University for Mauritius

Mauritius Times – 60 Years Ago

By Peter Ibbotson

In its programme at the General Election the Labour Party included the demand that a university college (in the first instance) be established in Mauritius. Last June the annual conference of the National Association of Labour Teachers (which is affiliated to the British Labour Party) echoed this demand and passed nem.con. (no-one disagreeing) a resolution, which I had the pleasure to propose asking for a university college in Mauritius.

By its demand, the Labour Party demonstrated its realisation of the vital role that university education has to play in fulfilling Her Majesty’s Government’s policy of promoting self-government on secure economic and social foundations. The Inter-University Council for Higher Education Overseas went so far as to declare in 1955 that students are “among the most precious of the two natural resources of the colonial territories”; and placed squarely on the shoulders of students — the rulers and administrators of the future, as Mr Wilson reminded his hearers at his reception at the Colonial Office last February — the responsibility “whether or not the independent states emerging from the dependent territories will be efficient and stable”.

The Inter University Council was set up in 1946 by the Secretary of State for the Colonies as the central body concerned with the development of university education in the UK dependencies. Its main purpose is to make available to new universities overseas the experience and assistance of the home universities. Since it was set up, universities or university colleges have been founded in Ghana (1948), Nigeria (1948), East Africa (1949), Malaya (1949, by amalgamation of two existing institutions), the West Indies (1949) and Rhodesia (1955). Any university or university college development in Mauritius would obviously have to be guided by this Council.

In every sphere the Council has insisted that “the maintenance of high academic standards must be paramount… the price to be paid for this fundamental decision of aiming at first class universities has been deliberately paid. It has meant that, initially, student numbers are small; that the staff-student ratio is high; that the institutions require very large funds, both capital and recurrent…” In view of this, it is worth looking at comparative figures for the six university institutions referred to above.

It will readily be seen that the highest number of students per staff (therefore the lowest staff-student ratio), and the lowest rate of annual expenditure per student, occur at the university formed from the combination of two old-established institutions — the University of Malaya — while the highest proportion of staff to students occurs at the most recently established university college. Most of the capital expenditure has been met from Colonial Development & Welfare (CD & W) funds; only in Malaya and Nigeria have the local governments contributed substantial capital funds. Indeed, over £12 million have been allocated to university development under the CD & W Acts of 1945, 1950 and 1955. In addition, specific grants have from time to time been made — e.g. £2 million to build and equip hospital in Jamaica to serve as a teaching hospital for the medical school of the University College of the West Indies.

Recurrent expenditure is for the most part met by the local territorial governments which have also helped in setting up endowment funds. The three governments of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanganyika, for example, share the recurrent costs of the University College of East Africa (Makerere College, situated actually in Uganda); the governments of Malaya and Singapore share the recurrent costs of the University of Malaya, which is situated partly in Singapore and partly in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya. However, contributions towards recurrent expenditure have also, in many cases, come from private organisations, which also have helped with endowment funds. The Nigeria Cocoa Marketing Board, for example, has given over £ 1 million to the local university college which has also been helped by the United Africa Company. Rhodesian companies have likewise helped the new university college in Rhodesia. The various colleges have also received generous grants from British and American foundations, for example the Nuffield Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Ford Foundation.

Although it is clear that the financial aspect of establishing a university college in Mauritius is heavy, it is clear also that assistance with the finances is potentially available from various sources, both official and unofficial, inside the Commonwealth and outside it too. Mauritius is a very good customer of Australia; there is good reason to believe that the Government of the Commonwealth of Australia would be helpful with funds if a university college were to be set up. So, probably, would the Government of Canada.

What is taught at the universities and colleges of the colonies? All six referred to above have the following faculties: arts, science, economics, education and agriculture, along with a department of extra-mural studies; except that there is no faculty of agriculture in the West Indies and no department of extra mural studies in Malaya or Rhodesia. There are faculties of law in Ghana and Malaya; of theology in Ghana; of engineering in Nigeria and Malaya; of medicine in Nigeria, East Africa, Malaya and the West Indies; and of fine arts and veterinary science in East Africa. Obviously, therefore, a University College of Mauritius (which would serve the whole Indian Ocean area : Seychelles, Zanzibar, Aden) would have to aim at what one might call the ‘basic faculties of arts, science, education, economics, agriculture and extra mural studies.

The flow of students from Mauritius to universities and colleges in the UK, Ireland, France and India demonstrates that the academic potential of the island is sufficient to provide students in sufficient numbers to justify a university college. Recently I have made the suggestion that a commission of enquiry into education in Mauritius be set up to look closely at secondary education and be given the task also of enquiring into the practicability of establishing a university college, whose satisfactory function would depend in part on the scope of the secondary education provision available in the colony.

6th Year – No 264
Friday 4th September, 1959

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