Survival of universities requires realism on fees
MISSING MIDDLE: Last year’s student protests achieved much, but a thoughtful activism is needed, the authors say bursts, which must then be capitalised upon by astute leaders who drive through sustainable change.
But this requires political nuance and an understanding of trade-offs. What is often not understood about last year’s protests is that while students did indeed force the state to make available resources for a freeze on fees, the costs were borne by marginalised communities whose social support programmes were cut.
Unintended consequences can arise from social action. This does not mean action must not be undertaken, but it does require that social mobilisation must not be romanticised. Moreover, it should be accompanied by thoughtful activism.
Here is the danger of a misreading of the political moment or an adventurist display of social action. State elites could very well concede the demand, but as on the rest of the continent, they might fail to make available the resources for their populist concession. The net effect will be — as it has been in other African societies — the immediate collapse of quality higher education.
We are aware that some have suggested we must implode higher education, and only then can we rebuild it from the ashes.
But such individuals have never built anything worth a damn. Moreover, METHINKS HE PROTESTS TOO MUCH: In his capacity as vice-chancellor, Adam Habib, left, listens to a University of the Witwatersrand student who handed him a memorandum of demands many of these people, who we have cynically called “members of the Pol Pot brigade”, will not have to pay the costs of the collapse of universities. Often, they already have their degrees, their children are in private schools, and they carry second passports.
The consequences of these choices will ultimately be borne by future generations of students, and society as a whole, because of the entrenchment of inequalities that would likely flow from the collapse of public higher education.
It is the prospect of this outcome that has galvanised the two other strands in this debate.
The first, advocated largely by government officials and even some associated with the ministerial commission on a fee regime, makes the case for a consumer price index increase in university fees.
They recognise that costs within universities increase beyond CPI. What is referred to as higher education inflation occurs because a portion of a university’s costs — library books and journals, highlevel research equipment, collaborative research costs — is heavily dependent on exchange rates. Estimates from Universities South Africa and even the ministerial commission suggest this inflation is up to 2% higher than CPI.
Despite this, and recognising the adverse economic circumstances we are all embroiled in, these individuals advocate the compromise of a CPI increase.
The hope is that this compromise would avoid a new round of student protests, but this is unlikely.
Social struggles are not a result of rational processes. They are a product of interests and power, and no rational engagement about evidence is going to prevent protests. It should be remembered that the constituency that has led the student protests is essentially the “missing middle” — students whose parents, mostly upper-working class and lower-middle class, earn too much to qualify for state funding. Research modelling the impact of a CPI increase shows it would adversely affect the traditional and comprehensive universities in the metropolitan areas, the very institutions where the missing middle is located.
Just as importantly, many universities’ decisions to insource vulnerable workers has added 3% to 4% to expenditure, which means that costs in many urban universities are increasing at 12%.
In this context, a simple CPI increase would be about 6% below real cost increases. The research that models the impact of a CPI increase also shows that if insourcing costs are included, 15 out of a sample of 21 universities would be financially worse off — a dramatic blow with severe consequences for the quality of the one functioning higher education system in Africa.
The final strand therefore insists that the fee increase should be higher education inflation at a minimum. This could be done by sharing the obligation, with student fees accounting for a portion and the difference being made up by a separate state grant. But how are students to afford this?
We may have to use the banking system. Sizwe Nxasana, chairman of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme and the previous CEO of FNB, is working on a model to fund primarily the missing middle by using a mixture of government guarantees, social responsibility bonds and other financing mechanisms. This could be adapted with academics Daniel Bradlow and Eddie Webster’s ideas of a perpetual bond (which has no maturity date) tied to retirement options which is more cost-effective from the students’ perspective.
This is not the best scenario for it would entail students graduating with debt. Moreover, it could further consolidate inequality.
But it does address our immediate challenge, which is to enable access to university education for all who qualify.
We are in a moment where we have to choose between unpalatable options. We wish this were not the case, but social change has to happen within its context, and not in an idealised fantasy world. Our responsibility is not to avoid making a decision, but to make the decision that is least offensive. This decision need not be permanent. It can simply be a choice to enable both some progress and the continuation of the greater fight.
This is, after all, how most social change happens. Systemic and societal transformations do not happen in a single moment. If anything, they result from the accumulation of smaller social reforms that then collectively transform our society.
But this requires political nuance and integrity from our leaders. Without these, we risk unintended consequences that could cripple our societies. Some factions of the current cohort of student activists have accused Nelson Mandela and his generation of having sold out and compromised on the principle of socioeconomic inclusion.
Is it not ironic that they risk doing the same by pursuing maximalist demands that could effectively destroy the very foundation of quality higher education in South Africa? Now, more than ever, there is a need for a thoughtful activism.
Habib and Bawa are chairman and CEO, respectively, of Universities South Africa
The students achieved more in 10 days than vice-chancellors achieved in 10 years
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