Transformation of universities is a hot topic
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande says the transformation of the country’s tertiary institutions is non-negotiable and the government will soon implement a series of measures aimed at addressing imbalances which still exist in the system.
Such measures, he said, included reviewing the existing funding model for universities. Nzimande said the current funding formula was fundamentally flawed as “it maintains privilege in some institutions and keeps others perpetually disadvantaged”.
A task team will be appointed early next year to review this formula, he added.
Lashed
He lashed out at critics who have suggested that changing the funding model in favour of the previously disadvantaged institutions could have an unfavourable effect on other universities and could lead to the lowering of standards at some institutions.
“The DA concocts scarecrows about the lowering of standards every time I mention transformation in higher education. Let me state clearly that the issue of transformation is not up for debate and a transformed higher education system is non-negotiable.
“The DA’s agenda is transparent, parading as champions of excellence when all they are doing is trying to maintain and defend islands of privilege. The problem with the DA is that they have equated transformation and upliftment of the black majority to lowering of standards.”
He said the department would also review the financial assistance scheme for poor students saying that the existing National Student Financial Aid Scheme had many deficiencies.
This puts the mainly black poor students at a disadvantage when compared to their white counterparts.
“It is generally recognised that the scheme has acute shortcomings in providing adequate support for needy students.
“As a result of these shortcomings, poor students and their parents have to resort to undesirable options such as loan sharks to finance their studies. This practice perpetuates a cycle of debt in thousands of poor households around the country and needs to come to an end.”
Also of concern to him were the racist incidents that continue to be reported at some institutions of higher learning.
He said transformation of higher education was needed to avoid incidents such as that at the University of the Orange Free State’s Reitz Hostel being repeated.
Microcosms
“Our university communities are microcosms of racial and gender interaction in our broader society, and therefore it is of deep concern how prevalent various forms of discrimination are in higher education, as reflected in the Soudien report into racism at tertiary academic institutions”
While stressing the need for university education, Nzimande said that his department would now put more focus on promoting FET colleges which he said would now be transferred from provincial to national competence.
He said his department wanted to increase enrolment at FET colleges to at least 1-million by 2014. He hoped to promote these as colleges of choice rather “than how they are now viewed, as consolation prizes when university entrance is declined”.
“We need to change the mindset that university education is the only real tertiary education.
“Our students even commit suicide when they fail to get exemptions which will qualify them for university entrance. If we do not change this mindset we will be sentencing our children to a life of doing nothing.”
Source: IOL
admin @ December 10, 2009