The future of South African universities: What Role For Business? Part 1

cde round table
  • The university sector in South Africa is in crisis. In a CDE Roundtable discussion on the role of business in universities, participants were asked to identify major issues affecting the university sector.
  • From 1994 to 1997, the matric cohort grew by over 5% per annum, but university entrance passes dropped from 88 000 to 69 000.
  • There are too many ‘universities’ but not enough institutions to respond to the country’s development needs.
  • Universities lack resources to institute new programmes because only existing student enrolments are subsidy-earning and when a new programme is launched it takes two years for the subsidy to come through.
  • Business is unlikely to commit additional intellectual and financial resources without clarity of purpose and a sense of forward movement in higher education.

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