Browsing by Author "Kwesiga, Joy Constance"

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    Access of Women to Higher Education in Uganda: An Analysis of Inequalities, Barriers and Determinants
    (University of London Institute of Education, 1993) Kwesiga, Joy Constance
    The study analyses factors affecting women's access to higher education in Uganda, where women are under-represented at all levels of education, as students, teachers, and managers. This reflects women's low status in Ugandan society. The conceptual framework is derived from literature covering Women in Development, the human capital concept of investment in education, the indirect benefits of educating women, and social theories of gender inequality. Literature on general educational access factors, mainly focusing on Sub-Saharan Africa is reviewed, using Hyde's (1991) three-fold classification of family, societal, and institutional factors. A sample of four primary schools, sixteen advanced level secondary schools and eleven higher education institutions provided empirical data. A crosssection of over 600 Ugandan students, teachers in secondary schools and higher education institutions, political and civic leaders and parents responded to questionnaires. Decision-makers at sample institutions and the Ministry of Education headquarters were interviewed, and documentary analysis also covered official reports, documents and records, previous research and the mass media. Although focus is on the higher education level, lower levels are investigated to provide insight into causes of diminishing numbers of female students as one climbs the educational ladder. The central conclusion is that the family, society and the state in Uganda act as if they are constantly weighing the profitability of investing in boys' or girls' education, albeit not in the conventional way of measuring earnings of educated workers, but rather assessing the future functional value of the individual. Lower status within the family structure, lower perceived social value, exacerbated by general economic constraints and inadequate educational structures make girls' education, particularly higher education, appear less profitable than that of boys. This obscures the indirect benefits that families and society would reap from higher rates of female participation in education.
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    Gender Equity in Commonwealth Higher Education:
    (Kabale University, 2000) Kwesiga, Joy Constance
    This paper is based on interim findings from a research project on gender equity in higher education in Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Nigeria. The project, funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and co-ordinated by the Centre for Higher Education Studies at the University of London Institute of Education, is investigating interventions for change in relation to access, curriculum transformation and staff development. It is also searching and analysing published and unpublished literature from low-income Commonwealth countries on gender equity. Themes are emerging in the research. These include the international policy drivers for gender equity, representation of women in senior academic and management posts; access as a redistributive measure, gender violence, organisational culture, micropolitics and the gendered division of labour in academia. There are concerns about the current distribution patterns of women in universities as students, academics and managers and the qualitative experiences of women in Commonwealth universities. The research project offers the opportunity to gain comparative insights across the Commonwealth. It aims to contribute to multilateral
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    On Student Access and Equity in a Reforming University:
    (Kabale University, 2006) Kwesiga, Joy Constance
    This paper examines issues of access and equity in the context of the far-ranging reforms that have been taking place at Makerere University and in the Ugandan higher education system generally since the early 1990s. The analysis attempts to map out the contours of student access over time, outlining the major fault lines in student diversities which include, among others, location, class and gender, as well as the state (university) response to these diversities in the context of market based reforms. We argue that key to the reform programme was a reduction in the state's financial commitment in higher education and the implementation of alternative financial strategies especially relating to the introduction of the private sponsorship programme in 1992. Private sponsorship greatly expanded the intake of fee-paying students, and the total number of students in higher education in Uganda has ex panded enormously. However, these apparent gains in terms of access to higher education have been offset by lack of necessary investment in facilities, with result ing problems of over-crowding, excessive teaching loads, large classes and falling standards. The analysis also interrogates the ways in which government/private dynamic plays out in the context of a highly fractured education system, dominated by urban-based schools, particularly located in the south of the country, and how the various affirmative actions measures have in a way, reproduced social and class privilege