Dwindling Student Funding Forces Limko To Retrench Staff
Correspondent | Monday January 23, 2017 17:37
This, according LUCT, is due to a significant and sustained decline in student enrolment sfaced by the entire tertiary education sector in Botswana mainly due to the low number of sponsored students by the main client, Government. In a statement by their public relations and communications consultant Mercy Thebe, the University also adds that recent graduation of students as well as declining numbers of senior secondary school pupils who fail to meet the selection criteria of higher education institutions to attract DTEF funding, have also continued to add to the declining numbers of new enrolments. The exercise has affected 52 members of staff, made up of 16% locals and 23% expatriates, and was completed before the beginning of 2017 classes.
However in the statement she assures parents and stakeholders that the business of the University will not be adversely affected by this exercise. “Classes and operations will continue as normal and the remaining staff are not only adequate in terms of numbers, but also competent in terms of retained skills and expertise to deliver the on-going mandate of the University,” the statement reads in part.
The statement put into perspective for the first time the struggles of a local University in a financially constrained environment stating that the problems had been precipitating since 2014, when local Universities including Limkokwing experienced drastic drop in enrolment of new students.
Putting the problem into perspective Thebe says in 2013, the University had a total of 7,247 students and employed staff numbers consistent with the needs of such a student community. As of 2015, however the University had a total of 3,800 students a more than 52% drop while its staff complement remained at the levels conducive for serving a 7,247 student size. By 2016, the enrolment of new students had dropped further to 3,142 still with the same staff complement. Expecting a further drop in the number of new enrolments in 2017 the University says they had no option but to bring the number of their staff complement to the reality on the ground after notifying the Commissioner of Labour before the initiation of the retrenchment process; served notices of the intention to retrench to the employees. The University says where practicably reasonable to do so, they applied the “First-in - Last-out”, principle taking into consideration the efficient running of the University and the ability, experience, qualifications, redundancy of programmes and skills of the employees.
“The University has engaged in a consultation process with the employees including two staff meetings, one in early December, and one post Christmas as follows; invited staff to contribute suggestions to address the challenges facing the University in terms of surplus personnel.”