Title: Higher education challenges for public universities in Mauritius

Authors: Randhir Roopchund

Addresses: Université des Mascareignes, Beau Plan, Pamplemousses, Mauritius

Abstract: The research paper seeks to unravel some of the higher education challenges and opportunities with the wave of globalisation and internationalisation in the Mauritian context. The country ambitions to be an education hub such as Malaysia and consequently, it is important to assess opportunities and challenges for policy decisions. A qualitative approach has been used for the purpose for this research with the use of focus group study with key stakeholders in the higher education sector. The study also makes use of the Quality Audit Reports conducted by the Tertiary Education Commission to synthesise the key challenges. Reference is also made to global education reports and to successful educational hubs for purposes of comparison. The research findings emphasise the importance of effective human resource strategies, need to improve teaching and research quality and also the need to bolster the existing quality assurance system. There is also increasing emphasis on the use of technology in the higher education learning environment such as the learning management system. The research emphasises the impact of globalisation on higher education which drives the need for a market-oriented and student centred approach to global education. The main limitation is that the results may not be generalised and that it is specific to the Public universities in Mauritius.

Keywords: higher education; challenges; public universities; quality audit and opportunities; TEC; Mauritius; Africa; internationalisation; globalisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIE.2019.100401

International Journal of Management in Education, 2019 Vol.13 No.3, pp.205 - 217

Received: 06 Jun 2018
Accepted: 06 Aug 2018
Published online: 28 Jun 2019 *

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