/ 15 October 2008

‘Failing the majority’

'The current system is hampering economic growth and development'

White university students are three times more likely to graduate within three years than their black counterparts, an explosive new study has found.

The study, which was commissioned by the Council on Higher Education and conducted by a team at the University of Cape Town’s centre for higher education development, also finds:

  • Eleven percent of black students who enrolled at contact universities in 2000 completed science degrees in three years, compared with 35% for whites. For business and management degrees, the rates were 11% and 43% respectively, and for the social sciences 14% and 43%;
  • For a professional four-year law degree the graduation rate at contact universities was 14% for blacks, compared with 33% for whites;
  • Fewer than 30% of students who started three-year contact university degrees in 2000 graduated in the required time;
  • Only a third of contact university and technikon students graduated within four years;
  • Fewer than 12% of blacks aged 20 to 24 were at universities and only 5% graduated.

The report makes the point that only 16% of the 20 to 24 age group is in higher education, while the norm in developed countries is at least 60%.

The centre’s deputy dean, Ian Scott, said the findings highlighted an “untenable” situation, indicating that the tertiary education system “is failing the majority”.

The research was based on data supplied by the education department and conducted mainly on the intake of 120 000 students at universities and technikons during early 2000.

Scott said about 30% of students — including 22% of all contact university students — drop out in the first year, principally because of financial exclusions, inability to cope with the curriculum, wrong subject choices and social problems.

Another 25% drop out later and only about 45% of the original intake graduate. In the 2000 intake about 65 000 students were “lost” to higher education.

Scott said the performance patterns are corroborated by analysing the 2001 intake and reflect long-term institutional experience.

He argued that the failure of most students to graduate in time points to a mismatch between students’ skills, knowledge and preparation and what the higher education system expects.

“The key issue in assessing higher education’s contribution is not how many students enter, but rather the numbers, quality and mix of the students who successfully complete their studies. It is the outcomes that count.

“The current system is hampering economic growth and development. It is not sustainable in terms of development or equity. The system is failing the majority.”

Scott said that despite major growth in African enrolment since 1994, which reached 60% in about 2000, the high attrition of black students negates these gains.

However, he also argued that it was not sufficient for university academics to pass the buck to schools as the failings of the school system and socio-economic inequalities were unlikely to be remedied in the foreseeable future. “It is vital for the higher education sector to address factors that are within our control, including the way we approach teaching and learning within the universities themselves.” Scott and his research team called for a four-year general degree, including foundation course elements, as the norm.

“If we are to maintain our current exit standards, we need to recognise that the majority of our students need more than three years’ study,” he said, adding that university teaching and “our educational process in general” had to improve to enable students to realise their potential.

In the interests of equity and development more black students had to attend university and graduate, Scott said, with “regulation-time completion rates at least twice the current rates overall”.