Last year, the Times Higher Education Supplement produced a comparative report on the world’s top 200 universities. Not a single African university featured on the list.
Only four African universities featured in the academy ranking of the Top 500 World Universities for 2005: Wits, Pretoria, Cape Town and KwaZulu-Natal. According to the department of education, South Africa’s most productive research universities over the past three years have been Pretoria, Stellenbosch, Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal and Wits. A study by the department of science and technology indicates that these same five universities are research intensive, invest highly in research and account for more than 65% of research and development (R&D) within the higher education sector. The same study also highlights the R&D accomplishments of five science councils and 12 industries.
No matter how one looks at the statistics, it is an inescapable fact that differentiation is occurring and affecting our national development.
The central question for Africa, and South Africa in particular, is why we fail to feature within the top 200 world universities. In South Africa’s case, the answer is to be found in our general approach of treating all universities in the same way, and in our failure to unambiguously promote a differentiated university system in the context of diminishing resources and competing priorities.
The United States has the world’s most differentiated system of higher education, subject to the cleverly constructed USNews system. Of its 3 300 universities, only 215 are accredited to award postgraduate degrees and fewer than 100 are categorised as research universities. Australia has eight research universities, all of which feature highly in the world rankings. In the United Kingdom, the Cambridge-London-Oxford ”golden triangle” has recently been joined by the newly merged Manchester University.
The European higher education system, in contrast, treats all universities ”the same”. Europe’s 2 000 universities attempt to do it all, from teaching to research to community services. The result has been mediocrity all round. The Bologna Declaration now registers Europe’s recognition that it is ”unwise and a mistake to treat and fund universities the same”.
While it is important to harmonise and promote quality assessment in higher education, it is equally important to differentiate. Uniform treatment not only destroys academic innovation, creativity and merit, it also produces an equality of misery.
The world university ranking and the USNews systems form a differentiating and a branding system that is a reality of our time. Evidence shows that those countries in which higher education is differentiated are better able to compete and adapt. Equally, the evidence from Europe indicates that undifferentiated university systems are disastrous.
It should be pointed out that South Africa’s national system of innovation, and certain key industries, are flourishing as a result of differentiation.
South African universities have different strengths, histories and capacities. The current South African post-secondary education, R&D analysis and the higher education quality committee accreditation processes are already differentiating our higher education system. It is precisely because of this diversity that they form a system to address knowledge and national needs in a complementary manner.
By all international benchmarks, South Africa has only six classical universities in which quality research, teaching and outreach occur. There are four other aspirant universities, making a total of 10. The other 13 universities fulfil other important roles by providing technikon-type education, access, participation and community outreach. For example, when it comes to participation in higher education, no South African university can match Unisa.
Similarly, no South African university can match Wits when it comes to the study of mining, Stellenbosch on the wine industry, the University of KwaZulu-Natal on the sugar industry or Pretoria in veterinary studies.
These comparative and competitive advantages complement each other in the national interest – and they speak to what we should be strengthening in the years ahead.
It is time to strengthen our higher education system through intelligent differentiation. All parts of our higher education system should be treated and funded adequately, according to each institution’s strengths, and aligned to national development and global knowledge imperatives. Each of our universities should identify its strengths, and be funded and measured against these over a five-year cycle. Each should be reviewed regularly to determine its fitness of purpose and location within the national system (including the possibility of upgrading or further defining these roles).
This approach would link academic freedom with academic accountability, informed choice, flexibility, incentives and measurable key performance areas in the public interest. Differentiation is a better way to ensure that each university benefits and maximises its strengths in the best interest of the system and the country. A differentiated system is an excellent ”disciplinary” system because it tends to support an ”educational market”.
In general, systems survive and respond to change better when they are able to exploit diversity. It may not be ”politically correct”, but it is a fact that the best way for our higher education system to support the ”developmental state” is through differentiation. The time has arrived for South Africans to make this bold choice.
Malegapuru Makgoba is vice-chancellor and principal of the University of KwaZulu-Natal