Durban - South Africa will run out of academics unless drastic measures are taken to shore up the numbers, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the seventh annual South African Technology Conference (SATN) held at the Fairmont Zimbali Resort in Ballito, he said the average age of South Africa’s academics was 55, meaning they were not far off from retirement.
“The challenge is multi-faceted, having to do with the ageing workforce; developments in higher education worldwide that demand ever greater levels of expertise from staff; the relatively under-qualified academic workforce; low numbers of postgraduate students - representing an inadequate pipeline; and the slow pace of regeneration and change on the part of the sector itself,” Nzimande said.
To partly address this, he said several grants had been made available.
They include the Research Development Grant of R190 million, aimed at developing research capacity among academic staff so that they could contribute to post-graduate teaching and research and increasing the number of doctoral qualifications.
The shortage of academics was affecting the quality of study, the minister warned.
The Department of Higher Education and Training was finalising a strategy to build capacity and develop future generations of academics.
“The plan takes as a starting point the urgent and challenging imperative to recruit, support and retain black and female academic staff to address their very serious under-representation at all levels in the sector,” Nzimande said.
The plan also recognised the need for creating awareness of academic work as a career that is “attractive and attainable for those with ability”. It also sets out - for new and existing staff - pathways through which they can be “effectively inducted and thus promoted in time”.
He praised the SATN for promoting academic quality and employability of technology students and for influencing the development of national policies.
The network was established in 2006 by several of the country’s technology universities. Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) joined in 2009 and Polytechnic of Namibia the following year.
MUT is this year’s conference host and its vice-chancellor and principal, Professor Mashupye Kgaphola, its chairman.
Kgaphola said the uMlazi-based university was using part of its Teaching and Learning Development grant funding to hire senior students as tutors.
Nzimande praised this, saying it was in line with the department’s plan to prioritise first-year students.
He said student success required attention and graduation rates had to increase. More support should be offered to students to help them cope with higher education demands.
This was especially significant in the light of the 40 percent failure rate of first-year students on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), he said.
Nzimande said only a third of the students on the government loan and bursary scheme finished in good time while another third dropped out.
He said NSFAS had grown over the past five years faster than the capacity to administer the scheme. The shortage of staff in financial aid offices at institutions made some vulnerable to corruption, he said.
However, with the auditor-general now auditing NSFAS and a new system of administration being piloted, the funding higher education was bound to be smoother, the minister added.
The SATN conference runs until Wednesday.
Daily News