Digitalization of the Administrative Function in Zimbabwe’s Public Universities: Opportunities and Challenges

Digitalization of administration, teaching and learning in public universities began before the pandemic. The pandemic however challenged public universities to speed up digitalization in order to create efficient platforms for administrative, teaching and learning environments. Literature suggests that Zimbabwe’s public universities have not kept pace with technological trends since they are faced with a myriad of challenges. Challenges include inadequate funding for digitalization programs, high costs of bandwidth, persistent power outages and lack of digital skills. This study adopted a qualitative approach to interrogate digitalization of the administrative, teaching and learning function in Zimbabwe’s public universities. Through an interpretivist case study of two public universities, the study purposefully selected 20 participants for in-depth interviews and 14 focus group discussions. Participants were drawn from university administrators, academic staff and students. Findings revealed that though Zimbabwe’s public universities have taken strides towards digitalizing their administrative function, successful implementation remains unachieved.