How is Academia ERP uprooting the challenges of Higher Education institutes in Zimbabwe? 

Countries in the African continent need to diversify their economies, develop skills, strengthen the education system, and provide professional training to their population. Since the growth of any country is highly dependent on the contribution of human capital, a government must make ample attempts to keep the population abreast with the new trends in the job market and meet the skill needs of the burgeoning industry sectors. For this, every government uses education as a tool to weave the very fabric of the future. And the first step requires it to address the long-standing challenges in its education system to strengthen it and derive desired results.

Talking of Zimbabwe, the country has some huge obstacles to conquer. The investment is limited, there is a shortage of teachers, and soaring high dropout rates. To top this, it is required to make education equitable and reduce the socio-economic divide in the country. Here are a few biggest challenges of higher education institutes in Zimbabwe and how Academia ERP is uprooting them. 

Challenge#1: Expansion of Universities 

At independence, Zimbabwe had only one state university, but the number now has grown to 13. There are eight state universities and four church-run universities. The expansion of the university system in Zimbabwe is mainly in response to the expansion of the primary and secondary education segment in the country. There is a sudden surge in enrollment rates. However, there aren’t many regional universities and academies to support the demand. Hence, the existing facilities are overstretching their facilities and resources — causing a big dent in the student experience at their universities. 

Approximately 300,000 students each year graduate from the secondary education segment and only 18% of students are admitted into higher education institutes. This means around 80% of students are still deprived of higher education and training — reducing their chance of landing a skill-based job and improving their quality of life. 

Academia ERP Solution:

• Multi-centre Capability

The software comes with multi-center capabilities which allow you to manage multiple academies of your organization well. It helps you in setting up the digital infrastructure of newly planned academies. It also provides robust programs and course management, student performance analysis and management, teacher management, resource planning and management, and more. Multi-center capability is one characteristic that would help monitor and manage all the institutes, colleges, and academies in your organization remotely from a single dashboard. Hence, planning and managing your expansion is more profitable and successful.  

• Efficient Management of Admission Phase

Although the enrollment rate in the higher education segment in Zimbabwe is rising, dropout rates also have elevated. Enrolling in a college requires a student to be emotionally, socially, and academically involved in university activities. And since each student is unique and has different aspirations, their innate abilities and expectations must be aligned with the college curriculum and culture. Hence, even though higher education institutes are seeing high enrollments, they are also parallelly fighting dropout rates.

To counter this, you need efficient management of the admission phase. With Academia ERP, you get dedicated features for the pre-admission and admission phases. Using them, you can run marketing campaigns, manage inquiries, track leads, close admissions, generate reports, and so much more. 

It also helps you in assisting a student in making academic choices. This would help you bond with the student better and know them well. This gives you a wider scope to understand if the applicant is the right fit for your campus academically, culturally, and emotionally. These informed choices allow you to choose the right applicant and retain them throughout the student lifecycle. And hence, reduce your big losses due to dropouts.

Challenge#2: Quality Education

The government of Zimbabwe has become very proactive about the quality of education. They sanctioned Council for Higher Education Act in 2006 to monitor the quality of education in higher education institutes. But only some of the universities in the country have a set structure or the tools to provide reports and audit requirements. This makes quality analysis difficult and leaves no scope for the universities to know their pain points and work on them. 

Furthermore, the country has 15.1 million people, but the GDP is only $20.5 billion. It is surprising that a country such as Zimbabwe, with a literacy rate of 90%, has such low GDP and is amongst the poorest countries in the world. One possible reason for this is that the population is not skilled and not ready to meet the changing demands of the global job market. Hence, the education sector is expected to help the nation fight this problem. 

Academia ERP Solution: 

• Programs and Courses Management

For higher education institutes to offer students the skills that are highly demanded in the job market, it is very important to manage the programs and courses in their institute. It is important that they carefully evaluate the curriculum of the courses and make it richer through timely improvements. This would help you evaluate the curriculum better in light of the growing market demand and achieve student success easily. 

• Student Performance Analysis and Management 

One of the ways to evaluate if the quality of education in your institute is high and up to the standards or not is through student performance analysis. Student outcomes, student success, student retention, and other important metrics help you understand if you have a quality-driven curriculum at your institute. Academia ERP offers you granular reports and efficient student performance record management. 

Also, a student’s performance analysis would help you predict if the student is on the verge of dropping out. Hence, before making a decision, you can help them make the right choice and rekindle their interest in skill development and education. 

• Reports and Dashboards

Academia ERP offers a variety of reports and dashboards to provide quantitative and qualitative analysis to regulatory bodies. This would make reporting easy and hence get you a higher accreditation to attract more students to the provided course and programs. 

Challenge#3: Funding 

Most universities in Zimbabwe rely on government funding. However, many higher education institutes in Zimbabwe are underfunded. The salary of academic and non-academic staff is less than other universities when compared in the African continent. Many students from impoverished backgrounds are required to pay their fees. Somewhere, education is becoming reserved for the elite. Government is unable to provide scholarships. Basic resources such as computers, labs, laboratories, etc., are not available in higher education institutions. 

Academia ERP Solution: 

• Reduced operational cost 

All the higher education institutes in Zimbabwe are focusing on reducing their expenses. This can only be done through efficient resource management and implementation. With Academia ERP, you would be able to allocate resources better. It provides you with accurate reports on resources that are free, under maintenance, occupied, etc. This allows you to manage the resources efficiently for them to be utilized better. 

• Financial Management

Most higher education institutions are operating on traditional models. This means a lot of paper-bound operations and manual processing. Many staff and faculty expenses go unnoticed, causing budget mismanagement. Through Academia ERP, you can automate financial management and generate more transparency in operations. You would be able to track transactions and bring down your expenses. 

Way Forward

Although the education sector in Zimbabwe is facing some of the biggest challenges, we must remember that technology has the answer to most of them. If you are looking for a solution that can help you combat some of your institute’s biggest challenges, you can consider Academia ERP. It is an app suite with 30+ modules that helps monitor and manage institute operations. It automates tasks and has helped many institutes reduce their expenses by 33%. We have a presence in 21 countries and 320+ clients — of which Africa University, Zimbabwe is one. If you want to know how we can help you digitally transform, drop us a ‘Hi!’ here.

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