at all levels though investment at tertiary and university levels offers greater long term returns.

Private higher education has played a critical role in promoting social economic transformation in the economies of South East Asia. Its development is ably supported by a vibrant private sector. Countries in this region have taken important initiatives to create private sector as a means of easing growing pressures for students' access and the inability of governments to meet funding demands of public higher education.

On the same note, private higher education in Uganda has assumed increasingly important responsibility in meeting the growing demand for student access and specialized courses in particular fields such as ICT, management, business and education.

The development of higher education has raised important policy issues for the government. The government has been proactive and has been on the forefront of promoting a higher education investment enabling atmosphere. Generally private higher education require government increased responsibility, especially in providing legislative and policy frameworks for the establishment and operation of private higher education institutions and in effective quality assurance, monitoring and accreditation arrangements. Government has recognized the need to assist in attracting private investment into higher education and the need for private sector to generate financial returns on investments. Today stakeholders in line with government policies of investment are taking advantage of the various government incentives, subsidies and tax benefits as inducements to private investment in higher education.