Monash South Africa (MSA) should be financially independent by 2012, says its pro-vice-chancellor, Tyrone Pretorius.
The institution, in Ruimsig, west of Johannesburg, was set up by Australia’s Monash University in 2000/01 as one of two satellite campuses in other countries. The mother institution invested about R450-million in property, equipment and running costs in the South African operation.
But the establishment of the local campus coincided with a clampdown by the national education department on foreign private education providers. The department also placed a restriction on the use of the term “university”. Pretorius says MSA is still waiting for a response from government on its application for university status.
MSA is fighting the perception that it is “preying on white flight” (migration of white South Africans to Australia and other countries) and rich black African and Asian foreign students.
On face value statistics do not support this view. The crop of students is 44% local black Africans, 36% foreign black Africans and 20% white students.
“There is no statistical evidence that shows our students have migrated with their parents to Australia,” says Pretorius. “If Monash was a preparatory ground for white flight I would not be here. Our commitment is to develop all the people of this continent.”
But MSA’s fee structure might not make it accessible to all. Though Pretorius says it is the cheapest institution within the Monash system, its fees are perceived to be prohibitive.
Students contribute between R32 000 and R35 000 a year to their studies, an amount that far exceeds the standard range of tuition fees at public universities.
One of the recommendations of a quality audit by the Council on Higher Education (CHE), released late last year was that MSA recruit and retain more local black students. To address this MSA increased its bursary fund and is forging relations with local industry to assist local previously disadvantaged students, says Pretorius.
The council also recommended that MSA maintain staff equity. MSA set up a graduate assistant programme to try to develop local students into future Monash employees. Graduate assistants, selected on merit and social background, teach while reading for a post-graduate degree.
Another recommendation was that MSA starts to debate “a common institutional understanding” of what research-intensive means and suggested Monash identify its community to improve community engagements in teaching, learning and research.
On a more positive note, the audit commended MSA for its outstanding overall quality programme. It was commended for providing excellent IT services, implementing a tutor-mentor programme to support students, providing quality library services and doing surveys to enhance teaching and training.
Pretorius says the university acknowledges the CHE recommendations, but he says “it is not by accident but by design that most of Monash students come from the rest of Africa”.
“It is our international character,” he says. “Monash has been very active in Africa.”
Pretorius says MSA engaged the question of research and established projects that serve its society, such as the Beyers Naudé Centre for Humanities, the Institute for Sustainability and the school of IT research.
These efforts by MSA are expected to fuel its expansion. It is completing the construction of an extra accommodation facility and it hopes to open another two schools next year, adding to the business, arts and information technology schools.