EDUCATION STUDIES
Our universities are failing to produce graduates with the range of skills necessary to underpin South Africa's development, said two of the country's top educationists, UCT vice-chancellor Max Price and Development Bank of South Africa policy analyst Graeme Bloch. ADRIAN HADLAND reports.
Price and Bloch spoke at a public debate hosted by the Isandla Institute in Cape Town entitled: ‘Does higher education produce the knowledge, skills, competencies and people needed for South Africa's development?' ‘If we want to be a winning nation, we've got to prepare our graduates in the right way,' Price told the audience. ‘Employers say the quality of degrees and training is not good enough.' A report in 2007 found that many of the country's graduates lacked communication skills, writing skills and the ability to think critically, Price said. The fault was often a learning system based on rote-learning rather than problem-solving and flexible thinking. While some universities fared better than others, all had to draw on a school system that was simply not preparing young people to succeed at the tertiary level. No plan, no progressBloch, who is shortly publishing a book with the title Toxic Mix - what is wrong with South Africa's schools and how to fix it, said higher education in the country is poorly funded using an unhelpful model. Universities are forced to function on year-by-year budgets so they can barely develop even a three-year plan. This means their operating margins are hardly viable and students, inevitably, are the ones who end up being squeezed. The lack of a national vision for the future of higher education is possibly one of the most serious problems for the sector, according to Bloch. ‘We certainly don't have a plan, and therefore don't have buy-in,' he told the audience, expressing the hope that with the recent creation of a ministry dedicated to higher education that this might be addressed. For the time being, he argued, universities are failing to produce the skills and competenciesnecessary to fuel development with a cadre of trained professionals. ‘Are we producing the skills? No. I don't think we are producing the architects, the accountants, the teachers ... or the skills of social critique. What are universities doing to provide those skills? I don't see much of a plan.' In addition, universities are failing to engage with society or to grapple with important issues such as the meaning of the transition or the dynamics of our political life. This disengagement will lead to society growing disinterested in universities and their work and to the diminishment of the status and role of intellectuals. Unequal school systemsA recent report indicated that as rapidly as the demographic profile of universities has changed over the last 15 years, racism continues to be a problem. ‘At all our universities, black people feel uncomfortable, alienated and don't feel their institution works for them. This is a problem,' Bloch said. ‘We need to take these issues really seriously.' Price told the debate that between 30 and 40% of people who start at university finish their degrees. At UCT, closer to 75% got their degrees. The quality of the school had a powerful influence on whether people would make it through university, with higher numbers of township school-leavers falling by the wayside than had come through the Model C system. ‘The schooling system is the bottleneck. But if we drop our [selection] criteria, the failure rate will go up to between 70 and 90% and that's not fair on them or on their families, who have often sacrificed so much'. Price said that in order to fulfil their role in society to produce graduates, well-rounded citizens and leaders, universities need to take a fresh look at themselves. Merged and blurredThe merger of South Africa's higher educationinstitutions has blurred the strengths and weaknesses of different universities, he argued. This means there is an over emphasis on research-oriented universities, such as UCT, and the marginalisation of universities that should be teaching more practical or more generic skills. ‘That's not what the country needs,' Price said. ‘Part of the reason we're failing is because we're not doing that differentiation.' He pointed to the United States where higher education colleges are offering two-year bridging diplomas. Graduates from these colleges are sought after by the big universities because they can prove they have the stamina, independence and skills to achieve a tertiary qualification. Price also questioned whether it is a university's role to produce graduates with the skills and competencies needed for development. ‘Are we training institutions? Should we be de-emphasising the humanities and liberal arts?' The first job of universities is to prepare citizens, leaders, ‘people who can think', Price said. Overseas, that often means employers chasing graduates who have studied Latin, Greek and History and who have demonstrated the sophisticated critical skills
necessary to succeed in the complex, modern workplace. ‘What we need is a lot of leaders,' he said. Dr Adrian Hadland is a director of the research programme on Democracy and Governance.
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