Meeting report

The Chairperson opened the meeting by conveying condolences on behalf of the Committee on the passing of Stellenbosch University student, Hannah Cornelius. She also wished Cheslin Marsh, injured in the same hijacking incident, a speedy recovery. She added that the Deputy Minister of Justice had paid Hannah’s family a visit in order to convey condolences on behalf of the legal fraternity. Her father was a magistrate.

Stellenbosch University: Transformation

Prof Wim de Villiers, Rector and Vice Chancellor of Stellenbosch University, acknowledged the oversight role played by the Committee as important. He identified safety on campus, student housing and free and decolonised education, as some of the core challenges the university was facing. The highlights of the university included its leadership position in research and innovation, which was demonstrated by the record number of PhD and Masters’ degrees granted by the university, combined with the number of patents that the university held. The university had a great social impact and a leading co-curriculum which developed sport and leadership skills.

Prof Nico Koopman, the Vice-Rector, Social Impact, Transformation and Personnel, said the transformation agenda was one that was led by the university, for the development of the university itself. The university had made transformation a top priority. The positions of Vice-Rector and Senior Director for Transformation had been established in order to make transformation a reality. A transformation plan had been adopted by the Senate of the university in March 2017. One of the highlights of the transformation plan and Summit resolution had been that there would be no financial exclusion of any students where there was academic merit. The Minister would add five members to the University Council, and that would broadly diversify the Council. Six new plans had been added to the university’s “to do” list. and those included amongst others an employment equity policy and plan, a language policy and an HIV/Aids policy

The Professor also gave a brief review of the staff demographics, such as the headcount by race of academic, professional, support and service staff. A total of R68.6 million had been allocated to the Rector’s Strategic Personnel Fund which had contributed to the appointment and promotion of 33 staff members from January 2016 to February 2017. He also acknowledged the impact the government’s New Generation of Academics Programme (nGAP) that had seen the appointment of 11 staff members at the university between June 2015 and May 2017. The university planned on having a total of 60% of its staff made up of women by 2020. Currently, women made up 57% of the total staff complement.

Prof Arnold Schoonwinkel, Vice-Rector responsible for Learning and Teaching, added that Afrikaans would never be a hindrance to any student that wished to undertake any level of studies at the university. The new language policy which had been implemented at the beginning of this year provided that there would be equitable access to knowledge offerings via the preferred language of learning selected by a student. This inclusive multi-lingual offering was a unique and distinguishing asset of the university.

He said that 24% of all undergraduate students had participated in a survey in which they had been asked whether they felt included when communication was carried out in the living, co-curricula and administrative environment. He said 83%, 80% and 81% of the responses had been in the “generally agree” category.

The university policy for student placement in residences was guided by the need to optimise the university experience as an important factor that contributed to a student’s success. The university was interested in creating a diverse community for both residential and day students. 52 per cent of students living in university accommodation were African, Coloured and Indian (ACI) and 48% were white, while 40% of all undergraduate students stay in campus residences, including private accredited housing. Various projects had been completed in 2016 and 2017, which included the upgrading and installation of wi-wi connections in residences at a cost of R500 000.

Ms Nicolette van der Eijkel: Chief Director, Facilities Management said that the safety of students and staff remained a primary concern for the university. In 2016, there had been a total of 1 370 incidences of crime reported, compared to 1 209 in 2015. The university used a combination of an in-house security team and contracted security services, a technologically advanced operations centre that was comprised of at least 1 000 cameras on campus, and a strategic partnership with both the SA Police Service (SAPS) and the municipal law enforcement agency to combat crime. There was a Rector-Mayor Forum Monitoring and Advisory Committee on Crime, a student pedestrian escort and a shuttle service, among other initiatives to combat and prevent crime.

Ms Lynshay Julies: Students’ Representative Council (SRC), and Dr Adelbert Scholtz, Vice Chairperson: Institutional Reform made presentations to the Committee as well. They both touched on issues such as the efficiency of the language policy from a student’s perspective, the critical issues surrounding the operation of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), and the recruitment of talent to work as academic staff.

In conclusion, Prof De Villiers reminded the Committee of the fact that next year the university would be celebrating 100 years of its existence. The university had a golden thread which would continue running through its rubric. This thread consisted of excellence at one end, and relevance at the other.

The Chairperson of the Committee also reminded the meeting that next year would mark the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s birth.

Discussion

Dr B Bozzoli (DA) asked why the university wanted to start discriminating against men. This was evident from the university’s intention of having 60% of its staff made up of women. She wanted to know how good the quality of interpretation services were, that were provided during classes. How successful was the diversification of student residences? What was the cost of security? She also mentioned that the provision of security services should be a function of national and municipal government, and not the university alone.

Mr M Mbatha (EFF) wanted to know why the Chancellor of the University was not present at the meeting. He expressed disappointment that the Chancellor had not been at the previous two meetings with the Committee as well. How was the university monitoring the changes that were being implemented through the transformation policies? He warned against a cosmetic, meaningless and ineffective policy.

Mr A van der Westhuizen (DA) asked whether the university was consciously recruiting academics from previously disadvantaged groups. What was the difference between the number of students that made enquiries at the institution and those that eventually registered, based on those enquiries. He asked the SRC representatives to give detailed information on the student body’s experiences with NSFAS, and said they shoud let the Committee know what sort of changes they would like to see implemented.

Ms J Killian (ANC) congratulated the institution on the progress it had made with regard to transforming the institution. She also cautioned against cosmetic transformation. She wanted to know more about the practical implementation of the policy, and asked if there was a need for additional languages besides English, Afrikaans and isiXhosa. She also wanted to know what the first-year pass and dropout rates were, and whether language played a role in these rates. What plans did the university have for the current post-graduate students?

Ms M Nkadimeng (ANC) said that it seemed that the transformation agenda was a work in progress, and she applauded the university on the high goals and standards it had set for itself. She was also interested in knowing what the targets for equality were in the Council. How was the university monitoring integration efforts in the residences?  What was the SRC’s opinion of the transformation agenda and progress? Why had some members of the Council not supported the language policy? She had heard that a member of the Council had resigned as a result of the policy. She added that the 24% participation rate in the survey was poor, and called for a new survey altogether.

Mr C Kekana (ANC) said he thought that the policies were too idealistic. He wanted to know whether they were being implemented effectively. Was sexual harassment still an issue at the university, and did female students still have to carry whistles with them? Was the transformation agenda affecting the university’s top achievements and standards?

The Chairperson asked whether in designing the policy, the university had learnt much from the experience of the University of Cape Town. Some students at UCT had expressed the opinion that although they were at the university, they did not feel welcome there. Transformation was not a numbers game, but a human rights issue and as such the whole nation was involved in the agenda. Transformation should not just satisfy the university population, but should accommodate the whole nation. She commented that members of previously disadvantaged groups believed that Stellenbosch University was too expensive, and wondered how the university sought to address that issue. What other measures had the university taken following the “swastika incident” at the university, and was suspending the students sufficient? She also wanted to know how the university sought to deal with the “birds of a same feather flock together” situation. The solution to that problem would not be found in the university’s policy manuals, but required a hands-on approach to dealing with it. She asked the university to submit questions for a meeting that she would be attending with the Committee on Police. She also criticised the SRC for the paucity of information it had provided on issues that the Committee had addressed.

University’s response

Prof De Villiers said that the issues raised in the presentation were common around the world, and were not typically Stellenbosch issues. He said that the Chancellor of the University was a very busy person, and the previous Committee meetings had not been scheduled long in advance, and his schedule had not allowed for his attendance in Parliament. However, he would inform him that Parliament would like to have him present for future meetings.

Prof Schoonwinkel said the difference between policy and implementation was indeed a challenge. There would be other surveys conducted. Various faculties would give feedback in July on what students in these faculties thought about the language policy. The individual faculties would also give suggestions on the sort of adjustments that needed to be made.

The dropout rate for first year students was about 10%, and the pass rate was about 86%. The pass rate varied across faculties -- the medical department stood at 100% and engineering at about 75%, while the graduation rate for the whole institution was about 75%. The university did not take on students and leave them in a worse off position than they were before they enrolled at the university.

The interpretation of lectures was not as good as the lectures themselves, but tutors were able to assist students in the various languages of their choice. Most lectures were offered in English, with some in Afrikaans, and interpretation was always available to students. The university had noticed that by the time students entered into their second year of studies, they would be comfortable with attending lectures in English. Students generally preferred to have lectures delivered in English.

He said that students were involved in the decolonisation of education agenda. A report on the progress of decolonisation would be given to the Senate during June 2017. The university had hubs, the purpose of which was to bring students that lived in residence, and those that did not, together so that they could study and socialise.

Prof De Villiers said that in the previous academic year, 1 486 students had graduated with Masters’ degrees and 278 had graduated with PhDs. He said 40% of these graduates were from the African, Coloured and Indian groups. There were 307 post-doctoral candidates at the university. An academic career took a long time to establish. The university was excited about the nGAP programme, as it would assist in developing future academics.

He cautioned against a one-size-fits-all approach in regard to whether there were any lessons that could be learnt from UCT. However, adversarial relationships were not good for development and transformation, and they should be avoided. He said 2017 had been designated the year of engagement with various stakeholders.

Prof Koopman said he had appreciated the advice about not replacing academics on the basis of gender discrimination. However, a larger number of females were now entering the academic field. The university needed to grow the number of women in senior positions. The university had started the stage of implementing the policies that it had previously adopted. The institution would like to be an excellent institution for vulnerable and marginalised young people.

He said that the issue of the Nazi-like posters required more than just having a policy, but actively engaging in transforming the institution. He acknowledged that transformation was not just a number game, but should be assessed from a qualitative perspective as well.

Prof De Villiers said that the university’s excellence standards would not decline if the university were to increase its diversity. The Stellenbosch medical school was a better place since it had been transformed. He had graduated from the same medical school in 1989, and there had been a lot of improvement in the institution since then.    

Labour Market Intelligence Partnership Report: HSRC briefing

Dr Vijay Reddy, Executive Director: Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), said the research on skills planning for post-school education and training had been commissioned by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). The purpose of the research had been to plan for the development of skills in order to satisfy the requirements of the economy. The DHET had decided to conduct the planning process in preparation for the future.

The 2009 Administration had decided to establish a credible institutional mechanism for skills planning, and this had given rise to the Labour Market Intelligence Partnership (LMIP). There was a lot of information pertaining to the research they had conducted on the website lmip.org.za.  The research had been designed in order to determine both the quality and the quantity of the skills that ought to be developed. There were a total of six themes that the HSRC had developed and worked through, and various organisations had been responsible for conducting the research. She gave examples of the work carried out by the Universities of Cape Town and Rhodes.

Professor Haroon Bhorat, a research leader at LMIP and Professor of Economics at UCT, said the demand for employment and skills should be considered in terms of the structure of the growth of the economy. The contribution of mining and manufacturing to the economy had decreased between 1993 and 2012. In 1993, the sectors had contributed 11% and 19% to gross domestic product (GDP) respectively, compared to 6% and 7% in 2012 respectively. This seemed to be the trend for the future. The implication of this was that the DHET would not want to develop skills that could be used in the mining sector.

The fact that manufacturing was on the decline was an issue that was of concern to economists generally. This was the case because economies generally grew and developed on the strength of the manufacturing sector. However, in South Africa, manufacturing had declined. The South African economy was a services based economy, and these services had had a positive impact on exports, job creation and the GDP at large. Financial services and other tertiary services, like transportation, had also begun to perform better. The services sector tended not to be labour intensive, and relied heavily on technology. He compared this situation to the agriculture and mining sectors, which were generally labour intensive.

Prof Bhorat said that South Africa was on a skills-biased labour demand trajectory. This meant that the type of skills that South Africa had were not the type of skills the economy required. Generally, when there was growth in the economy, jobs ought be created. While there had been a minimum of growth in the manufacturing sector of late, that sector had not been creating any jobs for the population. Mining and agriculture were the sectors that had been affected the most because they were shrinking. He attributed the loss of jobs in the agriculture sector largely to the mandatory minimum wage legislation. 

Roughly six million jobs had been created since 1995, but roughly ten million people had entered the labour market in search of employment. The economy was on a low growth path, but the growth was not labour intensive at all. Manufacturing was the sector that could provide the solution to this situation. The situation overall was that South Africa had an economy that was growing slowly, with a growing number of unskilled workers and a decline in the number of jobs that required unskilled individuals. Since 2001, both agriculture and mining had shed a total of 720 000 jobs. Vulnerable employees were found in the agriculture sector. Manufacturing had created only about 112 000 jobs in a decade, which amounted to approximately 10 000 jobs per year. This figure was dramatically low when compared to the number of people that were entering the labour market. The majority of jobs were being created in the tertiary sector.

He said the largest creator of employment was the public sector, which was growing too fast because it was not linked to any production. Transport, wholesale and retail, and the financial services were the biggest creators of employment. It did make sense that wholesale and retail were growing, because the economy was not an investment-based economy, but rather a consumption based economy. Most of the skills biased labour trajectory being seen in South Africa was because of technological changes. He added that the “fourth industrial revolution” and the pressure on wages had contributed to the reduction in jobs created.

Discussion

Mr Kekana asked Prof Bhorat to identify the four industrial revolutions. The manufacturing issue had been identified in previous meetings and research,  and he wanted to know why the country had not been able to put the recommendations into effect.

Ms Nkadimeng asked what sort of skills the DHET needed to develop in order to boost manufacturing. She also wanted to know if the country’s “junk” status would affect these developments.

Ms Killian asked what South Africa could do as a middle income nation to boost its manufacturing. She suggested a comparative analysis with other nations in order to assist South Africa to determine the right direction to take.

Mr E Siwela (ANC) asked why a structural mismatch existed, and how the government could rectify the situation.

Dr Bozzoli asked how a skills-led development path could be established as compared to a growth-led development path. She also asked whether the skills development should precede growth, or whether growth should start the process.

Mr Van der Westhuizen asked whether there was a relationship between the situation described in the presentation and the dysfunctional schools and poor quality technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges. 

The Chairperson said she was not too happy with the fact that the presentation had discussed only the end result of the situation, but had not addressed the causes.

LMIP’s response

Prof Bhorat responded that the second industrial revolution had been the micro-electronics revolution, the third had been the information revolution, and the fourth was the robotics generation. This had become important, because the number of jobs created by the industrial revolution in the manufacturing sector was much higher than the jobs that would be created now in the same sector because of the use of technology. Manufacturing had become capital intensive.

He pointed out that there was a minor danger in putting skills ahead of growth, because this may lead to an over-production of skills. However, in the case of South Africa, this was not a danger. It was always better to pair skills with growth. He pointed out that R2 billion of subsidies for the motor manufacturing industry in South Africa had created only 1 000 jobs. He recommended that the government should look into light manufacturing, as that would create more jobs. An example would be a desalination project to address the water crisis in Cape Town, but a better solution would be to drill boreholes because it was labour intensive. He said the informal sector was a sector that should be allowed to operate in the cities because it created a lot of jobs. The Committee needed to work on the type of skills that students were being equipped for. He advised against developing skills in the humanities.

The Chairperson suggested that the presenters come back to more detailed presentations and to allow the Committee Members to engage effectively with the presentations.

Ms Kilian proposed that the presenters should be given an additional opportunity to present their findings at a future date to be determined.

Dr Reddy responded that the South African society laid bare a variety of conundrums that made a comparative analysis very difficult. Generally, the quality and quantity of skills and education in the country were very low. In other countries, the analysis that was conducted in order to determine which sectors needed to be developed was conducted by analysing the number of vacancies in each sector, but she cautioned that this method could be used only in a developed economy. In some countries, the government conducted the analysis and dictated to the department of education what sectors ought to be developed. South Africa did use the intervention approach, and said that in skills planning it was not possible to exclude the unemployed people.

The DHET should be the department responsible for skills planning and not, for example, the Department of Labour. She motivated this position by saying that the DHET was in a position to inform what training should be given to the population at large. Skills planning involved both the government and society at large. The responsibility could not fall solely on the DHET’s doorstep. She said the different levels and departments of governments would have to work together in order to achieve the skills development goals.

Dr Michael Rogan, a research leader at the LMIP and a senior researcher in the Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU) within the Institute of Social and Economic Research at Rhodes University, said the level of youth unemployment in South Africa was one of the highest in the world. He estimated that roughly half of the youth between the ages 22 and 29 were not employed or engaged in any education or training. There was strong racial influence in the percentages of unemployment. The highest unemployment rates were found in the black population.

Enrolment in vocational education needed to be increased by about 130% by 2030 in order to meet the skills development goals that his organisation envisaged for South Africa, and by 2030, the DHET ought to have moved the focus of studies from the humanities to science and engineering subjects. This needed to be done because it would assist in developing the economy. It was very important to know what happened to graduates once they left the educational institutions. There was a lot of information on the lmip.org.za website on how to address these issues. He encouraged Members of the committee to access the website for more information.

He said a study that had been conducted by Stellenbosch Uiversity had indicated that out of every 100 students that started primary education, only six successfully graduated with a Bachelor’s degree.

Human Sciences Research Council

Ms Bongiwe Mncwango, Senior Researcher: HSRC, said that a study of attitudes in the work place was very important in the designing of policy that may influence future law. The views of those who participated in the labour market should be included in all levels of planning as well. There was very limited understanding of what the public expected from the work environment, and this understanding ought to be acquired from both the employed and the unemployed. The public considered job security an important aspect of a job, and this had been found to be the most important aspect in comparison with other qualities. Workers also considered, as a top priority, the ability of the job to meet their individual economic needs. Just over half of the people the HSRC had interviewed had indicated that they were either over or under qualified for the job they held. She added that the less educated an individual was, the lower the prospects were of that person receiving additional training in the work place.

The meeting was adjourned.