The education department’s R5,9billion recapitalisation of the higher education sector comes in the wake of a realisation that “you cannot expect to produce students of the 21st century with 20th-century equipment,” according to Dr Molapo Qhobela, deputy director general of higher education.
The department is investing in the higher education sector in its quest for better quality graduates and more graduates in particularly science, education and technology. By allocating recapitalisation funding, the department is helping universities to upgrade and acquire more teaching and learning space in order to cope with more students.
The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, which is receiving R300million from the government, is establishing a science and mathematics centre of excellence on its Missionvale (formerly Vista) campus, says vice-chancellor Dr Rolf Stumpf.
This means that NGOs working with the university in maths and science programmes will be relocated to this campus, which is 25km away from the Port Elizabeth campuses. The university aims to increase its intake of maths and science students by 2010 and funds are being poured into improving the quality of learning and teaching.
Funds are also being used to upgrade laboratories and libraries, said Stumpf, and the university is bent on becoming a “new generation” institution that works in partnership with all sectors of society, instead of drawing up its own agenda and presenting it to the society it operates in.
Similarly, the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) will spend its allocation of R110million on the “national priority” of improving graduate output in the fields of science and technology.
UKZN has also utilised the merger as an opportunity to strengthen its position as a research-led institution.
When it received an allocation of R150million from the department as part of the money needed to fund the merger, it used it to consolidate the sciences on the former University of Durban-Westville campus. UKZN was established following a merger between this university and the University of Natal.
R40million was used to buy new equipment and upgrade laboratories. “Visitors tell us that we now have the best laboratories in the country,” said vice-chancellor Professor Malegapuru Makgoba.
He said the money and subsequent infrastructure developments changed the attitude of staff about the merger, making them much more positive. “Staff are now more confident that the infrastructure allows UKZN to be a research-led university.”
The University of Fort Hare is spending its R150million allocation on the expansion of its East London campus by purchasing and adapting buildings in preparation for student growth. Vice-chancellor Professor Derrick Swartz said student numbers on that campus have grown from 1Â 200 to more than 3Â 000. “The current size of that campus does not allow for the accommodation of large numbers of students. There are not enough lecture halls and they are not large enough,” said Swartz.
The university is in the process of moving its law faculty to this campus. Speculators are, however, causing headaches by purchasing properties in the area and hiking up prices to “preposterous levels”, said Swartz. He explained that the university is a nonprofit organisation and that the expansion will benefit the private sector.
The university has designs on major upgrades to its Alice infrastructure and estimates that a full recapitalisation of its campuses will cost R800-million. It hopes to achieve this goal by 2016.