Contextual analyses of Open and Distance Learning policies in Malawi: Towards the reconstruction of distance education policies in public universities

Abstract

This contextual study aimed to analyse the open, distance and e-learning (ODeL) landscape in Malawi in terms of its current state and guiding policies based on best global practices. It also attempted to explain and understand how the knowledge, attitudes and practices of university staff play out in the implementation and success of ODeL in Malawi. Using qualitative research design, especially descriptive phenomenology and discourse analysis, mainly through literature analyses and lived experiences of the researcher, as suggested by Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger (1913), this study established that ODeL in Malawi, although it is a relatively new construct within higher education institutions (HEIs) contexts, was making significant strides amidst staid challenges. Despite the increased adoption of ODeL by learning institutions and society, the study also established that HEIs in Malawi were offering ODeL without any national or institutional ODeL policies as the available ones were still in their base forms. This is contrary to the recommendations by the SADC and UNESCO ROSA 2020 studies, which urged African governments and their respective HEIs to design and harmonise their ODeL policies based on the continental (African Union/AU), regional (SADC) and national ODeL policies, which will eventually ensure that ODeL offerings and qualifications are credible, transferable and harmonised to minimise replications and disparities. Such policies would also help in the credit transfer systems for ODeL graduates while restoring public trust. This study further demonstrated that the available draft policies were not only inconsistent but also bleak and unstructured, due to a lack of relevant knowledge by the framers and dogmatic institutional policies. Precisely, it further established that, in Malawi, three universities had unratified draft ODeL policies while the other three did not have any policies other than generic policies designed for face-to-face institutions. This reality exposed ODeL students and graduates to epistemological injustices and harms, both within and without the university spaces. It is finally recommended that HEIs should expedite the process of developing and enhancing their ODeL draft policies since universities are now being compelled to increase student enrolments every year through ODeL against limited funding from the state. This reality has further driven universities into pursuing business-like models aimed at generating income for running their institutions as well as self-sustenance, mainly through commodification of knowledge. This paper then calls for custom-made policies that will regulate ODeL processes, practices and offerings, to ensure that students receive equitable and epistemologically just education.