The imprint of apartheid is clearly evident in staff composition at universities and technikons across South Africa
Barry Streek
The academic staff at South Africa’s 36 public universities and technikons are still overwhelmingly white and male dominated, particularly at the historically white institutions, according to the Council for Higher Education.
The council has found 80% of the academic staff at universities and 72% of the staff at technikons to be white. It also noted in its 1998/99 report – which has been tabled in Parliament – that women make up 38% of professional staff, while 90% of professors, 78% of associate professors and 67% of senior lecturers are male.
The report states: “It is clear that the shape of the higher education system is changing and that the previous distinctions by institutional types, modes of instruction and historical categories are loosening and eroding.”
Between 1993 and 1999 African student enrolments decreased by 7 000 (9%) at historically black universities. At Unisa African enrolment dropped by 6 000 (11%). However, it increased by 22 000 (140%) at historically black technikons, and by 56 000 at historically white Afrikaans universities. Enrolment at historically white English universities rose by 10 000 (94%).
“The changes in the overall proportions of black students are signs of equity improvements in the higher education system with the system beginning to become representative of South Africa’s overall population.
“However, whether this has occurred due to a vigorous affirmative action policy or due to black students filling the vacuum left by whites who have left the public system must remain an open question.
“Further, the system will only be equitable if African students are spread equally across programmes and only if their performances within programmes matches those of other students. A possible sign of inequity is that large proportions of African students are clustered in distance education programmes (mostly in the humanities) of historically white universities.”
The council said the number and proportion of students specialising in career-oriented programmes in business and commerce have risen steadily since 1993, with an increase of 56 000 (62%) in these majors.
The total of majors in science and technology also grew between 1993 and 1999, but at a slower pace than the business/commerce majors.
“One effect of these changes has been that humanities majors declined in 1999 to below 50% of the higher education head count total for the first time. The share of enrolments in 1999 is: humanities 49%, business/commerce 26%, and science/technology 25%,” according to the council’s report.
However, between 1991 and 1998 only 11% of commerce graduates were African, while only 2% in accountancy and 55% in public administration were African. For all graduates over this period, 21% were African and 68% white.
The council said the imprint of apartheid is clearly evident in staff composition which is still strongly determined along racial lines within the historical categories of institutions.
“Academic staff at the historically white universities remain overwhelmingly white, especially at the historically white Afrikaans universities where black (African, Coloured and Indian) academics together constituted less than 3% of the total in 1998 and where very little change in this regard has been evident in the past five years.
“The situation was only marginally better at the historically white English universities where the proportion of African academics grew from 4% in 1993 to 7% in 1998, and where white academics still constituted 87% of the total in 1998, only a slight decrease from 91% in 1993,” said the council.
“A very rapid rise in the proportion of African academics occurred at the historically black technikons (from 17% in 1993 to 49% in 1998) and the proportion of white academics consequently dropped from 80% to 51% over this period.
“The proportion of African academics at the historically white technikons increased from 1% in 1993 to 6% in 1998 which meant that the proportion of white academic staff dropped from 98% to 90%.”
Between 1992 and 1998 the proportion of women academics rose from 30% to 35% at universities, from 32% to 37% at historically black universities and technikons, and from 26% to 32% at the historically white universities and technikons.
The council also reported that the private higher education sector is growing rapidly and a large number of institutions provide programmes and qualifications in a variety of fields.
The expansion of private higher education is an international trend, “a possible result of what has been described as [excess demand and differentiated demand]. It has been suggested that governments have increasingly been unable to provide for the diverse needs of learners in a rapidly changing labour situation, a gap that has been filled by private institutions. The digital revolution (World Wide Web, Internet, video conferences, etcetera) has also given impetus to the growth of private higher education.
“A possible reason for the increase in the provision of private higher education in South Africa could be that public institutions have been slow to react to opportunities created by new legislation,” said the council.
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