Thulani Hlatswayo
SASCO members
The past few months have posed significant challenges for higher education in South Africa. The issues raised refer to genuine concerns and are a justified expression of the ongoing struggle of transformation. However, the chaos, violence, and criminal behaviour that has been seen on some campuses are an aberration all of us must reject, and they pose a real danger of distracting South Africa from the genuine issues of transformation.
It would appear students at the University of Stellenbosch have decided to address their concerns through dialogue and engagement. This must be appreciated and praised, but it should not lead to a false sense of security in executive leadership. Students across faculties, race, and gender have created room for the executive to show genuine leadership and commitment and we look forward to hearing of the steps they will introduce to confirm their genuine commitment to transformation.
Any reflection on higher education must begin with acknowledging that in 1994 we began the process of transforming our universities, and in twenty years we have made remarkable progress in black participation, black enrolment, and gender equity.
Here are the statistics:
- student headcount enrolments of 1 000 328 in 2015 (up from 495 348 in 1994).
- university participation rate of just under 20% in 2014 (up from 15,4% in 2003).
- a student population in 2014 with 72% African, 6% coloured, and 5% Indian enrolments in the system as compared to 2003 proportions of 62% African, 25% white, 6% coloured and 7% Indian.
- in 2004 the number of women had doubled by more than 50%. The number of men also increased but did not exceed women. In 2013 there were 573 698 women and 409 988 men in institutions of higher learning.
- TVET enrolments increased from 345,566 students in 2010 to 800,000 in 2015.
- over R50 billion in loans and bursaries via NSFAS - for all needy students, from all races in our country.
Transformation is much more than such success. It is a long-term process that requires planning, genuine dialogue and commitment. Recent debates have once more highlighted the salient issue of transformation confronting us all.
First, there has been inadequate transformation at leadership level in our institutions with women seemingly considered unable to lead institutions.
Second, the transformation of the academic core is proceeding at a very slow pace. There are too few senior black academics in our universities and few developmental programmes targeted at reversing this statistic.
In 2015 the DHET introduced a 'next-generation' scheme, beginning with 150 new academics taking up permanent posts in our universities and 80 % of whom are African women.
Four years ago, I launched the African Doctoral Academy at Stellenbosch University. The African Doctoral Academy’s mission is to support and advance doctoral training and scholarship on the African continent. About 30% of doctoral students in South Africa are from abroad, and most of them are from Africa.
The Academy has begun to address some of our ‘brain drain’ issues – African scientists leaving the continent for opportunities abroad and African postgraduate students pursuing studies abroad but not returning to the continent.
Third, increased access of black students has not completely resulted in advances. The majority of black students are registered in fields that do not address the significant gap South Africa has in critical skills fields such as Engineering, Science, Technology and Medicine.
Fourth, higher education is bedevilled by a revolving door syndrome. Learners successfully complete the Senior Certificate, enter university, only to exit without a degree, thus resulting in worrying levels of waste of human and financial resources.
Fifth, despite legislative commitment to transformation in various higher education acts, the state has been unable to hold institutions accountable for not pursuing the change agenda of higher education.
Sixth, the cultural authority of superiority that characterises many of our institutions continues to be a barrier to success and inclusion for many black students and women. Thousands of young people find our universities alien and forbidding, reluctant to embrace change and in some determined that the past will continue to live.
Seventh, where there have been laudable attempts to shape a new trajectory - such as project Hope, conceived under the sterling leadership of Professor Russell Botman - it has not proven easy to secure ‘unity of purpose’ in our institutions. Such a ‘unity’ is vitally necessary because the national agenda of transcending apartheid will only advance when it is agreed that all constituencies can and must work together.
There are early signs of an emerging unity of purpose at SU and it must be supported. It will be sweet irony if this institution, which is often pilloried as a former bastion of apartheid, becomes a beacon of negotiated transformation.
Recent protests on campuses have pointed to the need for far greater attention and time to be given to achieving unity of purpose and a shared agenda of change.
Institutions must use this renewed protest to fully address a genuine agenda of change.
Eighth, our universities suffer from the magnetic pull of globalisation in higher education which imposes a range of administrative, financial and structural constraints on our institutions. Appropriation of these so called global practices detracts from concerted attention to our national aspirations. The desire to mirror the North distracts attention from focusing on the context of Africa and the development challenges that pose complex intellectual tasks.
Our students become more familiar with academic works from abroad and are educated to appropriate cultural capital that has little relevance to Africa.
If it is possible to agree that these are indeed the core problems that must be responded to in the sector, we must then answer the question – what is to be done?
Recently, government has acted in response to legitimate student calls for increased funding to assist students who do not have the means to fund their studies. The extra funding that will be provided via NSFAS in this financial year is welcome.
However, in order to indicate the ‘unity of purpose' that I argue is urgently necessary, university leadership must use this positive response from government to provide improved support to students. Institutions need to examine their own cost structures and assess if it is possible to assist government in providing affordable higher education.
Ensuring financial access is not solely a government matter, it is a challenge for South Africa as a whole.
The calls for change from students and broader society mandate robust and honest attention to features of the cultural authority of superiority I referred to earlier. Acknowledgement that racism, gender inequality, exclusion of indigenous knowledge paradigms continue to be a feature of higher education in South Africa.
The manner in which we achieved our freedom suggests that our universities have the potential to reimagine higher education.
Our public discourse is in need of rational thought, evidence-based reflections, and propositions that advance our national agenda of radical social change.
South Africa must not repeat the history of other systems that have taken decades to overcome discrimination and disadvantage.
The Constitution of South Africa sets out our aspirations for the character of our nation. It mandates us to build a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic society founded on equality, human dignity, and mutual respect.
