Dr. Michael wainaina Graduate school Kenyatta university, Nairobi, kenya. Hemorrhaging Brains: Implications of Massification to Identification and Retention of Intellectual Talent in HEIs.
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Oct 21, 2014
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Dr. Michael wainainaGraduate school
Kenyatta university,Nairobi, kenya.
Hemorrhaging Brains: Implications of Massification to Identification and
Retention of Intellectual Talent in HEIs.
Introduction – A confession, a Question and Trivia
Confession: I support strategies for securing equity in access and success in Higher Education
Question: When it comes to academics and intellectual endowment, are all men equal?
Trivia…
Who is it?
He immigrated to the United States from Russia at the age of six. He earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland. After graduation, he moved to Stanford to acquire a Ph.D in computer science. There he met Larry Page, with whom he later became friends. They crammed their dormitory room with inexpensive computers and applied his data mining system to build a superior search engine. The program became popular at Stanford and they dropped out of their PhD studies to start up Google in a rented garage.
Who is it Cont’d
He majored in business administration at Howard University, producing weekly dance parties and running an airport shuttle service while attending classes. He dropped out to pursue an internship at Uptown Records, which led to a talent director position. In 2002, he was named one of the 40 Richest People Under 40 by Fortune magazine. With a current estimated net worth of over $300 million, he has become something of an American icon and, against all odds, one of the country's most successful entrepreneurs.
Who is it…Cont’d
He started his first computer company as a student at the University of Texas at Austin. His grandparents helped fund the company, and he dropped out of college to run his company, PC’s Limited. PC’s Limited ultimately became Dell, Inc.
Who is it…Cont’d
He developed Facebook in his school dorm. Now it has become one of the world’s most popular social networking site. As Facebook's popularity exploded, he chose to drop out and relocated his company to California. According to Forbes, he is the youngest billionaire in the world, with a 2010 net worth of 4 billion U.S. dollars.
Who is it…
Writer, comedian, film director and actor, he is an American icon and a New York legend who has been influencing art and cinema since the 1960s. Known as a neurotic intellectual, he began his comedic career at just 16, when he began writing. He attended New York University, but was eventually expelled.
•What is it about Universities that makes it difficult for geniuses to survive and thrive…Do we even know that they were ever there?
What is the lesson of civilization that the University never taught us?
What is the Mandate of the University in Knowledge Production Agenda
Identification, Training and Retaining of Intellectual Talent – Attracting and retaining the best brains of each generation– Not loosing it!
The University has self-serving and practical reasons to identify, train and retain the best intellectual talent of every generation – they need it for their own survival
What are the trends in HE in this Region?
Massification- As a result of Increased Access
Managerialism – As a result of demands to increase and manage HEI’s revenues efficiently and manage massification
Massification
Trends:◦
Willing (able) buyer - willing seller approach to financing education (It used to be that if you are intellectually gifted, you will go to the University at the state’s cost)
◦
Now, if you are marginally gifted, you can access university education that you can pay for!
◦
There is no guarantee that intellectually gifted people will find their way into the University, and chances are that they will not be missed.
◦
If they make it, they find themselves in a mass of HE seekers with varied motivations, few of which have to do with academic excellence.
Managerialism as both Cause and Solution to Massification
Managerialism as CauseThere has been a move in HEI’s to push for the maximum economic efficiency and value-for-money, on the assumption that the increased productivity and wealth that are generated will ensure the welfare of all
In this view, the higher education policies are oriented towards political economic wisdom; cost recovery
Curricula is being oriented to perceived labor-market demands, and there is infusion of the culture of business into university management
Managerialism As Solution
Education is a business and that institutions offering the programs are in a ‘competitive marketplace’ in which their survival depends upon their attracting sufficient customers.
With increased enrollment , we need more of managerialist approaches to manage the increased student numbers!
We are so concerned with the fate of the masses we have enrolled that the minority intellectually gifted have been left to fend for themselves!
The Gifted - What is the most difficult part of climbing the ladder?
What should University “outputs” be?
Universities are not judged by the number of students they enroll or even graduate!!
They are judged by the quantity and quality of research output both in terms of scientific papers, products, patents, Nobel winners among others
How is Africa doing in this regard? Nobel winners?
World map by Population
Territory size shows the proportion of all scientific papers published in 2001 written by authors living there.
This map shows the growth in scientific research of territories between 1990 and 2001. If there was no increase in scientific publications that territory has no area on the map.
Territory size shows the proportion all patents worldwide that were granted there..
Territory size shows the proportion of new book titles published, that were published there.
Territory size shows the proportion of worldwide research and development employees working there.
Who will help change this trend?
Obama’s tribute to Steve Jobs
“Steve was among the greatest of American innovators –
brave enough to think differently,
bold enough to believe he could change the world,
and talented enough to do it.
The Gifted – A marginalized Population
Characteristics of the GiftedThey generally possess a persistent intellectual curiosity alongwith superior abilities to reason, generalize, and problem solve.
They often display a wide range of interests and the perseverance to develop one or more of these interests to considerable depth.
Many set high standards for themselves and enjoy intellectual challenge.
They show initiative, originality, and/or flexibility in thinking with the ability to consider problems from a number of viewpoints.
Characteristics of the gifted cont’d
Are keen observers and are generally responsive to new ideas.
They often show social poise or an ability to communicate with adults in a mature way
My argument is that in the face of massification and managerialism, this group needs special academic and social support for identification, completion and retention…(As opposed to Identification, retention and completion for the regulars)
Myths about the Gifted Students (…And why they need academic and social support?)
Gifted studentsdo not need help. If they are really gifted they can manage on their own.have fewer problems than others because their intelligence and abilities somehow exempt them from the hassles of daily life.their future is assured – a world of opportunities awaits.are self-directed; they know where they are heading.their social and emotional development is at the same level as their intellectual development.
they are nerds and social isolates.
Their primary value lies in their brain power.
Their family always prizes their abilities.
They can accomplish anything they put their minds to.
They are naturally creative and do not need encouragement.
They are easy to raise and a welcome addition to any classroom.
Why do they need Social and Academic Support
They get bored with routine tasks.
Resist changing away from interesting topics or activities, or disagree vocally with others.
They may be overly critical of themselves or others, impatient with failure, and perfectionistic.
They may tend to ignore details, turning in messy work or reject authority, be non-conforming, and stubborn.
gifted students often have a tendency to be highly sensitive to environmental stimuli such as lights and noises, which they have difficulty tuning out.
Why do they need academic and social support?
Gifted students may experience heightened sensitivity to their own expectations and those of others, resulting in guilt over achievement or grades perceived to be low.Gifted students exhibit asynchronous development – their chronological age, social, physical, emotional, and intellectual development may all be at different levels.Gifted students are problem solvers who benefit from working on open-ended, interdisciplinary problems.
Gifted students often think abstractly and with such complexity that they may need help with concrete study and test-taking skills. For example, they may not be able to select one answer on a multiple choice question because they see possibilities in all choices.
Gifted students may be so far ahead of their peers that they know more than half the curriculum before the semester begins. Their boredom can result in low achievement and poor grades.
Strategies for Academic and Social Support for the intellectually gifted
My position is that in the face of massification in African Universities , talent development cannot be an ad hoc affair and it is too important to be left entirely to the professoriate (it self under pressure from massification), departments and faculties
“Intellectual Resources and Talent Management”Units need to be established alongside those that exist to support equity, access and success
These should be charged with the responsibility of setting up mechanisms of identifying and supporting intellectually talented individuals to “be all they can be”…we don’t even know what!!
Example…of Haemorrhage
Kenyatta University Graduate School regulations allow exceptional students admitted for masters degree to have their registration changed to a doctorate degree provided the candidate has shown exceptionally good progress in their research
90,000 (30% of all who sit exams qualify), 30,000 get admitted and it used to be less than 10,000…about 10% of the 30%)
Yet not a single time has this regulation been activated in the last 25 years!!
What are the dangers of not having these support systems?
The gifted will dropout of college…what happens to them when they do? What happened to the Steve Jobs who never became Steve Jobs?Those who finish will join everyone else in what everyone else does…The Universities will suffer from intellectual anemia…when all we have to work with is everyone elseWe shall never know what we lost…we know what happened to those of us who finished college…none of us became Steve Jobs!!Their marginalization undermines the knowledge economy –If we are in the knowledge economy, our most valuable resource are brains and more so the best brains
