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Livelihoods situational analysis of UZ female students
Compiled by Professor Rudo Gaidzanwa and Dr Charity Manyeruke, University of Zimbabwe, for the Students Solidarity Trust
February 14, 2011

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Executive Summary

Over the past decade, the Zimbabwean economy and social infrastructure deteriorated to unprecedented levels. The socio-economic meltdown was punctuated by inflation which reached 231 million percent in July 2008 when the Central Statistical Office stopped computing the inflation rate. Other sources such as Hanke (2008) reported inflation rates to have reached 7,96 trillion percent by November 2008. The gross domestic product of Zimbabwe declined by approximately 43% and social services collapsed. It is in this context that this study seeks to examine how the socially disadvantaged and exposed female university students coped with the challenges that affected the tertiary education sector. The objectives of the study are to describe students' experiences during the crises of 2006 to 2010; to examine the strategies students used to cope with the challenges; to investigate students' current experiences with academic life and to examine the coping mechanisms that students are use to deal with their current challenges. The situation of the female university students is specifically examined in order to understand how they, as a particularly disadvantaged group, coped with the economic crisis and its effects on their university education.

The current research employed both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Data were collected using a survey questionnaire and focus group discussions. A total of 91 students at the University of Zimbabwe participated in the study. 59 female students completed the survey questionnaire while 24 female and 8 male students participated in focus group discussions. The researchers made use of purposive and convenient sampling techniques in recruiting research participants. Data from questionnaires were analyzed and coded into SPSS version 17.0, and presented as descriptive data. Analysis of focus group discussions involved compilation of summaries of emerging issues from each sex specific group using the constant comparative technique, a technique that groups similar data to develop major themes.

The analysis of demographic characteristics of the participants revealed that they were fairly distributed according to year of study, with first year students comprising 27.1% of the participants, second year 28.8%, third year and fourth year 32.2% and 11.9% respectively. The majority of participants were single-never married (86.4%) as compared to the single-divorced 5.1% and 8.5% married. Respondents' age ranged from 20 to 25, while only 3.4% were below 20 years of age.

Data from the study also showed that the female students at the university were sometimes perceived positively as motivated, daring, enduring, learned and prosperous though predominantly they were negatively stereotyped as prostitutes, materialistic and highly suggestible. Regarding the experiences of the students during the period between 2006 and 2009, the data showed that the students agreed that the inflationary crisis period was the toughest time. Students reported that they lived in dire poverty on campus and almost always had to forgo meals. During the crisis from 2006 to 2009, the participants reported that they faced challenges in accessing food, transport and sanitation. The participants also reported that there were shortages of qualified lecturers at the University of Zimbabwe. On campus the students lacked access to enough clean water and had to boil and drink water from an ornamental pond.

Data showed that transport was so expensive and scarce that they resorted to using open trucks and evaded fare payment. The strategies the students used to deal with the 2006 to 2009 challenges included finding older, usually married men with incomes ("sugar daddies") to finance them through the difficult times. In addition, female students noted that their parents imposed curfews on them, requiring them to be home by sunset. On the academic front, students complained about exorbitant tuition fees, inadequate accommodation, erratic Internet connections, lack of water, scarcity of books in the library, high stationery costs, high food and transport costs. Many students were staying with relatives, renting with other students or alone, staying with spouses and boyfriends. A significant number of students survived on only two meals per day. The students also faced gender-based violence which included heckling for wearing "inappropriate clothes", physical harassment, rape, sexual harassment, touching, expulsion from the university library and verbal abuse.

The findings suggested that the most vulnerable female students included those who were not assertive especially the ardent church goers and nuns, those dressing in untraditional styles, final year students desiring to pass at any cost, those not really bright and the first year students. Some female students were helped with tuition by boyfriends, parents and "sugar daddies" while others performed piece jobs or had other employment and yet others were on the government cadetship program. Female students benefited from resources such as computers, libraries, the Internet, lecture rooms, the quota system, good infrastructure and lecturers. The challenges faced by students included marriage, pregnancy, male-dominated courses such as those in engineering, household chores and gender roles. Education-related problems included poor administration, poor information dissemination, lack of career guidance, fear of failure, lack of security and absence of student attachment.

Recommendations that emerged from the study include the reintroduction of loans and grants from government, improvement of registration procedures, provision of cheap transport, improvement of hygiene on campus, sanitary wear, improvement in handling of results and the student-administration relationship, opening halls of residence and training the security and library personnel.

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