The use of digitalization as an alternative mechanism to increase enrolment in higher education institutions: a case study of public universities in Botswana

The purpose of this study was to assess factors perceived to influence students’ enrolment in public higher education institutions in Botswana so as to recommend alternative mechanisms and strategies to increase enrolment. Primary and secondary data were obtained from the four public institutions through administration of a questionnaire to support and academic staff in the institutions. The first category of participants was purposively selected comprising of academic professors and academic support in leadership to respond to four open-ended questions. The four-open-ended questions provided qualitative data gathered through face-to-face interviews and the SMS texts revealed four thematic areas ‘funding’, ‘university menu as programs of study’, ‘ill-preparedness’ and ‘failure rates’ as contributing to low enrolment. The findings revealed that ‘partnership,’ ‘collaboration,’ ‘open dialoguing’ and ‘online learning’ provide opportunity for engagement of university with the community as mechanisms for improvement. The second set of data were collected from a sample of participants surveyed using close-ended items prepared based on the open-ended responses. The software called Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) was used to analyse quantitative data. Key words: Botswana, digitization, declining enrolment, enrolment alternative mechanism, higher education, qualitative data, online learning, student enrolment