1. Hemorrhaging Brains: Implications
of Massification to Identification and
Retention of Intellectual Talent in
HEIs.
Dr. Michael wainaina
Graduate school
Kenyatta university,
Nairobi, kenya.
2. Introduction – A confession, a Question and
Trivia
Confession: I support strategies for securing equity
in access and success in Higher Education
Question: When it comes to academics and
intellectual endowment, are all men equal?
Trivia…
3. Who is it?
He immigrated to the United States from Russia at the age
of six. He earned his undergraduate degree at the
University of Maryland. After graduation, he moved to
Stanford to acquire a Ph.D in computer science. There he
met Larry Page, with whom he later became friends. They
crammed their dormitory room with inexpensive
computers and applied his data mining system to build a
superior search engine. The program became popular at
Stanford and they dropped out of their PhD studies to
start up Google in a rented garage.
4. Who is it Cont’d
He majored in business administration at Howard
University, producing weekly dance parties and running an
airport shuttle service while attending classes. He
dropped out to pursue an internship at Uptown Records,
which led to a talent director position. In 2002, he was
named one of the 40 Richest People Under 40 by Fortune
magazine. With a current estimated net worth of over $300
million, he has become something of an American icon and,
against all odds, one of the country's most successful
entrepreneurs.
5. Who is it…Cont’d
He started his first computer company as a student at
the University of Texas at Austin. His grandparents
helped fund the company, and he dropped out of
college to run his company, PC’s Limited. PC’s
Limited ultimately became Dell, Inc.
6. Who is it…Cont’d
He developed Facebook in his school dorm. Now it
has become one of the world’s most popular social
networking site. As Facebook's popularity exploded,
he chose to drop out and relocated his company to
California. According to Forbes, he is the youngest
billionaire in the world, with a 2010 net worth of 4
billion U.S. dollars.
7. Who is it…
Writer, comedian, film director and actor, he is an
American icon and a New York legend who has been
influencing art and cinema since the 1960s. Known
as a neurotic intellectual, he began his comedic
career at just 16, when he began writing. He attended
New York University, but was eventually
expelled.
8. •What is it about
Universities that
makes it difficult
for geniuses to
survive and
thrive…Do we
even know that
they were ever
there?
What is the
lesson of
civilization that
the University
never taught us?
9. What is the Mandate of the University in
Knowledge Production Agenda
Identification, Training and Retaining of Intellectual
Talent – Attracting and retaining the best brains of
each generation– Not loosing it!
The University has self-serving and practical reasons
to identify, train and retain the best intellectual
talent of every generation – they need it for their
own survival
10. What are the trends in HE in this Region?
Massification- As a result of Increased Access
Managerialism – As a result of demands to
increase and manage HEI’s revenues efficiently and
manage massification
11. Massification
Trends:
◦ Willing (able) buyer - willing seller approach to financing
education (It used to be that if you are intellectually
gifted, you will go to the University at the state’s cost)
◦ Now, if you are marginally gifted, you can access
university education that you can pay for!
◦ There is no guarantee that intellectually gifted people
will find their way into the University, and chances are
that they will not be missed.
◦ If they make it, they find themselves in a mass of HE
seekers with varied motivations, few of which have to do
with academic excellence.
12. Managerialism as both Cause and Solution to
Massification
Managerialism as Cause
There has been a move in HEI’s to push for the maximum
economic efficiency and value-for-money, on the
assumption that the increased productivity and wealth that
are generated will ensure the welfare of all
In this view, the higher education policies are oriented
towards political economic wisdom; cost recovery
Curricula is being oriented to perceived labor-market
demands, and there is infusion of the culture of business
into university management
13. Managerialism As Solution
Education is a business and that institutions offering
the programs are in a ‘competitive marketplace’ in
which their survival depends upon their attracting
sufficient customers.
With increased enrollment , we need more of
managerialist approaches to manage the increased
student numbers!
We are so concerned with the fate of the masses we
have enrolled that the minority intellectually gifted
have been left to fend for themselves!
14. The Gifted - What is the most difficult part of climbing the
ladder?
15. What should University “outputs” be?
Universities are not judged by the number of
students they enroll or even graduate!!
They are judged by the quantity and quality of
research output both in terms of scientific papers,
products, patents, Nobel winners among others
How is Africa doing in this regard? Nobel winners?
17. Territory size shows the proportion of all
scientific papers published in 2001 written
by authors living there.
18. This map shows the growth in scientific research
of territories between 1990 and 2001. If there was
no increase in scientific publications that territory
has no area on the map.
19. Territory size shows the proportion
all patents worldwide that were
granted there..
20. Territory size shows the proportion
of new book titles published, that
were published there.
21. Territory size shows the proportion of
worldwide research and development
employees working there.
23. Obama’s tribute to Steve Jobs
“Steve was among the greatest of American
innovators –
brave enough to think differently,
bold enough to believe he could change the
world,
and talented enough to do it.
24. The Gifted – A marginalized Population
Characteristics of the Gifted
They generally possess a persistent intellectual curiosity along
with superior abilities to reason, generalize, and problem
solve.
They often display a wide range of interests and the
perseverance to develop one or more of these interests to
considerable depth.
Many set high standards for themselves and enjoy intellectual
challenge.
They show initiative, originality, and/or flexibility in thinking
with the ability to consider problems from a number of
viewpoints.
25. Characteristics of the gifted cont’d
Are keen observers and are generally responsive to
new ideas.
They often show social poise or an ability to
communicate with adults in a mature way
My argument is that in the face of massification and
managerialism, this group needs special academic
and social support for identification, completion and
retention…(As opposed to Identification, retention
and completion for the regulars)
26. Myths about the Gifted Students
(…And why they need academic and social support?)
Gifted students
do not need help. If they are really gifted they can
manage on their own.
have fewer problems than others because their
intelligence and abilities somehow exempt them
from the hassles of daily life.
their future is assured – a world of opportunities
awaits.
are self-directed; they know where they are heading.
their social and emotional development is at the
same level as their intellectual development.
27. they are nerds and social isolates.
Their primary value lies in their brain power.
Their family always prizes their abilities.
They can accomplish anything they put their
minds to.
They are naturally creative and do not need
encouragement.
They are easy to raise and a welcome addition to
any classroom.
28. Why do they need Social and Academic Support
They get bored with routine tasks.
Resist changing away from interesting topics or activities,
or disagree vocally with others.
They may be overly critical of themselves or others,
impatient with failure, and perfectionistic.
They may tend to ignore details, turning in messy work or
reject authority, be non-conforming, and stubborn.
gifted students often have a tendency to be highly
sensitive to environmental stimuli such as lights and
noises, which they have difficulty tuning out.
29. Why do they need academic and social
support?
Gifted students may experience heightened
sensitivity to their own expectations and those of
others, resulting in guilt over achievement or
grades perceived to be low.
Gifted students exhibit asynchronous development
– their chronological age, social, physical,
emotional, and intellectual development may all be
at different levels.
Gifted students are problem solvers who benefit
from working on open-ended, interdisciplinary
problems.
30. Gifted students often think abstractly and with such
complexity that they may need help with concrete
study and test-taking skills. For example, they may not
be able to select one answer on a multiple choice
question because they see possibilities in all choices.
Gifted students may be so far ahead of their peers
that they know more than half the curriculum
before the semester begins. Their boredom can
result in low achievement and poor grades.
31. Strategies for Academic and Social Support for
the intellectually gifted
My position is that in the face of massification in
African Universities , talent development cannot be
an ad hoc affair and it is too important to be left
entirely to the professoriate (it self under pressure
from massification), departments and faculties
“Intellectual Resources and Talent Management”
Units need to be established alongside those that
exist to support equity, access and success
These should be charged with the responsibility of
setting up mechanisms of identifying and supporting
intellectually talented individuals to “be all they can
be”…we don’t even know what!!
32. Example…of Haemorrhage
Kenyatta University Graduate School regulations
allow exceptional students admitted for masters
degree to have their registration changed to a
doctorate degree provided the candidate has shown
exceptionally good progress in their research
90,000 (30% of all who sit exams qualify), 30,000
get admitted and it used to be less than
10,000…about 10% of the 30%)
Yet not a single time has this regulation been
activated in the last 25 years!!
33. What are the dangers of not having these support
systems?
The gifted will dropout of college…what happens to them
when they do? What happened to the Steve Jobs who never
became Steve Jobs?
Those who finish will join everyone else in what everyone else
does…
The Universities will suffer from intellectual anemia…when all
we have to work with is everyone else
We shall never know what we lost…we know what happened
to those of us who finished college
…none of us became Steve Jobs!!
Their marginalization undermines the knowledge economy –
If we are in the knowledge economy, our most valuable
resource are brains and more so the best brains
