The Sunday Mail
Harmony Agere
On a bright Monday afternoon good friends and former classmates, Ralph and Geraldine, met for lunch at an up-market restaurant.
They had last seen each other when they collected their Advanced Level results about three months earlier and they had a lot to talk about, especially their hunt for university placements.
And Ralph, with five points, had by far been outperformed by Geraldine (15 points), but he was the more jovial of the two. He had just secured a place to study Medicine at a university in Ukraine.
However, for Geraldine it was different story.
“You know my dream has always been to study Medicine,” she replied after Ralph had asked why she was dejected.
“But they won’t let me. They say I do not have English at O-Level so it’s impossible for me to study medicine even if I have 15 points.”
Geraldine was evidently disturbed. A local university was making her settle for a programme she didn’t like.
“So what is the problem,” Ralph asked. “I was offered a place to study medicine at a university in Ukraine with my five points, you have 15 you can do the same.”
Geraldine could only wish it was so easy. But unlike Ralph, her parents did not have the money to send her to study oversees.
Ralph and Geraldine are among thousands of Zimbabwean students who are adversely affected by lack of opportunities in certain disciplines in local universities.
As a result many of them end up flocking to foreign universities where they are being offered opportunities to study in medicine, law and engineering with far lower grades than those required in local universities.
Investigations show that thousands of students who fail to make the grade locally are finding solace in universities in countries like Ukraine, Cyprus, Malaysia, China, and the UK, among others.
In these universities they are admitted with points even lower than those of students who are citizens in the respective countries.
Duly, recruiting agencies and educational consultancies are taking advantage of the situation as evidenced by their massive advertising on every media platform in the country.
Munyaradzi Mutunhuwashata, the marketing director at Eduworld Private Limited, a fledgling business that arranges overseas scholarships for local students, throws some light on the matter.
He says he is handling a unique case where an aspiring medical student was denied a placement at the University of Zimbabwe’s School of Medicine simply because he hasn’t passed English at Ordinary Level.
The student, however, has 15 points from the three science subjects he studied at A-Level.
“These are some of the cases that we deal with almost on a daily basis,” says Mutunhuwashata.
“At the end of the day, we then organise placements in different countries such as Cyprus, Ukraine, Russia, Malaysia, China and Mauritius.”
Mutunhuwashata indicated that some of the “pilgrim scholars” are searching for programmes that are not offered in Zimbabwe.
“Countries such as Russia and Ukraine are offering programmes like aircraft engineering, gas engineering, aviation engineering, plane and helicopter manufacturing, programmes that are not offered in Zimbabwe.”
For students who come from poor backgrounds there is simply no choice than to have universities deciding what to study for them.
Local scholarship businesses continue to add diverse universities under their wing, while the foreign universities are also eager to recruit more students for their colleges through the agencies.
As high pass rates from across the country continue to crowd out most students from placements at preferred universities such as the University of Zimbabwe, and the recruitment becomes more stringent, it is expected that the rank of pilgrim students will continue to swell.
The trend has, however, provoked scrutiny over the quality of graduates coming from some of these overseas universities as reports suggest that they are not allowed to practice in the countries they are being trained. These graduates are allowed to practice here, raising serious concerns especially in fields like medicine.
At a dialogue between young scholars and professionals in various fields a fortnight ago there were different views over the issue.
“This is an issue we would want Zimbabwe Council for Higher Education to look into, if UZ is saying 15 points for medicine and a foreign university is saying 10, what then does that mean about the quality of these two people when it comes to practising,” said junior doctor Chiedza Mugabe.
“And it does not stop with Medicine only. We are having similar problems in actuarial science, law and other programmes being offered by these rather questionable institutions.”
Educationist, Shepherd Ruzive, weighs in with a different opinion: “I disagree that graduates from foreign universities are a threat to the quality of local profession,” he says.
“We only have UZ offering Medicine in the country and it is over-subscribed at times. So to deal with the numbers I am of the opinion that they have to raise the bar very high to minimise the number of people.
“It is impossible for them to recruit every student who has an ambition to study medicine. If we had many institutions offering medicine we certainly would have students with 10 points enrolling for the programme.”
Zimche, however, declined to comment saying the gravity of the matter can only be dealt with by the parent ministry.
A comment could not be obtained from the Ministry Higher and Tertiary Education by the time of going to print.
Recently Zimche condemned a number of foreign and online degrees after it was discovered that they don’t conform to local standards.
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