The Mail & Guardian says in a leader that education has lost the plot, the grand plan of opening the doors of learning has been ”flushed down the toilet”. And why? Because the government has dared to suggest that the expansion of higher education should be managed in line with resources and national goals.
The issue of access has certainly been at the forefront of the struggle for quality higher education over the past two decades. The gains have been significant — 73% of students in higher education are black; just more than 50% are women; a participation rate of 18% has been achieved, 2% short of the 20% target; and enrolments in science, engineering and technology are now 27% of the total. Moreover, just less than R1-billion will be spent this year on supporting students through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. Yet there can be little doubt that much still needs to be done to achieve equitable access. Graduation rates remain particularly low, especially for black students. We estimate that the numbers of students dropping out of the system are costing R1-billion, a significant proportion of the R10-billion overall state budget for higher education.
No country that is committed to quality access to higher education can afford a ”revolving-door syndrome”: admit students, take their fees and churn them out with no qualifications. Access and success cannot be separated.
It is a pity that the M&G chooses to take a cavalier view. For a start, it would have helped if the newspaper had actually attended the parliamentary briefing the editorial refers. But it appears it has decided to build on the back of the panic created by headlines such as ”Universities fear state control”, which have appeared in some newspapers.
Education White Paper 3: A Programme for the Transformation of Higher Education identified three key instruments — funding, planning and quality assurance — to steer the higher education system to enable it to address the country’s high-level human resource and research needs. All three instruments are now in place.
Most recently, the Department of Education engaged with the managements of all public universities and technikons about the implications of the growth of the system as a whole, as well as growth in individual institutions. As part of this discussion, we are proposing that growth be consolidated in the coming period, during which we should concentrate on enhancing graduation rates, and improving the responsiveness of the system to the human- resource development and research needs of the country.
This proposal is being made in the light of rapid increases in enrolment (21% between 2000 and 2003) without improved outputs and in the context of fiscal constraints.
The M&G is off the mark to suggest that we are ”slashing” the humanities. The National Plan for Higher Education is at pains to foreground the importance of the humanities but proposes a balance in enrolments between the humanities (40%), commerce and management (30%), and science, engineering and technology (30%).
Of course it is possible to achieve rapid enrolment growth without extra expenditure but, as pointed out in the White Paper, ”the penalties for doing so are harsh. Experience both internationally and at home shows that expansion without new investment results in overcrowded facilities, low morale of academic staff, poor quality programmes, a fall in research output and quality and, ultimately, a loss of confidence by students, employers and funders in the devalued products of higher education.”
Higher education institutions are currently in the process of responding to the department’s proposals, following which Minister of Education Naledi Pandor will make final decisions with regard to growth parameters for the system. The ministry has also prioritised the development of the further education and training colleges to provide alternative access routes for school-leavers and adults.
Surely it is time that we make the distinction between academic freedom, which is protected in our Constitution, and institutional autonomy, which is a condition of effective self-government inextricably linked to public accountability?
The department is not expecting institutions to perform miracles. All it asks is a level of accountability for the public investment in higher education.
Nasima Badsha is a Deputy Director General at the Department of Education