Response Note to Dar es Salaam Stimulus Paper: Maseru

Lesotho is a small country, with a population of approximately 2 million, surrounded by South Africa.  It’s current ranking on the HDI is 141 out of 175 countries.  Its priorities and concerns are similar to those of Tanzania, although the rural population constitutes more than 60% of the total population and Maseru City is a relatively small urban area with no other cities in the country.

The National University of Lesotho (NUL) is based in a large village approximately 35 kilometres from Maseru.  However, NUL does have a satellite campus in Maseru called IEMS (Institute of Extra Mural Studies) which is regarded as the outreach arm of the university.  Four other, even smaller satellite campuses are based in some of the remote rural regions.  IEMS recently invited university wide academics, and external agencies, including NGOs, business and ministries to a stakeholder discussion meeting to discuss how the university could engage more collaboratively with government and external agencies for national development.

The actual participants included postgraduate students, academics and a small number of external agencies, such as World Vision.  There was no ministerial representation, though the sponsors of the event, a bank, participated.  In the course of the discussions it emerged that the university is perceived quite negatively by the government because its ‘critical perspective’ comes across as simply critical of government.  It was suggested that the university should market itself more positively to the nation, through various media, and that more concerted efforts should be made to encourage positive dialogue with government ministries.

The prospect of the university contributing to the notion of a learning city, therefore, is quite remote at this point in time.  Before the university can be perceived as a positive force for development it has to market itself and assess to what extent it is a role model of learning in its own right.  In other words, we have a long way to go in building up relationships with relevant stakeholders before we can implement action plans for engagement with policy makers and politicians.  Individual, face to face meetings are the suggested next step, in order to build up, one-by-one, a cohort of interested champions at strategic points in the university, government and other agencies.