The Republic of South Sudan has many immediate needs that require attention: building new state institutions, constructing basic infrastructure, natural resources management, food security, health care and basic education. It is uncertain whether developing strong universities will be among the government’s top priorities.
Relocating universities
MOVING BACK | In the current process of moving staff and students from Khartoum the need for training library staff is increasing.
However, there is already one fundament in place. The University of Juba was established in the main southern Sudanese town of Juba in the mid 1970s during a few years’ intermission between civil wars.
In the late 1980s, as a result of the second civil war, the University of Juba moved to Khartoum, 1 200 kilometres to the north. The original campus in Juba fell into disrepair, while the university that was established in Khartoum became one of three southern Sudanese universities in exile in the northern capital.
As a consequence of the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, the three exile universities, namely the Upper Nile University, University of Bahr el Ghazal and University of Juba, once again started the process of relocating, this time back to their original campuses in the south.
Until now, however, the bulk of the study programmes and the majority of students and staff have remained in Khartoum.
Language differences
The language difference between the Arabic-speaking north and the south, where English is the dominant administrative and academic language, is one of the challenges that have hampered the relocation process.
While the three universities are finally changing addresses from Khartoum to the south this year, it remains to be seen how many of the students and staff members will follow. The majority of students and staff at the three southern Sudanese universities in Khartoum did not come from the south but from other parts of the country.
LANGUAGES | The language difference between the Arabic-speaking north and the south, where English is the dominant administrative and academic language, is one of the challenges that have hampered the relocation process.
Most of these “northerners” are expected to stay behind, and plans are being made to establish a new university in Khartoum to look after those who stay. It is highly uncertain if the assets of the three southern universities will be transferred to South Sudan or kept in Khartoum.
The South Sudanese students and staff are likely to relocate anyway. Most of them will come to the booming city of Juba where they will have to face challenges such as scarce and expensive housing and prices that are generally higher than in Khartoum.
European partners
The South Sudanese universities face immense challenges. Where will the many thousand “new” students and staff members be housed? How can the universities fund the construction of new lecture halls, laboratories and libraries?
And if the northern university teachers stay in Khartoum as expected, who will teach the students?
Developing the capacity of the universities in South Sudan is a huge task. Immediate needs in 2011 must be met, but the process of building stronger universities requires a long-term approach.
European universities may prove to be important partners for the aspiring universities of South Sudan.
Norwegian institutions of higher education and research have a long history of successful cooperation with universities in Sudan. After the signing of the CPA, facilitated partly with support from Norway, the Norwegian University Cooperation Programme for Capacity Development in Sudan (NUCOOP) was established by the Norwegian government.
The aim was to support the implementation of the CPA through the development of sustainable capacity in higher education institutions in southern Sudan. The programme is funded by Norad and managed by the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Higher Education (SIU).
VOTED YES | A new independent African state is born. After decades of civil war in Sudan, the people of southern Sudan voted yes to secession from Sudan.
Seven multi-annual projects, as well as some projects for additional funding of infrastructure and research training, are supported in the period 2008–2012. These projects are developed and run as a partnership between higher education institutions in South Sudan and Norway together with Sudanese, regional and international network partners.
The main approaches are training of students at different levels from diploma to PhD, staff training, development of study programmes, collaborative research projects and investments in infrastructure, all within the specific fields of study covered by the projects.
Training library staff
The University of Juba has the largest number of projects among the South Sudanese partners, and one of the supported areas is the university library. Among the prerequisites for a strong university is a university library that can support the research and teaching efforts of the university.
The aim of the NUCOOP funding is to contribute to building a modern university library in Juba and to train library staff for the University of Juba and for other universities in South Sudan.
Norway is also supporting the construction of a new Library and Information Science Training Centre at the University of Juba, which will further facilitate the training of library staff.
In only a couple of years the level of training among library staff at the University of Juba has increased significantly, but a number of staff members are still without any formal training. In the current process of moving staff and students from Khartoum the need for training library staff is increasing.
Female drop-out
Makerere University in neighbouring Uganda is an active partner, and as such the project is facilitating a regional partnership that may prove to be very fruitful for the universities. Library staff from South Sudan are trained in Uganda, and a group of South Sudanese students are pursuing Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees at the East African School of Library and Information Science at Makerere.
Moreover, Makerere is supporting Juba in developing a new distance learning diploma programme in library and information science, particularly targeting South Sudanese women. The number of women among staff at libraries is low, and the project has conducted research on barriers to female education in South Sudan.
A high female drop-out rate in secondary school due to reasons such as early marriage and expulsion from school because of pregnancy means that few girls meet the formal requirements for university admission. Distance education diploma courses will constitute a training opportunity for women who cannot attend university or take up courses at institutions away from home.
Thus the project may help empower South Sudanese women and enhance the gender balance in the higher education sector.
The challenges in South Sudan are immense with a severe lack of infrastructure, a damaged agricultural sector, a desperate need for better healthcare, low completion rates in primary and secondary education and weak universities that are not capable of educating a workforce that can contribute to the development of the emerging African state.
The NUCOOP programme aims to support the higher education institutions in developing themselves. Through collaborative efforts the capacity of the universities can be enhanced. This is fundamental to solving South Sudan’s challenges.
Jan Gunnar Mølstre Simonsen is an adviser at SiU.
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