From Choma to the Classroom: Why HEA’s Director-General Takes Higher Education to the People
On a Friday afternoon in Choma, the Director-General of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) sat across from a radio host and spoke for an hour, not to policymakers or university vice-chancellors, but to the farmers, parents, students and community members tuned into Choma Maanu Radio Station 95.1FM.
It was, in the clearest possible terms, a deliberate choice. For Professor Kazhila C. Chinsembu, stakeholder engagement is not a line item in a schedule. It is the mechanism through which HEA’s mandate becomes real, through which regulation, accreditation and quality assurance stop being abstract bureaucratic processes and start meaning something to the young person in Chibombo or Monze wondering whether the college down the road is worth trusting with their future.
The visit to Choma forms part of the Authority’s Strategic Objective No. 2 under its Strategic Plan 2022–2026. But what the Strategic Plan describes in policy language, the Director-General translates in plain terms on community radio: check whether your institution is registered. Make sure your programme is accredited. Do not hand over your future to an institution that cannot account for itself.
“We want Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to embrace AI in a responsible manner,” Professor Chinsembu told listeners, pivoting from compliance to opportunity, adding, “AI can help us to accelerate the development of various knowledge solutions, drug discovery, diagnostics, agriculture.”
The breadth of the conversation was intentional. In the same hour, Professor Chinsembu spoke about free education as an economic strategy, about drought-resistant crops as a legitimate research priority for Southern Province universities, about the shift from theory to competence-based curricula, and about the two checks every student must make before enrolling anywhere.
None of it was ceremonial. HEA’s engagement model is built on a recognition that information asymmetry is one of the biggest risks in Zambia’s higher education landscape. Students enrol in unregistered institutions because no one told them to check. Colleges drift away from community relevance because no one demanded accountability. Institutions treat AI as either a threat or a toy because guidance has not reached them.
Professor Chinsembu’s answer to all of this is to show up in Choma, on the radio, in the language the community uses, and make the case directly.
“The starting point for transformation of our economy should and must be higher education,” he said, concluding, “We must bring higher education back into the centre.”
For HEA, that work does not begin in Lusaka. It begins with a microphone in Choma, and a Director-General willing to spend an hour making the argument to anyone who will listen.
Listen to Professor Chinsembu’s full 1 hour interview on Choma Maanu Radio Station 95.1FM here: https://youtu.be/GR7mABU7UC8.
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