Academicians, business executives and government officials will on Wednesday converge in Kigali for a two-day regional conference to deliberate on how to uplift the quality of university education to suit the needs of the labour market.

The conference follows recent findings from a survey done by the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) which revealed that about half of the graduates from universities in the region are not ready for the job market.

The conference, according to organisers, will focus on generating inputs to enrich regional research and innovation capacity building programme being developed by IUCEA.

This is line with the recommendations of the IUCEA study that called for urgent need to bridge the gap between graduates produced by universities and the skills requirements of potential employers.

Dr Joseph Cosam, the head of quality assurance at the Inter-University Council for East Africa, told The New Times on Saturday that although progress is being made in achieving harmony in quality standards by making the East African Communitya common higher education area (CHA) by 2015, resistance to change and limited finances posed challenges.

The whole set up of a common quality would require altering cultural practices of institutions, of countries and communities, he said.

It is up to the IUCEA to develop a framework and systems that will define a CHA – an area where participating countries or institutions agreed to have common principles, guidelines, standards and practices on matters of quality.

"This is not something which will be done overnight,” Cosam said.

"On mindset change, in the old type of universities, professors thought they knew everything, but things have since changed. Now, you have to listen to what the labour market wants. The labour market should have its voice heard on, say, this is the type of accountant or doctor it needs. And the professor should go back and mould students as required,” Cosam said.

He said quality is expensive and this is a challenge, especially because some universities or countries would wish to change their system but lack adequate finances.

General lack of critical mass of trained personnel, for example, of people well versed with the novel regional qualifications framework project is another challenge.

In the region, debate on how to address the issue of quality of education gained momentum way back in 2003. Stakeholders in the labour market voiced similar concerns. In 2005, a conference in Nairobi, Kenya, sought to find a way forward.

Lately, guidelines have been developed to guide universities on quality. Benchmarks for academic programmes were developed, in addition to a regional qualifications framework – a "consolidated tool which guides all stakeholders – employers, universities, parents or governments, on what graduates should look like after completing their studies.”

The basic infrastructure is in place, Dr Cosam said, but continuous advocacy and sensitisation, as well as capacity building are paramount.

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