CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The African higher education system has
grown significantly over the past twenty years in response to demand for
admission spaces by secondary school leavers. From about 700
universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other
post-secondary institutions classified within the higher education group
in the early 1990s, the system now has well over 2,300 of such
institutions. The growth of the system with respect to enrolment is
judged to be one of the fastest in the world (UIS, 2010).
This impressive performance on access
has failed to be matched by improvement in quality (Materu, 2007;
Okebukola and Shabani, 2007; World Bank, 2008). As a way of clustering
the good from the bad, stakeholders, especially potential students,
employers and parents, have turned to the ranking of these institutions
to provide a basis for selection. The first ports of call are typically
global ranking league tables such as Webometrics, Times Higher Education
(THE) and the World University Rankings and Academic Ranking of World
Universities (ARWU), commonly called the Shanghai Ranking (Salmi, 2011).
These rankings are regularly updated and readily available in the
public domain, hence individuals or groups desiring relative standing of
their national institutions find them to be an easily accessible
resource. Unfortunately, these global ranking schemes provide little
help for the locals, especially potential undergraduates, since over 90
per cent of the higher education institutions in Africa are not captured
in the top leagues (Salmi and Soroyan, 2007). A sprinkling of
universities in Africa shows up in the top 500 of all global league
tables. For instance, in the 2010 Academic Ranking of World
Universities, only three universities, all from South Africa, were
listed in the world’s top 500 and only two in the 2011–2012 Times Higher
Education best 400.
The practice of university rankings
dates back to around 1900 in England. The explosion of university
rankings perhaps signals the reality that we live in a compared and
ranked world. The twenty-first century is increasingly compared and
ranked along a myriad of dimensions. Based on levels of GDP, countries
are designated as part of either the first, second or third worlds, and
are ranked as developed, developing or least-developed, based on a
complex cluster of indicators. They are accorded human development
rankings – low, medium, medium-high or high – and are ranked on income
as being low, middle, middle-high or high-income countries. Comparisons
and rankings go far beyond the macro level of ‘worlds’ and countries, to
the meso level of institutions such as restaurants, schools, hospitals,
airports, banks and, of course, universities.
Universities are among our canonical
twenty-first century institutions. In and of themselves, they are
standard setters for how other aspects of our ‘worlds, countries and
institutions’ are compared and ranked. It therefore seems inevitable
that universities would themselves be subjected to comparisons and
rankings. However, being complex institutions and being part of complex
systems, it seems equally inevitable that comparisons and rankings of
universities would be anything but polemical. Comparing and even ranking
our ‘worlds, countries and institutions’ impels the construction and
use of common ‘yardsticks’ along whose gradations these entities can be
placed. Yet, unlike length, height and width, these ‘yardsticks’ are
used to measure very complex, often multi-faceted, fast-changing,
contextually varied and even conceptually contentious phenomena.
A lot of factors are considered as
ranking indicator, they includes percentage of academic programmes of
the university with full accreditation status, compliance with carrying
capacity (measured by the degree of deviation from carrying capacity),
proportion of the academic staff of the university at professorial
level, foreign content (proportion of the Academic staff of the
university who are non-Nigerians) and foreign students. A closer look at
these factors will reveal that they can be influenced by the way things
are been done (organizational culture) in the university.
Organizational culture as defined by
Lundy and Cowling (1996) is "the way we do things here." Organizational
culture is the deeply rooted values and beliefs that are shared by
personnel in an organization. Various organizations have differing terms
used to collectively refer to the values and beliefs of its members.
Most organizations term these guiding principles that dictate behavior
and action (Core Values). However, this study is examining
organizational culture and ranking of universities in South Africa and
Nigeria.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Every organization has a survival
objective and what differentiates organizations is the method through
which this survival objective is achieved, usually through maximum
utilization of available resources. It is within this context, that
organizations are conceived as little societies characterized by social
norms and structures, commonly allegorized as organizational culture.
These management strategies adopted by these institutions including
African University also affect their performances which determine their
position when ranked.
Moreover, Okebukola (2011) showed that
labour employers were quite excited about the ranking, as they seek ways
of selecting graduates from the best-ranked schools in the midst of the
graduate glut. Parents and potential students found ranking helpful in
the selection of institutions and were quite happy to turn to league
tables showing universities with very good rankings in the programmes
desired for study. The researcher is curious about how organizational
culture has affected the ranking of universities in South Africa and
Nigeria.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study:
- To examine the relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in Nigeria.
- To examine the relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in South Africa.
- To examine the differences in Organizational culture and ranking of Universities in Nigeria and South Africa.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
- What is the relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in Nigeria?
- What is the relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in South Africa?
- What are the differences in Organizational culture and ranking of Universities in Nigeria and South Africa?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
HO: There is no significant relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in South Africa and Nigeria.
HA: There is significant relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in South Africa and Nigeria.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The following are the significance of this study:
- This study will educate the management of universities in Nigeria
and South Africa, students seeking admissions, employer of labour and
the general public on how organization culture has affected the ranking
of Universities in Nigeria and South Africa.
- This research will also serve as a resource base to other scholars
and researchers interested in carrying out further research in this
field subsequently, if applied will go to an extent to provide new
explanation to the topic
1.7 SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF STUDY
This study will cover the universities
in Nigeria and South Africa. This study will also cover the
organizational culture or cultural practices that are specific for
universities in Nigeria and South Africa considering how it has affected
their ranking.
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint- Insufficient fund
tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the
relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data
collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
Time constraint- The researcher will
simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This
consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work
REFERENCES
Lundy & Cowling. (2001). Organizational Behavior. (9th ed). South-Western. pp. 523 .
Materu, P. 2007. Higher Education
Quality Assurance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Status, Challenges,
Opportunities, and Promising Practices. World Bank Working Paper, No.
124. Washington DC: World Bank.
Okebukola, P.A.O. 2011. Nigerian
Universities and World Ranking: Issues, Strategies and Forward Planning.
Paper presented at the 2011 Conference of the Association of
Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Covenant University, Ota,
27–30 June.
Okebukola, P.A.O. and Shabani, J. 2007.
Quality assurance in higher education: perspectives from sub-Saharan
Africa. GUNI (ed.) State of the World Report on Quality Assurance in
Higher Education, pp. 46–59.
Salmi J. and Saroyan, A. 2007. League
tables as policy instruments: uses and misuses. Higher Education
Management and Policy, 19(2): 24–62.
Salmi, J. 2011. If Ranking is the
Disease, is Benchmarking the Cure? Keynote address presented at the
UNESCO Global Forum on University Rankings, Paris, 16–17 May.
UIS (UNESCO Institute of Statistics). 2010. Trends in Tertiary Education: Sub-Saharan Africa. UIS Factsheet No. 10. December.
World Bank. 2008. Accelerating Catch-up: Tertiary Education for Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington DC: World Bank.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The African higher education system has
grown significantly over the past twenty years in response to demand for
admission spaces by secondary school leavers. From about 700
universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and other
post-secondary institutions classified within the higher education group
in the early 1990s, the system now has well over 2,300 of such
institutions. The growth of the system with respect to enrolment is
judged to be one of the fastest in the world (UIS, 2010).
This impressive performance on access
has failed to be matched by improvement in quality (Materu, 2007;
Okebukola and Shabani, 2007; World Bank, 2008). As a way of clustering
the good from the bad, stakeholders, especially potential students,
employers and parents, have turned to the ranking of these institutions
to provide a basis for selection. The first ports of call are typically
global ranking league tables such as Webometrics, Times Higher Education
(THE) and the World University Rankings and Academic Ranking of World
Universities (ARWU), commonly called the Shanghai Ranking (Salmi, 2011).
These rankings are regularly updated and readily available in the
public domain, hence individuals or groups desiring relative standing of
their national institutions find them to be an easily accessible
resource. Unfortunately, these global ranking schemes provide little
help for the locals, especially potential undergraduates, since over 90
per cent of the higher education institutions in Africa are not captured
in the top leagues (Salmi and Soroyan, 2007). A sprinkling of
universities in Africa shows up in the top 500 of all global league
tables. For instance, in the 2010 Academic Ranking of World
Universities, only three universities, all from South Africa, were
listed in the world’s top 500 and only two in the 2011–2012 Times Higher
Education best 400.
The practice of university rankings
dates back to around 1900 in England. The explosion of university
rankings perhaps signals the reality that we live in a compared and
ranked world. The twenty-first century is increasingly compared and
ranked along a myriad of dimensions. Based on levels of GDP, countries
are designated as part of either the first, second or third worlds, and
are ranked as developed, developing or least-developed, based on a
complex cluster of indicators. They are accorded human development
rankings – low, medium, medium-high or high – and are ranked on income
as being low, middle, middle-high or high-income countries. Comparisons
and rankings go far beyond the macro level of ‘worlds’ and countries, to
the meso level of institutions such as restaurants, schools, hospitals,
airports, banks and, of course, universities.
Universities are among our canonical
twenty-first century institutions. In and of themselves, they are
standard setters for how other aspects of our ‘worlds, countries and
institutions’ are compared and ranked. It therefore seems inevitable
that universities would themselves be subjected to comparisons and
rankings. However, being complex institutions and being part of complex
systems, it seems equally inevitable that comparisons and rankings of
universities would be anything but polemical. Comparing and even ranking
our ‘worlds, countries and institutions’ impels the construction and
use of common ‘yardsticks’ along whose gradations these entities can be
placed. Yet, unlike length, height and width, these ‘yardsticks’ are
used to measure very complex, often multi-faceted, fast-changing,
contextually varied and even conceptually contentious phenomena.
A lot of factors are considered as
ranking indicator, they includes percentage of academic programmes of
the university with full accreditation status, compliance with carrying
capacity (measured by the degree of deviation from carrying capacity),
proportion of the academic staff of the university at professorial
level, foreign content (proportion of the Academic staff of the
university who are non-Nigerians) and foreign students. A closer look at
these factors will reveal that they can be influenced by the way things
are been done (organizational culture) in the university.
Organizational culture as defined by
Lundy and Cowling (1996) is "the way we do things here." Organizational
culture is the deeply rooted values and beliefs that are shared by
personnel in an organization. Various organizations have differing terms
used to collectively refer to the values and beliefs of its members.
Most organizations term these guiding principles that dictate behavior
and action (Core Values). However, this study is examining
organizational culture and ranking of universities in South Africa and
Nigeria.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Every organization has a survival
objective and what differentiates organizations is the method through
which this survival objective is achieved, usually through maximum
utilization of available resources. It is within this context, that
organizations are conceived as little societies characterized by social
norms and structures, commonly allegorized as organizational culture.
These management strategies adopted by these institutions including
African University also affect their performances which determine their
position when ranked.
Moreover, Okebukola (2011) showed that
labour employers were quite excited about the ranking, as they seek ways
of selecting graduates from the best-ranked schools in the midst of the
graduate glut. Parents and potential students found ranking helpful in
the selection of institutions and were quite happy to turn to league
tables showing universities with very good rankings in the programmes
desired for study. The researcher is curious about how organizational
culture has affected the ranking of universities in South Africa and
Nigeria.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study:
- To examine the relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in Nigeria.
- To examine the relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in South Africa.
- To examine the differences in Organizational culture and ranking of Universities in Nigeria and South Africa.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
- What is the relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in Nigeria?
- What is the relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in South Africa?
- What are the differences in Organizational culture and ranking of Universities in Nigeria and South Africa?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
HO: There is no significant relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in South Africa and Nigeria.
HA: There is significant relationship between organizational culture and ranking of Universities in South Africa and Nigeria.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The following are the significance of this study:
- This study will educate the management of universities in Nigeria
and South Africa, students seeking admissions, employer of labour and
the general public on how organization culture has affected the ranking
of Universities in Nigeria and South Africa.
- This research will also serve as a resource base to other scholars
and researchers interested in carrying out further research in this
field subsequently, if applied will go to an extent to provide new
explanation to the topic
1.7 SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF STUDY
This study will cover the universities
in Nigeria and South Africa. This study will also cover the
organizational culture or cultural practices that are specific for
universities in Nigeria and South Africa considering how it has affected
their ranking.
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint- Insufficient fund
tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the
relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data
collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
Time constraint- The researcher will
simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This
consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work
REFERENCES
Lundy & Cowling. (2001). Organizational Behavior. (9th ed). South-Western. pp. 523 .
Materu, P. 2007. Higher Education
Quality Assurance in Sub-Saharan Africa: Status, Challenges,
Opportunities, and Promising Practices. World Bank Working Paper, No.
124. Washington DC: World Bank.
Okebukola, P.A.O. 2011. Nigerian
Universities and World Ranking: Issues, Strategies and Forward Planning.
Paper presented at the 2011 Conference of the Association of
Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, Covenant University, Ota,
27–30 June.
Okebukola, P.A.O. and Shabani, J. 2007.
Quality assurance in higher education: perspectives from sub-Saharan
Africa. GUNI (ed.) State of the World Report on Quality Assurance in
Higher Education, pp. 46–59.
Salmi J. and Saroyan, A. 2007. League
tables as policy instruments: uses and misuses. Higher Education
Management and Policy, 19(2): 24–62.
Salmi, J. 2011. If Ranking is the
Disease, is Benchmarking the Cure? Keynote address presented at the
UNESCO Global Forum on University Rankings, Paris, 16–17 May.
UIS (UNESCO Institute of Statistics). 2010. Trends in Tertiary Education: Sub-Saharan Africa. UIS Factsheet No. 10. December.
World Bank. 2008. Accelerating Catch-up: Tertiary Education for Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington DC: World Bank.