Getting into university takes planning

WIDENING access to higher education is a global concern, especially for those that were previously denied access.

Former president Nelson Mandela, in 2003, said “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.

The need for and the benefits of higher education have long been established.

This powerful weapon has also become the pipeline to jobs within a context of increasing levels of unemployment.

Certification has now come to be the norm in accessing employment irrespective of its resonance to the needs of the job.

Attending university has also become trendy and uppermost in youths aspirations of post school education as part of the youth culture.

Tracking the expansion of higher education within South Africa reveals that enrolment figures have increased from 495 000 in 1994 to 985 000 in 2015, suggesting a poor rate of expansion relative to its expanding demands and in terms of global norms.

Higher education institutions can realistically take in about 17% of matrics according to the Council on Higher Education’s statistics.

There are several challenges to expanding higher education. One is that of infrastructure development and the cost thereof.

While attempts have been made to expand the infrastructure to accommodate an increasing demand for spaces, the pace of expansion is slow.

Cost

Another is that the cost of higher education is increasing substantially with many graduates having large amounts of debt to pay.

From 2018, this burden has been lessened because of free higher education.

The implications of this is that the State has to spend substantially more on higher education and concomitantly, further expansion of higher education to meet a growing demand is limited.

The demand for spaces within higher education will continue to increase but the number of spaces available will remain the same.

The implications of this mismatch between demand and capacity is that the selection criteria for seats within a programme of study within public higher education institutions will become more stringent.

In addition, for high end career options, the number of spaces available for new intake is limited due to the nature of the programme demands.

Hence securing a place in these programmes is a prized possession.

This means that if one wants to secure a place at a university of choice then one has to perform extremely well in Grade 11 as these results are usually used for pre-selection into a programme.

Equally Grade 12 results need to be good to confirm such placements.

Of concern in the application process is the Central Applications Process for access to universities within KwaZulu-Natal.

Choices

There is one Central Application Process and prospective students are expected to make up to six choices within a mix of institutions and programmes.

Invariably many students who do perform well do not get accepted in a programme because of the rankings they make within these six choices.

Most programme managers select students who have made their programme and their institution the first choice.

If one had placed a particular programme in the second or subsequent choice, they would be by-passed for selection.

This process of selection of students for places seriously disadvantages prospective students and often they are left without places because the places have been filled by students who made the institution and programme the first choice on the application form.

Noting the expanding demand for university education and the limited number of seats for new admissions, the private higher education system has evolved as a substantial player, offering most programmes that public universities offer.

The private higher education institutions are likely to expand substantially and will be part of the global private higher education system educating the masses of prospective students.

The challenge, however, is that one has to ensure the private higher education institution and the programmes that they offer are accredited and approved.

It is unlikely that the public higher education system will expand significantly over the next 10 years. This is due mainly because of enrolment planning, slow pace of increasing capacity and limited financial resources.

Hence the demand for public higher education will continue to increase while the infrastructure and capacity will remain roughly the same.

A suggestion is that if one wants to access a programme of choice plan ahead, work hard to achieve the required matric results and make informed decisions when making applications.