An Analytical Evaluation of Higher Education in the Sudan

Prof. Dr. Ali Saad Mohamed

Sudan University of Science and Technology.

Overview:

Higher Education in the Sudan began in 1902 a few fears after the advent of the
British-Egyptian colonize. There was only one higher educational institute at that
time and it was Gordon Memorial College which later developed into Khartoum
University College by the year 1956 after the independence.

A few years later, the University of Khartoum emerged out. University of

Khartoum continued as the only National higher education body for shorter period
time. Concomitantly institute was also established under the name of Khartoum
Technical Institute KTI and it offered Technical Diploma in Engineering and
Accounting.

A little bit later in early 1960, Omdurman Higher Islamic Institute was added to the
higher educational system and qualified students in Islamic Sharia and Quran
sciences.

There was also Cairo University, Khartoum Branch in the seventies of last century,
two universities was added: Gazira and Juba Universities as national educational
bodies and higher institutes, in the Sudan, jumped to as many as 30 universities.

The increase in the number of universities was accompanied by deterioration in the

academic status. Many reasons have cumulatively led to this situation. But there is
hope for this shortage to be corrected with faithful efforts.

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Abstract

The present paper was mainly concerned analysis of higher education in the Sudan.
Due consideration was directed towards three stages: the first stage covered the
period extending from the establishment of the nucleus of Khartoum University
which was formed of three phases:

a. Gordon Memorial College which was established to provide the Sudan

Government, at that time with personnel in different disciplines to work
under the supervision of colonial officers as junior staff. The graduates of
the college has succeeded in supporting the regume, but they also constituted
the anti-regime group, which towards ending the colonial presence in the
country.

b. Khartoum University College: this formed the intermediate stage between

Gordon Memorial College and the University of Khartoum. It continued for
a couple of years, and its graduates were also of intermediate level.

c. The University of Khartoum (U of K): this has been the institute which
began in the year 1956 and continued up to the present date.

The University of Khartoum emerged as the sole national higher education

institute. U of K was fortunate in implication of quality measures as for as the
infrastructure, staff members and enrolling students were concerned. There
were qualified laboratories and rich library. The staff members were selected on
the basis of high standard and distinguished academic degrees. The students
were also the cream of secondary school graduates.

The performance of U of K academic staff was subjected to periodic evaluation

by visiting professors from European countries and U.S.A. in the mid of the
seventies of the last century, U of K witnessed a gradual deterioration in the
quality of education services.

The second stage included the establishment of two universities, University of

Juba , to represent the southern part of the country, and it began with the
endeavor to graduate teacher to work in public education for the southern part

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 and also to promote the health and medical services in that part of the country .
So the nuclease of Juba University was formed Faculties Education and
Medicine respectively. The other university has been the University of Gezira
to serve peoples of central Sudan where the bulk of citizens there, were farmers,

The nucleus of Gezira University included Faculties of Medicine, Agriculture

and Education. These two universities have been successful up to the present
time, particularly that of Gezira which adopted the American evaluation of
academic affairs.

Then we come to the third stage where many universities added to higher
education business. These universities has some advantages which can be
summarized as follows:

- They created opportunities for median standard students to receive

universities education. These large masses of students have been considered
as losses as far as enlightenment is concern.

- It provides the country with a trained cadre to work in the peripheries.

- It helps to raise the standard of living of remote areas by provides services

and job opportunities.

But these universities were established with in-depth studies, so they were and
still are poor in infrastructure and there is a deficit in staff members. Most of
the new universities depend on part-time instructors who do not offer enough
time for teaching.

There is hope that the situation will be improved by continuous financial

support.

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Introduction:

Higher education has become the centre of popular concern all around the world. Internationally, the
human population got interested in academic education and its technical applications for solving the ill
effects of illiteracy, poverty and health problems (Elmimi et al, 2004).

The Sudan, like other developing countries is undertaking serious efforts to confront the contemporary
challenges (Abu Shaiba, 2002). The some author reported that the new world is suffering from a big and
serious problem as far as education is concerned.

The educational reforms are still applied in a partial endevour in the absence of a comprehensive
approach for development. The education curricula are still involved in the theoretical instruction, with
negligence of the practical implication of science.

Such educational concepts cannot satisfy the student interest in developing his skills and activating his
potential practical (Babiker and Elzind, 2004). Development and improvement of higher education
programmes has recently become a necessity to with stand the stronger flow and fast development in
techniques with the advent of the twenty first century and domination of the concept of globalization. As
a consequence of the forementioned, it can be noted that the concept of quality is closely related to all
higher education functions and applications (Abdallah, 2005).

The subject of quality includes: the quality of education, training, research and the socio-services
provided by higher education units, it is worth mention that quality is primarily concerned with
achievement of distinction in the education system as a whole. There are two institutions which
succeeded in acquiring higher education quality which are the American University of Harvard and
Oxford University in England. These two examples have formulated programmes for outdoor teaching
instructions.

The present study is concerned with opinions, practices and methods associated with the evaluation of
quality in Sudanese higher education institutes.

The following are definitions of some terms pertaining to quality and improvement of higher education in
the Sudan.

1. Quality: The attainment of research results that satisfy the ambitions of all individuals of the
institution (Eltigani, 2005). The definition includes :
1.The adoption of assessment of the status of the consumer on continuous scale.
2.The helping tools (Eltigani, 2005) which incorporates management:
• How you manage?
• Approaches ( which should be) :
-Sound.
-Rationalized.
-Well defined.
-Focus on stakeholders needs.
-Integrated.

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 3. Leadership: Capable leaders improve the tools for development of the institution. They also raise
institution value through system leading to sustainable development. They utilized the tools by
application of prudent decisions and demonstration of good manners. So, capable leaders can
change the direction of the institution towards the best and influence the others to follow them.

Quality Concept:

It was stated by Elmimi and others (2004) that the classical vision which considers quality as congruency
with specifications is not contemporary because it does not cope with the new ideas which require
detailed recognition of consumer demands and interests. Others see that quality is linked to a group of
properties that characterize certain product which limit its capacity in providing the needs and demands of
consumers (Elmimi et al, 2004).

Total Quality Management in Higher Education:

Total quality management in education means the total efforts produced by workers in the education
discipline for raising the standard of the education product (the student) according to society needs by
applying measures and specifications through the cumulative efforts of all workers in the discipline.

The application of total quality management in higher education requires primary perquisites: the most
important of which is the adoption of the total quality concept by the education authorities, by recognition
of recent successive international alterations in the discipline and, and realizing that total quality is a new
concept leading to reduction financial cost and decreasing educational losses and working towards raising
the capacity and efficiency of the educational system.

We are now living in a world that witnessed the end of the cold war and the dominance of the mona pole
regimme. Today's world is also concerned with globalization as a product of the technology revolution.

The relative change in elements of production resulted in limiting the knowledge in communication
facilities it can also be noted that one of the features of today's world is the decline of public sector
economies and the turn to market economy. All these consequences resulted in movement from an era to
another (Babiker, 2005).

General criteria to describe the standard of Quality and its Control in Sudanese Higher Education
Institutes:

Higher education system in the Sudan since its emergence at the beginning of the twentieth century was
concerned with quality and quality control of education through certain methods and procedures. The
most important of these procedures is that higher education students should be outstanding the in
performance and academic knowledge. University staff members were also selected from first class and
upper second class graduates. This situation continued in University of Khartoum until 1970 when the
two universities of Gezira and Juba were established. University student performance was continuously

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evaluated by visiting professors from European and American institutes. Then the deterioration began and
was aggravated gradually till the beginning of 1990 decade where a great degree of collapse has taken
place. On the other hand the number of universities has increased to 43 higher education institutes
(appendix1). Deterioration has occurred due to the big number of new student admissions and poor
financial support.

Now it is high time to improve the academic and professional status of university staff members. A
training centre, for improving the skills of the staff-members, was established in 1987 under the auspices
of the Vice Chancellor of University of Khartoum and later, in 1992, the centre became part of the
Faculty of Education of the same university. The training centre acquired the name: "Centre for Staff
Performance Promotion". The task of this centre is training the staff members in professional, educational
and research fields, besides providing society services and consultancies (Babiker, 2005).

On the other side, in order to promote the university staff member and the teaching style there
must be certain incentives in the form of participation in scientific conferences and membership
in specialized periodicals.

Higher education in the Sudan is characterized by expansion of higher education institutes to

remote areas in the country (including the Southern, Northern, Eastern and Western States). The
total number of higher education institutes is now more than 40 (Appendix 1). This great leap
was faced by shortages in infrastructure and educational facilities. Also this increase in the
number of institutes is accompanied by shortage in staff members (Table 1).

There is no doubt that expansion in higher education is advantageous, and its advantage is
reflected in preserving seats in higher education institutes for most of students who attained the
pass mark in Sudan School Certificate examination and there is another advantage which is
promoting the environment of places where the university is established providing services to the
local society.

Table (1) The number of staff members in nine higher education institutes in the Sudan
(1996/1997)

Name of Institute # of Staff Members Total

Teaching Lecturer Assistant Associate Prof.

Assistant Prof. Prof.

University of Khartoum 320 188 294 274 84 1160

Sudan University of Sci.& 153 66 63 60 6 748

Tech.

Nilain University 38 39 42 20 4 163

University of Gezira 144 90 92 89 38 453

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University of Juba 122 80 37 25 7 272

Zaiem Azhari University 8 17 20 7 6 58

Wadi Elnil University 58 66 26 21 5 176

Shendi University 15 26 35 1 2 79

Dongola University 13 53 20 6 2 94

Also the expansion in Sudan’s higher education institutes resulted in increasing the numbers of
university graduates.

Table (2): The number of graduates in six universities for the years 1974/1977, 1985/1986 and
1996/1997.

Name of University # of graduates

1974/1975 1985/4986 1996/1997*

University of Khartoum 1445 1552 1561

Omdurman Islamic University 113 445 2456

University of Juba - 99 311

University of Gezira - 148 932

KTI (SUST) - 702 4806

University of Cairo (Elnilain University) 1016 3491 2632

Source: Reports of National Centre for Research.

*Higher Education Revolution

kTI= Khartoum Technical Institute.

SUST= Sudan University of Science and Technology.

Recommendations for Improving the Status of Higher Education in the Sudan:

A. The importance of scientific research implies the creation of the past of state minister for
scientific research, one of his responsibilities is recruitment of financial support.
Moreover be will undertake the task of making links with national and international
universities with the aim of improvement of education. In addition to planning and

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 coordination in the general domain without interfering in the academic independence of
the universities (Tingari, 2005).

B. There is a necessity of revising the regulations and acts and fundamentals of university
systems according to rules and limitations. The university should enjoy freedom of
movement and decision making.

C. Revising the structure and the responsibilities of higher educational funding authorities
for directing most its efforts towards non-governmental support.

Monetary Resources:

The element of money is important and plays a great role in support and improvement of
scientific research, so the responsibility of making the budget should be undertaken by the
manager of research institute or his successors. That is because the manager is considered the
most able person to display the programmes and defend the suggested items and recruit money
from the ministry of finance for support of research studies. And because the universities are
existing under the umbrella of higher education , it because suitable to allocate a limited amount
of money for each of higher education and scientific research (Tingari, 2002).

It would also be possible to widen higher education resource chances through the following:

1. Make the affluent studies pay handsome instruction fees and giving loans to needy
students to be refunded later after graduation and take a percentage of the collected
money for support scientific research.

2. Issuing of decisions by the higher legal authority for the achievement of:

a. Legalization of higher education tax/ scientific research, on exports and imports of

consumptive goods.

b. A ward of tax exemption for companies and industries that support scientific
research.

3. Allocation of part of Zakat revenues for development of scientific research, if it is not

contradictable to shari’a low.

4. Award facilities to the universities for construction of investment units and encourage the
monetary banks to assist unconditioned funding.

5. Direction of research studies towards solving problems of investment bodies on the basis
that the investment units support the research institute.

6. Availing scientific and technical consultancy for official and private institutes as paid
feasibility studies.

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Infrastructure:

Maintenance of laboratories and workshops in specialized universities should receive short term
priorities, in addition to libraries in both academic and technical sectors.

Staff Members:

a) Encouragement and giving them monetary incentives.

b) Staff training on making research proposals according to internationally standard format,
in the form of satisfactory layout and recruitment of funding and sympathy. The
constituents of the research proposal should be clear.
c) Commitment to pay research cost, including the publication services.

Technicians:

Their activities should be directed towards the professional aspect so as to benefit from their
qualifications. Their living conditions should be improved and they should receive adequate
training.

Suggestions for Cooperation with other scientific organizations and institutions:

It includes cooperation and participation in the field of research on individual and institutional
levels.

a) Individual cooperation:
Availing the chance for staff members to cooperate their counter staff in other higher
education institutes, and research centres and national and international organizations. The
university must provide the participating staff member with adequate financial assistance to
cover travel and lodging expenses.

b) Institutional cooperation:
This is in the form of twinning with universities and signing agreements with foreign
universities and executing programmes for the benefit of staff members, as it was for
individual level.

It should be born in mind that the education process begins at an early age of the individual
and continues up to the level of post-university education. Thus it is a must to call for the
revision all the education stages that precede higher education.

References:

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 - Tigani, E.M. 2005. Quality of Post –graduate Education. Workshop on Issues of
Postgraduate Education. Graduate College, Sudan Univ. Sci. Tech. Khartoum , January
2005.

- Tingari, M. 2003. Higher Education and its role in scientific development, planning and
reformation and development and society innovation.

- Abu Shaiba, E.2005. Higher Education and Scientific Research objectives in Jamahiria –
Higher Education Workshop Graduate College, Sudan University of Science and
Technology.

- Babiker, A.A. and Elzind, W.K. 2004. Assessment and Accreditation in Higher
Education. The Bases, Concept models and Experience – Higher Corporation for
Assessment and Accreditation: (1) Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research,
Khartoum, Sudan.

- Reports of National Centre for Research, Ministry of Science and Technology. Sudan.

- Abdallah, A.A. 2005. Requirements of Higher Education Workshop of issues of Higher

Education, Khartoum, Sudan.

- Elmimi et al (2004). Detached from Abdallah (2005), Quality in Palestinian Universities:

Procedures and Practices. Quds Open University. Ram allah, Palestine

- Makkawi, A. 2005. Modern Concept of Higher Education Higher, Higher Education

Workshop, Khartoum, Sudan.

Appendix

Number of Students Enrolled in Higher Education Institutes (Sudan) 74/75, 85/86, 96/97

Institute 74/75 85/86 96/97

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University of Khartoum 7252 8414 16352

Omdurman Islamic University 1016 3278 33347

Nailain University 10939 18394 15937

Sudan University of Science and Technology 1604 3329 19485

Juba University - 1602 2381

Gezira University - 935 12409

Quran Kareem University - - 14066

Zaiem Azhari University - - 1922

University of Shendi - - 1566

Wadi Elnil University - - 4536

Dongola University - - 1056

Red Sea University - - 1267

University of Kassala - - 2537

University of Gedarif - - 1007

University of Sinnar - - 1393

Imam Mahadi University - - 479

Kordofan University - - 1849

Dalang University - - 1217

Elfashir University - - 1245

Nyala University - - 975

Zalingei University - - 484

Upper Nile University - - 506

Bahr Elghzal University - - 601

Ahfad (Girls) - - 741

Omdurman Ahlyia - - 14465

College of Computer Science - - 1266

Elnasr College - - 2715

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Khartoum applied Tech. - - 491

Aviation Science - - 565

Africa University College - - 564

College of Tech. Sci. - - 1169

Bahri Ahlya College - - 74

Wad Medani Ahlya - - 505

Med. Sci. Tech. College - - 136

Porsudan Ahlya - - 476

Khartoum Tech. College - - 656

Elsharq Ahlya - - 3791

Sudan University College for Girls - - 731

Higher Institute for Banking Studies. - - 1551

Sharq Elnil College - - 2791

International African University - - 1445

Institute of Arabic Language - - 96

Total 10812 35952 171477

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