Governance Practices in Zimbabwean Public Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

This conceptual paper sought to cross-examine the enactment of governance practices in public higher education institutions. The discussion was guided by qualitative content analysis approach with the view to provide a rich and thick inquiry into the issue. In this context, 60 articles, which met the inclusion conditions were purposively sampled and later on interrogated through content analysis. The discussion noted that governance as a concept had various definitions depending on the context. In addition, in public higher education institutions, there are governance policies, and procedures guiding institutional activities. In the same context relationship between stakeholders and public higher education institutions guided by a systems of governance practices. However, the implementation of these in public higher education institutions with the view to achieving the set was hindered by multi-faceted challenges. Therefore, this draws interest to several issues related to how effective are the public higher education institutions’ operational mechanisms, and the effective use of both the human, financial and infrastructural resources in the interest of the relevant stakeholders. Thus, Zimbabwe’s public higher education institutions are employing rudimentary governance practices to advance substantial implementation of set goals, as far as the "Heritage-Based Education 5.0" doctrine was concerned.