Nilza César

Participatory Assessment of Development at Eduardo Mondlane University: 1976-2011

Higher education in Mozambique has been affected by totally different ideologies since 1962. Between 1962 and 1974, the first higher education system was based on the colonial ideology. When the Portuguese colonial regime last, in 1975, the Government of the newly independent nation adopted a Marxist-Leninist ideology in order to achieve development, construct an egalitarian society and remediate the social inequalities inherited from the colonial period. In late 1980s, the government’s ideology shifted towards a more liberal constitution which included democracy and free market principles. During these three periods, the existing higher education system and the only higher education institution – Eduardo Mondlane University - experienced remarkable changes. As part of research profile Participatory Assessment of Development at Eduardo Mondlane University: 1976-2011 Nilza will focus on the changes and the factors and agents influenced the changes and how these changes and the actors are perceived by the University community and its external stakeholders. The research is supervised by Prof. Dr. A. J. Ton Dietz, African Sudies Centre - Leiden University, and co-supervised by Dr. Jos Walenkamp, Lector International Cooperation - The Hague University of Applied Sciences and Prof. dr. Patricio Langa, Faculty of Education - Eduardo Mondlane University.

The aim of Nilza’s research and dissertation is to identify the factors that have both positively and negatively influenced the development of the Eduardo Mondlane University on the academic, administrative and management structure and functioning from 1976 to 2011. This will be done applying qualitative research design, and using a methodology that comprises a participatory assessment of the development (PADev).  The PADev approach will be used as an alternative approach to get the full picture of the development and change in this particular Higher Education Institution, allowing the internal collaborators identifying the development initiatives resulting from the aid interventions’ taking place within the institution, as well as the main actors and their roles. As an evaluation study it also attempts to measure the impact of the changes on the surroundings to better inform decision making and in this regard the results from the study will be compared with the results from the external evaluation on the development initiatives.