Yale University (United States Of America) students visit; South African Higher Education landscape: Department of Higher Education and Training briefing

Higher Education, Science and Innovation

14 March 2011
Chairperson: Mr I Manana (ANC)
Share this page:

Meeting Summary

The delegation from Yale University gave a brief synopsis of the delegation’s visit to South Africa The delegation had submitted questions to the Department of Higher Education and Training on the apartheid legacies, affirmative action, economically disadvantaged students, race relations, social integration and its inherent necessity, and educational equality.

The Department briefed the delegation, in the presence of Members of the Portfolio Committee, informing it that before 1994, the South African education system was structured on apartheid policies with separate institutions for different race, ethnic and language groups. Bantustans/Homelands (four ‘independent’ and six ‘self governing’) had separate education departments and some higher education institutions. This impacted on funding, access and governance. The higher education landscape comprised 150 colleges and 36 higher education institutions.

After 1994 it was necessary to transform the higher education system to align it with the Constitution and in order to meet the needs of a united South Africa. In 1994 the National Commission on Higher Education was established. A report was submitted to the State President in 1996 and emphasised a ‘single coordinated education system’ set upon three pillars for transformation: increased participation, greater responsiveness and increased cooperation. A white paper was issued in 1997. Its objective was to develop a learning society to meet the challenges of reconstruction and development. It recommended a single qualifications framework for all higher education institutions to allow mobility and progression. It recommended investigation into the optimal number and type of institutions needed. This resulted in the merging of institutions and the creation of 23 institutions, consisting of 13 ‘traditional’ universities, six universities of technology and four comprehensive universities. Progress had been achieved in transformation of higher education academic and professional staff: in 1994, staff members, at all institutions, were predominantly white and male (80% white, 12% African, 4% Coloured, 4% Indian, and 34% female). In 2009 57% of academic staff were white, 28% African, 9% Indian and 6% Coloured. 44% of academic staff members were female. In 1994 37% of students in the system were white, 7% Indian, 6% Coloured and 50% African. 92% of PhD students were white. In 2009 21% of students were white and 66% African, while of 44% of PhD students were white and 42% African. Despite these improvements, there were still challenges to integration and throughput, such as high drop out rates – especially for students coming from lower socio-economic groups and for African students; financial constraints for the system as a whole and individual students; failure to produce sufficient graduates with the skills needed for the economy - more graduates in engineering, science, technology, and teaching were needed; and the school system’s not always preparing learners sufficiently for university.


Meeting report

Introduction
The delegation from Yale University gave a brief synopsis of its visit to South Africa.

Mr Mahlubi Mabizela, Director-General, Department of Higher Education and Training (DoHET), commenced the presentation by expressing concern that some of the Members were going to leave and seeking clarity as to whether the meeting would continue or not.

The meeting continued after it was agreed that Members who needed to leave could do so; while the students from Yale were invited to remain for the presentation.

Department of Higher Education and Training. The South African higher education landscape
The South African education system was divided into two departments - the Higher Education and Training Department (DoHET) which comprised universities, further education and training (FET) colleges, and the Basic Education Department (DBE) which handled schools. The delegation had submitted questions on the apartheid legacies, affirmative action, economically disadvantaged students, race relations, social integration and its inherent necessity and educational equality.  Thus it is important for such questions to be broadly outlined, since many of the students were not around during the dark days of apartheid and maybe a brief background would enlighten them.

In South Africa we used to have four racial groups or groupings namely Whites, Africans (Blacks), Indians and Coloureds who were segregated to advantage some groups amongst others. This is where Mandela and others fought in the struggle until the battle was won in 1994 with the birth of a new a political dispensation. Thus 1994 was instrumental in our history because, before 1994, education was, as all society, structured on principals of segregation throughout, and Afrikaans was the predominant medium of instruction. The policies were designed to give different training for whites and for blacks, and to separate ethnic and language groups for work and job training; and thus the country was divided. Furthermore, there were “Bantustans/Homelands” of which four were ‘independent’ and six were ‘self-governed’, demarcated for blacks and one had to have a passport to move in and out of these homelands, which were in South Africa. The segregation and decentralised system affected funding adversely for the then existing 150 colleges and 36 higher education institutions (universities).

In 1996 the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa was adopted after the 1994 elections which was a process which commenced with the release in 1990 of those who were detained and the return of those who had been exiled. So in 1994 the National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) was established and in 1996 its report was founded on three pillars for transformation - increased participation, greater responsiveness and increased cooperation. There followed the white paper of 1997  to redress past inequalities and to transform the higher education system to serve a new social order and meet pressing national needs while  responding to new realities and opportunities. This aimed at developing a learning society to meet the challenge of reconstruction and development, with a single qualification framework for all higher educations institutions which enabled mobility and progression.

The apartheid policy was introduced in 1948, thus it was a known factor that it would take a long time to improve the manner of living, because it only ended in 1994. The goals of the white paper were to promote equity of access, eradicate unfair discrimination and provide redress for past inequities, meet national development needs through quality teaching and research, support a democratic ethos, advance all forms of knowledge and address the demands of the local context and develop a single coordinated Higher Education (HE) system with diverse institutional missions and programmes after 1997. In 2001 there was a need to address increased access to HE and to produce graduates with the necessary skills, promote equity of access and redress past inequities in terms of staff and student profiles, ensure diversity with regard to organisational form/institutional landscape through programme differentiation, build high-level research capacity to address the research and knowledge needs of South Africa and to build new institutional identities and encouraged collaboration between institutions.

What was important was that any policy of Government needed to incorporate the white paper and the HE policy to ensure stability in that system and sustain the people. Critics gleaned that Government was somewhat hasty to change, thus many obstacles and mistakes were uncovered. For the first time institutions were funded proportionate to their needs and their financial status. Thus the white paper addressed the funding of institutions and the allocation of funding based on block and earmarked grants which looked at the results of the institution, their teaching methodology and curricula, results of the institution as a whole and departmentally, and transformation in research.  

There were mergers in 2002 where of the 36 institutions were merged to 23 - universities of technology (six), “traditional universities” (13) and comprehensive universities (four); one of these comprehensive universities was the University of South Africa (UNISA) which was the first in the world to be a long distant university. This institution was in the top ten of mega universities with approximately 300 000 students enrolled. The universities of technology, which were the former technikons, focused on engineering, technology and sciences while “traditional universities” focused on a wide range of disciplines and programmes. The comprehensive universities covered both the former and the latter.

Thus the graphs depicted an improvement from 1995 to 2009 of Africans who were enrolled into institutions of higher learning. The head count of Black students increased from 50% to approximately 65%. Black PhD students increased from 2% in 1991 to 43% in 2009.  These were amongst the mile stones achieved by Government. (See slides 10-16).

Government had set participation rates and targets which had been on the increase, and there had been gradual change in the system as the statistics had shown. 

The Acting Chairperson thanked Mr Mabizela for the presentation and invited Members of Parliament and members of the delegation to ask questions.

Discussion
Mr A van der Westhuizen (DA) applauded Mr Mabizela for the presentation and hoped that the delegation learnt some history and background about South Africa. He commented on Government and how hard it had worked to change for a better integrated society.

A member of the delegation asked whether the ratio on females and males had been representative of the current demographics of the country.

Mr Mabizela said that the ratio of males to females enrolled after 2000 had improved to truly represent the demographics of the country. Where more and more female students enrolled into institutions there was improvement; however, there were challenges in getting female students in certain fields and levels of study especially in science and engineering. At undergraduate level there were more females, but at PhD level there were less. Thus Government wanted more funding where there was scarcity as in the above fields and in the levels that had few females. In the past humanities had the most numbers of enrolments across both sexes, thus Government was giving more funding to the less enrolled fields to encourage more students into those fields.

A member of the delegation asked how economically disadvantaged students were assisted financially.

Mr Mabizela referred to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) as one of many Government interventions. On condition that students perform adequately, they received initially a 60% loan and 40% bursary, progressing to a 100% bursary based on the premise that the student passed all his/her modules.

A member of the delegation asked for clarity on what affirmative action plans Government had in relation to education.

Mr Mabizela replied that the Government had no clear affirmative action plans but rather used leverages to drive the system transformation without quotas.

A member of the delegation wanted to know, based on the headcount graph (slide 10), how well white and black students were represented.

Mr Mabizela showed that the headcount was representative of the demographics of the country whereas before 1994 there was distortion. These statistics still need to be improved.

A member of the delegation asked if South Africa used any standardised test or if each institution employed its own test for admissions.

Mr Mabizela said that there was no standardised test. Each institution had its own entry tests if it deemed them necessary; however Government was looking at an integrated system in which such applications to institutions could be centralised as in Canada and some Asian countries. In South Africa there was a system where a prospective student applied, for example, to four institutions, and student paid an application fee which was non-refundable. Thus Government sought to eliminate that through the intervention which was on trail in KwaZulu-Natal and which had shown progress in the past three years.

The Acting Chairperson thanked the delegation for gracing the Committee with its presence and for its participation. He advised the delegation to visit other institutions and perhaps the Department in Pretoria and wished it well on its stay and journey back to the United States of America. He also thanked the two Members of Parliament who stayed till the end of the meeting and the Department for the presentation.

The meeting was adjourned.


Present

  • We don't have attendance info for this committee meeting

Download as PDF

You can download this page as a PDF using your browser's print functionality. Click on the "Print" button below and select the "PDF" option under destinations/printers.

See detailed instructions for your browser here.

Share this page: