Dr Collins Mudogo
This week takes me back several years ago, when it was our time to join campus. I noted several differences between then and now.
Then, very few of us got the chance to join a university. The cut-off points were high: 70+ was no mean feat. This, coupled with the fact that there were very few universities, meant that if one happened to score a university entry grade, it called for a village celebration. Local dancers and the church would come together to celebrate and bless such a great achievement.
Today, almost every household has a young person joining university or college. Such a milestone has become so common that not many people are particularly concerned about a neighbour’s son or daughter joining campus. The best we do is post a WhatsApp status with the caption, “My son or daughter just joined university.” A few contacts like it, while the majority wonder why we posted our son or daughter for them to see.
Those days, a harambee would be organised by the church, local leaders or teachers to support such a young person to acquire the knowledge needed to come back and help solve problems in society. In my own harambee to help me join university, we managed to get Sh5,000. For this, I remain indebted to my fellow villagers and the church. Were it not for their support, I wouldn’t have made it to university.
These days, harambees are not common. For the common “mwananchi”, a Fuliza here, a Hustler Fund there, and with the plethora of mobile loan options available, we are able to raise funds and take our children to university. For the rich, education policies work well.
The university admission process has also changed. I remember the paperwork we had to do. We were required to acquire signatures and stamps from the village elders, Commissioner of Oaths, guarantors and chiefs. If you were a mischievous boy, that was the time for the area chief to give you the sternest of warnings. On the admission day, parents had to hire 14-seater matatus or buses and together with siblings and villagers, the admission journeys would start at 2am.
If you were placed in a certain university, course or faculty by the Joint Admissions Board, it was so difficult to change. Many comrades who were admitted to courses that they did not want tried all they could, including getting letters from their local administrators, but very few succeeded in transferring to their preferred courses. These days, admission, accommodation, choice of courses and most of the other things are done online with a lot of ease.
Most significantly, I now hold the belief that, back then, the university was meant to generate thinkers and philosophers, and not really solvers of practical problems. While I remain excited about the moments I spent in the Library and the A’s that I used to score on campus, resulting in a first-class honours degree, I asked myself why some of the units I did were, or could still be, important.
I sampled four units that were compulsory, common and exciting then: BCS 114: World Civilisation; PHL 209: Feministic Philosophy; BAS 302: Nationalism and the African States; and BAS 402: History of Science. I believe these units were made common and compulsory for a reason. Such units are still important for producing well-rounded individuals with wider thinking capacities and the ability to understand social, political and economic issues. Perhaps that is why some graduate millennials are good with philosophical memes on social platforms.
However, times have changed and the demands placed on a university or college graduate should change with them. We still need thinkers, but we now need thinkers who can turn knowledge into solutions. AI offers precisely that opportunity. This is a tool we did not have during our time in university, and I can only imagine what we could have done with such an opportunity to interrogate ideas, analyse problems and turn knowledge into practical solutions.
Artificial intelligence has become a real game changer. All industries are either already applying, or will soon be applying, AI for efficiency, precision, predictions, cost-effectiveness and reaching clients with goods and services. The application of AI should now be considered a common course in all disciplines, if not, it should be provided as an elective so that interested students from any discipline can pursue it.
If you are joining campus this week to pursue any discipline, at whatever level – degree, diploma or certificate – learn how to apply AI in your discipline and equip yourself with the skills needed to remain relevant and competitive in the evolving world of work.
Welcome to campus, comrades.
Dr Collins Mudogo is an NIH Insight Fogarty Postdoctoral Fellow with interests in digital health and Application of AI in Public Health.
