Durban - Violent on-campus strikes were “killing” the reputations of universities and colleges and hurting the chances of their graduates’ finding jobs.
Higher Education Deputy Minister Mduduzi Manana told student leaders that the time for violent protests “had come, and gone” and impressed on them the balance between the right to raise issues “sharply and robustly” with a sense of “integrity, respect and discipline”.
Manana, whose office is tasked with handling student leadership, made the comment after a meeting with the University of Zululand student representative council at the weekend.
The deputy minister had been invited to be introduced to Unizul’s new executive management team, and had congratulated its administrator, Professor Chris de Beer, and vice-chancellor, Professor Fikile Mazibuko, for the “exceptional” work they had done in turning the institution around and bring ing it back “from the brink of collapse”.
“The kind of degeneration that leads to strikes as a result of misunderstandings with management is killing the reputation not just of the institution, but also of the students that the SRC are leading. We learnt from our interactions with industry and employers that they tend to absorb the graduates of more reputable institutions as opposed to institutions where there were many strikes, the destroying of university infrastructure and all of those things,” Manana said.
He said he had explained to the SRC that the backlog in the National Student Financial Aid Scheme for this year was R1.3 billion, and that his department had placed the provision and revamping of student housing high on its priority list.
Campuses in KwaZulu-Natal had been plagued by student protests related to those issues. Nationally, there had been 39 such protests during the past five years.
A ministerial committee appointed to probe the availability and condition of student accommodation across the country, and whose findings were released last year, uncovered massive shortages and unsafe and unhygienic living conditions.
It also found that some students who received National Student Financial Aid Scheme assistance and lived in university residences were going hungry either because the scheme’s meal allowance was too little, or because the fund was being mismanaged.
As The Mercury reported last month, the province’s universities planned to spend at least R1bn on building new student housing over the next three years.
Unizul would embark on a R550 million infrastructure development programme for its KwaDlangezwa campus, which would include the construction of two residences, computer laboratories for resident students, a disability unit, a student services building, and sports facilities.
Manana said there was a growing realisation that where accommodation could not be provided, some female students depended on sugar daddies for somewhere to live, rather than abandon their studies.
The financial aid scheme allocation to the historically disadvantaged institutions had to be increased, but the sooner free higher education could be introduced, “the better”, he said.
At its Polokwane and Mangaung national conferences, the ANC resolved to introduce free higher education – which Manana believed could become a reality within five to 10 years.
The Mercury