Maputo, July 11, 2025 (Lusa) - The Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo (UEM), the largest higher education institution in Mozambique, is operating with only 38% of its budget, a problem that has been dragging on for years and compromising the institution's performance indicators, the rector said on Friday.
"We are operating with 38% of what was desired, as a result, many of UEM's performance indicators are below expectations, starting with the number of students graduating each year," said the university's rector, Manuel Júnior, during the institution's annual meeting.
At the meeting, which brought together the academic community and partners of the institution, the rector said that for more than seven years UEM has been operating on "a budget well below what it needs to carry out its duties".
As a result, UEM has been performing well below expectations, particularly in the areas of training, research and extended learning.
"Teaching and learning continue to absorb most of the resources, with 54%, but for the first time we have managed to channel 21% of the amount to research," said the rector.
"The truth is that UEM graduates about a third of those admitted each year. If we admit close to five thousand students per year, we graduate a third. This is a pattern that repeats itself every seven, four, five years. It is true that graduates may not totally match the number of those who entered, but in fact this shows that we still have a very big challenge," he explained.
With more than 50,000 students and more than 1,600 teachers, UEM's research projects increased from 324 to 457 in 2024, a growth still considered ‘incipient’ for the challenges facing Mozambique.
"In this dimension of university extended learning, we see some undesirable signs from the point of view of what would be ideal. The health sciences area led the number of projects, as can be seen, with 24%. In second place were agricultural and biological sciences and in third place social and human sciences," he reported.
After the state, which contributes around 53% of the budget, the Kingdom of Sweden is the largest funder of the UEM, followed by Italy and the European Union, with one of the challenges being to find more partners.
The university intends to relaunch itself with a research institution.
"We must continue to lay the foundations and consolidate the institutional training process underway, adjust the organisational and functional structure of the organic units and services and adapt them to a research university," concluded Manuel Júnior.
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