standards’
The Education Ministry dismisses concerns about the quality of university degrees as `racist’, report Mungo Soggot and Stuart Hess
A PUBLIC row has erupted at Wits University between two of its top academics over whether its drive to bring in previously disadvantaged students has eroded standards.
Professor Charles van Onselen, a historian, says the quality of the university’s teaching has been compromised by its efforts to cater for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Van Onselen – who last year spearheaded the opposition to Wits former deputy vice- chancellor William Makgoba — says academics now also have to coach previously disadvantaged post-matric students before they can begin teaching the contents of the degree courses. This has undoubtedly hit standards, he says, singling out “the soft underbelly stuff that brings in most students – the humanities and social sciences”.
But the dean of the arts faculty, Professor Gerrit Olivier, says the “end products” from Wits are as sound as before – despite the fact that many resources are spent bringing students from disadvantaged backgrounds up to speed.
The dispute is symptomatic of the debate raging across tertiary education. Wits has resorted to heavy advertising to try to allay fears that its standards have fallen.
The Education Ministry, however, this week dismissed concerns that standards were falling, claiming such arguments are racist.
The two academics have crossed swords in the pages of the weekly Financial Mail. Olivier sought to shoot down Van Onselen’s opinions, writing to the magazine: “Professor van Onselen’s statement that standards in the humanities and social sciences at Wits are declining is not borne out by the evidence at my disposal.
“It is true that in the first year lecturers often have to explain things that should have been done at secondary school.” But he added that “while entrance criteria can be flexible … the quality of the degree is guarded fiercely”.
Olivier told the Mail & Guardian that he cannot settle the matter by showing exam papers from the past five years as the university does not keep past papers.
But he says examiners are not inflating marks to compensate students who have been through Bantu Education. “We need to offer all students a real guarantee that they are not getting an inferior degree,” he says.
He concedes there is a perception that Wits has slipped, encouraging students from wealthy backgrounds to head for other universities.
Olivier says that because many students do not obtain the required matric grades, Wits sets an admissions test to check whether they have the potential to graduate. Students are now often taking four years to finish a three-year degree.
“It is true that many students are badly prepared for university. But correcting that does not inevitably affect the quality [of teaching].” However, efforts to bring many students up to speed did drain resources.
Olivier adds that Wits students also have no trouble going to foreign universities: “They still get bursaries and scholarships. There has been no drop in the standard because the quality of the end product is the same.”
Van Onselen, who says he is still looking for posts abroad after failing to secure a top job at Oxford University, says the vocational disciplines have an easier time maintaining standards as professional bodies or industry-backed institutes maintain qualification standards.
Thami Mseleku, special adviser to the Education Minister, Sibusiso Bengu, says that the idea that tertiary education standards are dropping is racist.
“They are saying that with the old participants the standards were higher, but since students from other races were brought in these standards have dropped. Such an argument is based on race.”
Humanities and arts degrees are losing value all over the world, Mseleku says, as demands rise for disciplines such as science and engineering.
“The people who can finance these faculties are investing the money in subjects which have an immediate impact in the world,” he adds.
The Education Department’s chief director for higher education, Itumeleng Mosala, says the government also wants to put more emphasis on science, technology and engineering degrees. Student numbers on such courses already help determine government subsidies to individual institutions.