An unprecedented agreement among tertiary institutions will see all higher education institutions implement a single entrance exam by 2008. This could soon clear up widespread confusion about what entry requirements school leavers need for higher education, raise the quality of tertiary graduates, and in turn enable higher education to address the dire skills shortages far more effectively than it now does.

”Since the World Economic Forum in Seattle, a debate has erupted. It’s fine to attack corporations — but they’re all part of the state system. So we have to go back to the nature of the state. ”A novelist, historian, movie-maker, geopolitical analyst and activist, Pakistan-born Tariq Ali is visiting South Africa, and remains at 61 as outspoken as ever. He spoke this week to the Mail & Guardian.

It’s one of the worst-performing and smallest tertiary institutions in the country, yet its vice-chancellor last year earned nearly double his nearest mega-earner in the goldmine of public money lavished on some higher education leaders. Mangosuthu ”functions well below the national averages for technikons”, according to the 2001 report of the National Working Group submitted to former education minister Kader Asmal.

Indian and white employees at Mangosuthu Technikon came under attack from their vice-chancellor (VC), Professor Aaron Ndlovu, last week. And Durban mayor Obed Mlaba — also chairperson of the technikon’s council — supported him. Ndlovu spoke on Thursday last week at a memorial service for the late Sandile Thusi, a former member of Mangosuthu’s council.

They earn a lot more than the president of South Africa. They depend almost entirely on public money for their income. And they head relatively small institutions. Meet the new mega-earners of academe. Leading the pack is Professor Aaron Ndlovu, vice-chancellor of Mangosuthu Technikon, who last year somehow made ends meet with a shade under R3-million. President Thabo Mbeki earns R964 000.

Faced with mounting civic pressure to relieve the burden of school fees, government moved last week to increase both access to schools and redress of gross apartheid racial inequalities in education provision. But the leading trade union in the sector — the South African Democratic Teachers Union — said the proposals needed to go much deeper to make a significant impact.

Provincial education budgets this year show a stark and widening gap between government policy aims and available funding. This is the main finding of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa in its analysis of these budgets. As a result, apparently priority areas such as early childhood development, adult education and education for learners with special needs will be especially hard hit.

Legal steps have followed North West University’s controversial appointment of its new vice-chancellor last week. These come in the midst of an already troubled merger process. The new institution came into being on January 1 following the merger of the former Potchefstroom and North West universities.

The appointment of the Cabinet and provincial premiers is the prerogative of President Thabo Mbeki — and one which he has so far determinedly exercised on his own. In part, Mbeki most probably does it to avoid the manoeuvring and the creation of cabals that would almost be sure to follow if African National Congress officials felt they could campaign their way into Cabinet.