University Of Mauritius Research Articles

Analysing and evaluating the taxpayer's demand for merit goods: the case of public sector education and health in Mauritius1

This paper analyses the average taxpayer's demand for merit goods, namely, education and health, in Mauritius, a small developing island state. To study these development-related goods, a fresh methodology is employed that captures the characteristics of the Mauritian economy. The empirical evidence relates to the post-independence period of more than three decades, 1973 to 1999 and beyond. The respective demand elasticities for each merit good are analysed and evaluated. The findings indicate that, contrary to the conventional theory of demand, beneficiaries tend to demand more of such goods when their prices are increased, and less when they are decreased. The rationale for this behaviour is that people, in general, and taxpayers, in particular, being quality conscious, increase their demand when they are asked to pay more, expecting in return an improvement in the quality of services. However, there is evidence that over these three decades users' preferences have shifted, particularly in the case of education, towards private provision, indicating less reliance on public sector provision, and that during the years of structural adjustments the demand for these services was severely suppressed. 1This paper emanates from a research project undertaken by the author and which was fully sponsored by the Research and Consultancy Centre of the University of Mauritius in the year 2000.

Register levels of ethno-national purity: The ethnicization of language and community in Mauritius

Language is involved in processes of group identification in that it provides a focus for explicit discourses of identity and constitutes a field of less overt practices for creating groupness. Drawing on examples from Mauritian television broadcasting, this study traces the ethnicization of Mauritian Bhojpuri as a “Hindu language” through the hierarchization and subsuming of linguistic practices under larger language labels with ethno-national significance. Purist forms of Mauritian Bhojpuri that are locally perceived as “intermediate” registers between Hindi and Bhojpuri are used to represent Hindi as a language spoken in Mauritius, and at the same time to link Mauritian Bhojpuri ideologically to Hindu identity. This blurring of language boundaries serves a Hindu nationalist agenda in a diasporic location by establishing new links between linguistic forms and ethno-national values.Fieldwork in Mauritius was carried out in 1996 and 1997–1998 and was supported by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and the University of Chicago Council for Advanced Studies in Peace and International Cooperation (CASPIC). I would like to extend my sincere thanks to these institutions. Research in Mauritius was also facilitated by the University of Mauritius, where I would especially like to thank Vinesh Hookoomsing. Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Second University of Chicago/University of Michigan (“Michicagoan”) Graduate Student Conference in Linguistic Anthropology and at the Working Group for Urban Sociolinguistics at New York University. My thanks go to the organizers and participants of these events, from whose comments I greatly benefited. I am also indebted to Lou Brown, Sara Friedman, Susan Gal, Vinesh Hookoomsing, Judith Irvine, Michael Silverstein, and two anonymous reviewers for Language in Society for their careful readings and helpful suggestions at different stages in the writing of this article. Of course, any mistakes are my own. Most of all, I am indebted to the many Mauritians without whose help and friendship my research would have been impossible.

Towards an integrated management information system: A case of the University of Mauritius

The University of Mauritius completed the setting up of a modern Local area network in September 1996. Having successfully implemented traditional services such as e-mail, Internet browsing and sharing of resources, the University developed and implemented an Integrated Management Information System in order to support an increasingly dynamic academic and administrative environment. This paper describes the various processes involved in the building of an Integrated MIS for a University in a small developing country that faces serious economic challenges. A background of the motivations for introducing a computerized MIS is provided followed by the decision-making process of whether to build an in-house MIS or to procure one. The paper also explains the methodology used and the systems that have been developed and integrated in a prioritized and phased manner using economic principles.

Re-organizing the University of Mauritius Reference Library

Describes the reorganization of the reference library at the University of Mauritius. The work was divided into the following tasks: renewal and updating of heavily used materials, selection of relevant and fresh titles for inclusion in the collection, effective housekeeping and greening of the collection, identification of little used materials for removal from the collection.

Short-term practical training for electrical engineering undergraduates

This paper describes a practical training program developed for electrical engineering undergraduate students at the University of Mauritius. The three-month training is offered at the end of the freshman year, and is a prerequisite for the second fear. Students do not take more time to graduate as the training period is offered between two semesters. During the first month, students are presented with pragmatic engineering fundamentals and are exposed to some multidisciplinary engineering tools essential for engineering practice. For the remaining two months, students are grouped in teams to undertake a mini-project each, under the guidance of an academic supervisor; as such they get an insight of working within design group in a simulated industrial environment. Experience has shown that the batches of students who underwent this structured training program maintained a constantly better performance in subsequent years and attained remarkable standard for their final year projects, as well as in their career as professional engineers.

Creating a campus network culture in a newly developing economy

Abstract Newly developing countries are experiencing rapid changes in their economies, especially with the advent of computing and communication technology. Universities are installing computer networks and teaching people how to use these new facilities. However, although network development represents a significant capital investment, the usage of networks in these countries is still disappointingly low. We believe the reason is that a very important issue is too often ignored ‐ development of a network culture, that is, an environment in which a campus network is viewed as essential to the academic and research mission of the entire university, not just a tool for the scientist or engineer. In this paper, we briefly examine network development at the University of Mauritius and discuss constraints on network utilization in an expanding university. We also examine the changing nature of the Computer Center within the university and, finally, propose recommendations to develop a network culture on campus...

Family Planning in Mauritius: A National Survey

In the context of the Mauritian government's policy of encouraging fertility reduction, in 1975 the Ministry of Health requested the University of Mauritius to conduct the first national survey of contraceptive knowledge and use. The results for the 1,821 ever-married women under age 50 who were interviewed indicated high levels of knowledge and use of contraception. Nevertheless, there is still a need for increased efforts to retrieve dropouts and to improve the efficiency of contraceptive use.

Mobile phone text messaging overuse among developing world university students

Mobile phone text messaging often is more affordable than voice messaging in the developing world. Its similarity to instant messaging and other Internet synchronous communication technologies suggests that overuse and addiction-like tendencies might be found among users, as has been identified with similar technology applications. Symptoms related to components of addiction diagnoses were found to be prevalent among 21respondents to a survey, all of whom completed questionnaires at the University of Mauritius. Between 6% and 11% of respondents showed symptoms of addiction related to tolerance, withdrawal, displacement of attention to school or work, and the inability to diminish use. Displacement of people was common among a higher percentage of respondents. The number of messages sent, and the perceived skill at using SMS technology were significant predictors of the number of addiction criteria exhibited by respondents. Among the small percentage who revealed symptoms of addiction, usage of text messaging was double to triple that found in most of the rest of the population sample studied. While gender had been shown to be a predictor of overuse tendencies in past studies, no gender differences were found for addiction measures, but males were heavier users of text messaging than females.