UB owns up to poor work conditions

The University of Botswana Council has finally conceded that low salaries and poor conditions of service have led to a serious brain drain at the institution.

Over the years, the UB has lost staff and failed to attract and retain staff at various levels of the academic and technical cadre. Most of the staff who turned down offers or resigned in the middle of their contracts cited poor salaries; tenure conditions, immigration issues (work permits and residence permits) and high teaching loads.

The lengthy immigration processes and seemingly, the inability of UB to influence such processes to support its programmes undermined morale among expatriate staff. The entrance of other universities and research institutions such as Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) and Botswana Institute for Technology Research and Innovation (BITRI) has left UB crippled, as these recruited from the institution. A total of 10 top academics from the Faculty of Engineering, including its Dean, Joseph Chuma left for BIUST last year. An issue paper that Faculty Appointments, Promotions and Reviews Committee (FAPRC) addresses to UB Vice Chancellor, Thabo Fako warns that if UB does not implement extraordinary measures to stem the tide, the staff movements will continue unabated.

It contends that at a strategic level, this heightens competition in staff and student recruitment between Faculty of Engineering and Technoloy (FET) and well-resourced institutions. Both BIUST and BITRI pay over 40 percent more than FET and have competitive conditions of work. The paper attributes FET’s inability to recruit and retain staff at various levels of the academic and technical cadre to poor salaries, tenure conditions, immigration issues and a high teaching load. BITRI recruited eight senior academics from both FET and Botswana College of Agriculture (BCA), a division of the UB, last year.

BITRI currently has 43 employees, with some expected to report in the coming months as they have to serve notice with their current employers. Spokesperson Lesego Agang says the entity is on a recruitment drive to secure expertise that will deliver on its technology research and innovation mandate. “We will continue to recruit expertise that will enable us to do research in identified areas to address national needs, and over time the numbers may be about 150 employees,” she said. Botswana Guardian has it on good record that the UB Council has approved proposals made by the Senate that looked into efforts to improve conditions of service at the institution after a meeting it held last December.

UB Spokesperson Mhitshane Reetsang was cagey with details when approached for comment. She could only state that the Council was looking at best ways to recruit, retain and improve staff morale at UB. She admitted to losing staff to other institutions. “Though 2014 wasn’t the worst year, we felt the pinch. New institutions employed from us,” she said. This paper has learned that the Senate proposed an 8 percent salary hike. An average lecturer at UB earns a monthly salary of P16 975 (at entry level) while a top lecturer earns P29 164. The highest paid lecturer at the institution takes home P39 404, 00, which is 40 percent lower than salaries at both BITRI and BIUST. The other complaint by UB academic staff is lack of accommodation.

Out of approximately 3000 staff members, the university can only accommodate around 100 of its staff at its staff houses in Kgale and Village in Gaborone. The houses are rented at market price. The rest of the staffers are expected to go on a house-hunting mission. “Normally, the houses are reserved for expatriates but it has since changed as they are also expected to look for their own accommodation,” says a source. The proposed changes, which are expected to be implemented before the end of the current academic year, have been submitted to the ministries of finance and development, and education and skills development. It was also agreed international benchmarking would be carried out on comparative salary scales across other universities. It is expected the outcome will be more equitable salary packages across the board.

In 2010/2011, UB registered the highest number of fail and discontinue with about 600 failing dismally. An analysis of the job adverts for the five years, from 2008 to 2012 revealed a large number of unfilled lecturer; senior lecturer and professor posts. For example, there were 10 advertised posts in 2008, most of which were at the level of professor. In 2009, the number of adverts grew to 13 professors, 23 in 2010 and 33 in 2011. In 2012, there were 176 vacant posts.