No-fee policy ‘dooms SA’s universities’

THERE is no hope for South Africa’s universities, said outgoing University of the Free State vice-chancellor Professor Jonathan Jansen on Wednesday.

Addressing the Cape Town Club prior to his departure for America, Jansen said history would show that the turning point in the destruction of South African universities was when President Jacob Zuma caved in to pressure for a 0% fee increase.

This was despite Minister Blade Nzimande’s position of a 6% fee increase.

“In the meantime‚ the political situation has caught up with us such that it is now impossible to ask for anything in terms of a fee increase and that is our dilemma.”

“In the next 10 to 15 years – and I don’t say this easily‚ I looked at all the sums‚ I have done the financials of all the universities‚ I have looked at the politics of the system – the top 10 universities in this country will look like the bottom 10‚” he said.

“And the reason for that is that what is happening now is not sustainable.

“It is totally and completely unsustainable.”

While interviewing 11 other vice-chancellors for his new book‚ Whack-a-Mole University ‚ Jansen said that for the first time he gained insight into the struggles of leaders caught between two forces – the reality of the government not having money and a student body that does not want to pay for anything.

There isn’t a day‚ Jansen said‚ when vice-chancellors go to bed without thinking about what issues would come up the following day.

Jansen described how he sat with the likes of Max Price‚ Dr Sizwe Mabizela‚ Dr Cheryl de la Re and Tyrone Pretorius.

Jansen said that while it was not his intention to judge the two factions – students and government – he emphasised that it depended on vice-chancellors “to make sure the university still stands”.

Jansen will step down on August 31 to take up an invitation as a Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies in the Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University in the US in September.

He leaves behind an ongoing national financial crisis in the South African tertiary education sector.

Jansen proposed some solutions to the funding crisis:

● “I do believe that education of poor children must be free. You can’t squeeze water out of a stone.

● “The middle class must pay.

“I haven’t heard a clear stance from their leadership on that issue.

● “The government must find a way of recouping the money given to students so that the system is sustainable.” students