Freedom in the context of higher education
A FEW weeks ago, we saw tragic scenes of students protesting at the start of the academic year in terms of academic exclusion based mainly on challenges related to the affordability of higher education and the long-standing, burning challenge of historical debt, taking us back to the #Feesmustfall protests of 2015.
Police fired rubber bullets at the students and one person, a young, innocent bystander, lost his life in the crossfire. The protests were convened under the painful banner of “Asinamali”, translated to “we have no money”.
How do we blame the students for something that is not of their making? Can we apportion any blame for young people who come from vulnerable and marginalised households, who work hard despite the limitations of the public school infrastructure, and who secure good results, only to be told when they arrive that there is insufficient funding for them to further their education?
Many of them carry on their backs their families’ hopes and dreams for the future, and many are the first to ever attend university.
This article isn’t limited to higher education – it’s about freedom – but higher education is a fascinating perspective from which to view South Africa post democracy through the eyes of a young person.
In many ways, higher education is an oxymoron of a democratic modern day South Africa. We have deepened access to higher education, producing four times the number of black graduates than we did in 1994. Many of these graduates have gone on to become pioneers and global shapers in their respective fields.
We have produced graduates who are now leading South African and international companies and institutions. They, and many others, represent the epitome of South African educational and youth excellence. Yet, we are also faced with severe inequalities in higher education. Every year an entire cohort of young people cannot attend university and TVET colleges because they can’t afford to.
We see devastating images of students sleeping in libraries due to lack of funding and the high costs associated with student accommodation. We hear of students whose performance has suffered because they do not have meals every day. We note that historically disadvantaged institutions face inequalities in terms of outcomes, ultimately affecting student performance.
These are painful reminders of the inequalities in our society and how they manifest in the lives of South Africans every day.
Funding of higher education in South Africa is comparatively lower than other countries which are at a similar level of economic development. There is also skewed participation in the higher education sector in terms of race. Of those young people who drop out of higher education, 70% are of lower economic status. Race and economic status both play a role in terms of educational disadvantage in higher education in South Africa.
The role of National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in increasing access to higher education cannot be refuted. In 1991, Tefsa (Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa) funded 7240 students. In 2019/2020 NSFAS funded 550000 students across universities and TVET colleges. There is a growing body of evidence that NSFAS has an impact not only on access, but also on student progress and mobility.
An analysis of the period 2005 – 2015 indicates that 91% of NSFAS student graduates have found employment. University graduates are at 95%, which is higher than TVET graduates. The concerning data is that only 46% of NSFAS students graduate.
Given the substantial financial investment and high employment absorption of NSFAS graduates, this graduation rate is disappointing. There is also a higher employment absorption for students who are from engineering, health professions and related clinical sciences, education, and architecture and the built environment fields, rather than for graduates from public management and services, social sciences and languages, linguistics and literature fields.
How do we begin to solve the quagmire of higher education funding? Over the next few months the Department of Higher Education and Training and the National Treasury will work on a sustainable funding model to ensure that there is sufficient coverage and that all young people who have worked hard and are eligible to study can do so.
While we may be committed to different ideals, whether we find ourselves on the left or the right, it is important that we listen to all proposals that are on the table and find an innovative solution that ultimately reduces exclusion and benefits society.
The Treasury should consider the impact of spending money on higher education. This spending subsidises poor households, stabilises universities – which are huge local employers, spenders and tenants – and props up young people, who are at the heart of the Covid-19 crises.
Is there a case for pursuing an alternative path outside of the austerity measures that the Treasury has chosen for higher education?
Freedom in our context means many things. But opportunity surely forms part of freedom. And opportunity changes everything. We have made inroads to securing more opportunities for young people but, as recent events have demonstrated, there remains more work to be done.
Freedom must be perfected as we build a more fair and equitable union.