Regulated Autonomy: Stakeholder Interpretations of Privatisation as a Shift of Burden in Zambia’s Public Universities

This study explores the understanding and experience of leaders and policy makers on the privatisation concepts regarding Zambia’s public universities. The study interrogates the relevancy of continued state funding to public universities whose management reforms and increased regulatory demands are about self-reliance than state dependence. This was achieved through the use of Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), from data collection and analysis that involved 11 high ranking public administration officials and those from the ministry responsible for higher education in Zambia. The findings were consistent with study assumptions that privatisation is viewed not as expanded autonomy but as a regulated transfer of responsibility, where institutional leaders are held accountable for results without the authority or financial means to implement meaningful change. This exposed tension between autonomy, regulation and sustainability, reflecting a contradiction in governance reform and resource-limited environments. The study therefore suggests a RATUS framework that aligns with managerial obligations to ensure consistency in supervisory as well as financial stability. While the study was anchored on the lived experiences of Zambian participants, the framework is applicable to other public universities across Africa and beyond given the existence of a network of universities with shared faculties are expanding across sub-Saharan Africa.