Cecil Abrahams: A Second Look
Predictably, South African universities have once again been embroiled in the annual nauseating spectacle of disadvantaged students trying to register at cash-strapped universities where the management must refuse admission. And, as usual, the “culprits” for this stand-off are the same.
Intransigent students believe the managements of the various historically disadvantaged universities are “hard- hearted” and that the national government is not delivering on promises made during the liberation struggle.
Judging from the public’s reaction, the vast majority feel that students have been pampered and that universities have allowed a “culture” of non-payment to flourish.
While blame can certainly be apportioned to each of these, it is clear that none of these positions will lead us away from the annual battle for registration. We must, therefore, look back to see how we can go forward.
None of South Africa’s 21 universities was ever apartheid-free. Even in the so-called advantaged or “open” universities admission was allowed freely for white South Africans alone. When the demands among black South Africans began to increase, the apartheid government established universities for them.
Black universities were downgraded and underfunded from day one. Furthermore, since their students came from the disadvantaged schools of the urban and rural areas, they were at once confronted with serious pedagogical problems.
But it would be foolish to claim that the standard of education provided at the white campuses was above that of the black universities. Many of the “privileged” universities were staffed by poorly qualified academics with insignificant research records who contributed to the generally poor quality of graduates of the apartheid era.
Until the mid-1980s, students at black universities could draw on state bursaries and, hence, the institutions which they attended were not faced with accumulating debt. However, since the end of the 1980s, students have seen bursary money and loans dwindle and have had to rely on their own resources.
Student resources have been limited by the impoverishment of their parents and guardians and the vast majority have been unable to procure bank loans. Consequently, they have relied on loans from the inadequate subsidy that black universities receive from the government.
For the 10 historically disadvantaged universities subsidies are now so low that they will be unable to manage the operation of all university services as well as provide loans to needy students. Hence, these universities have drawn a responsible fiscal line.
What is the way forward? South Africa is desperately in need of human resource development at the highest level. The historically disadvantaged universities had a combined enrolment of over 100 000 students in 1997. It is government policy to ensure that the black and coloured population groups are better represented in the higher education sector.
So how will this happen if we were to close some or all of the historically disadvantaged universities? And how will we ensure participation in the economy if members of the disadvantaged communities were denied access to proper human resource development?
Many historically disadvantaged universities continue to favour students from privileged communities and are, therefore, not the solution to our dilemma. Furthermore, there is an almost hysterical cry from privileged South Africa to “shrink” the higher education sector as if they would prefer it to be “whites-only”.
I am among those who feel strongly that we should have a “planned” higher education sector. In a developing country such as ours, we should indeed designate the number of university places and the programmes for which the government will provide subsidies.
We should allow institutions to offer programmes on a fully funded basis. We should establish a national applications centre from where students will be placed at our institutions. Although we must keep region in mind, we should ensure that all institutions take a share of the disadvantaged students.
Intervention is needed, but it needs to be constructive, planned and in keeping with the overall needs of the country. Minister of Education Sibusisu Bengu should call a national summit where representatives from all universities, the government, the business sector and our student structures could debate the problems that confront the higher education sector every year.
South Africa needs to introduce a loan scheme which will afford needy and academically deserving students the opportunity to complete their studies and repay that debt when they enter the workforce.
The higher education sector would be served much more constructively with the establishment of a national admissions centre for tertiary institutions. The overall societal and economic needs of the country with regard to human resource development could be managed much more efficiently and students guided so as to avert over-subscription to certain courses.
Such a centre could also assist universities with planning. The White Paper on higher education argues for a programme- based funding formula whereby a set number of places will be allocated to certain programmes at national level and universities then requested to bid for a portion of those places.
This could lead to an uneven spread of the student population with the historically disadvantaged universities once more being disadvantaged. These allocations should be made by the soon-to-be-established council on higher education, where representatives from the sector would have a direct say.
Student placements could then be spread proportionately as not all universities were set up to offer degree courses in directions like engineering, architecture and medicine, while these courses would draw the most funding.
The notion of a graduate tax should also be explored as an additional source of income to boost the present National Student Aid Scheme. Such a tax scheme would place an obligation on each graduate to contribute towards the country’s human resource development and thereby yield a return on the government’s initial investment in educating him or her.
These proposals will set us on a course that would stabilise the historically disadvantaged universities at the beginning of the year and contribute to a more equitable dispensation in the higher education sector.
It would also lead to a period of healthy and sustained growth of human resources to hasten the period of reconstruction and development.