South African v-cs warn of 'tertiary apartheid'

South Africa's council on higher education this week began reviewing radical reforms for the country's universities and technikons amid warnings from vice-chancellors of a return to tertiary apartheid.

Vice-chancellors have unanimously rejected "rigid and prescriptive" draft recommendations drawn up by the council that they believe will limit access, lower quality, reproduce social and structural inequalities, create bureaucracy and "cause unnecessary cost and disruption".

The draft proposals, published in April, set out to tackle problems ranging from highly variable standards to a lack of funding and declining student numbers, and to improve quality, efficiency and "meaningful equity" across the system.

Under the proposals, institutions would be graded into five categories based on the quality and level of their courses. Three-year degrees would be lengthened to four years.

Weak institutions would focus on undergraduate courses, teaching and academic development, while leading institutions would develop research and high-level study and would apply strict student admission criteria.

But the South African Association of University Vice-Chancellors fears such changes would entrench deep inequalities left over from an apartheid era that favoured white institutions and undermined access to top universities for disadvantaged students.

Association chief executive officer Piyushi Kotecha said: "The present flexible multi-admissions route, which allows able disadvantaged students to benefit from higher education will be reversed and restricted to allow access predominantly to the middle classes."

The association argues that, while differentiated higher education is essential, rigid typology and changes to degrees will not solve South Africa's higher education problems.

Vice-chancellors believe the council's proposals compromise institutional autonomy and are deeply worried about the separation of teaching and research.

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