Durban - Seventeen of South Africa’s public universities - including the University of KwaZulu-Natal - have backed a proposal to extend undergraduate degree and diploma qualifications by a year.
But while they agree that an extra year of study is likely to be the most effective way to tackle the high student drop-out rate, their support is not without conditions, according to a document penned by the Council on Higher Education.
The document collates the responses by 22 of the country’s 26 public universities to the proposal to reform the undergraduate curriculum.
The proposal was formulated by a task team of the council in 2013. Its research revealed that more than half of South African students dropped out of university, and just one in four graduates in the minimum time.
The task team argued that restructuring the curriculum was the most cost-effective way to deal with the under-preparedness of school-leavers.
The task team projected that the new structure would produce 28% more graduates, and cost an additional 16% in government subsidies. To produce the same increase in graduates without curriculum reform would need universities to increase their intake by 37%, and more than double the amount of funding that the government would have put towards curriculum reform.
Spokesman Lesiba Seshoka told The Mercury that in principle, UKZN agreed with introducing extended degrees, but believed that universities must have flexibility. In degree or diploma programmes where there was a low number of drop-outs, there should not have to be an overhaul.
UKZN’s stance was echoed by many other universities, according to the Council on Higher Education document. It states that there was universal acknowledgment of the problem of low throughput rates, but that two of the universities against the proposal said their throughput rates were better than the national average.
Some universities argued that interventions needed be made at school level.
There was concern on the part of a number of universities that having a four-year degree or diploma as the norm, as well as an accelerated programme that could be completed in three years, would deepen inequities in the higher education system.
The fear was that a higher proportion of white and privately educated students would get into the accelerated stream, and that well-resourced universities would offer predominantly accelerated courses. For a number of universities, whether the proposal should be implemented was dependent on a commitment from the government to funding.
Finding more staff was the most serious concern.
After considering the report of its task team, the Council on Higher Education made the following recommendations to Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande in December:
* To adopt the proposal for an extended and flexible curriculum.
* The reform should apply to both public and private universities, to all undergraduate qualifications that currently carry a minimum of 360 credits (three years) or 480 credits (four years).
* Exceptions may be made in cases where the throughput rates for a qualification show that an extended curriculum is not a necessity.
* The first phase of implementation should be a national pilot project, in which only one or two carefully selected qualifications are redesigned.
Nzimande’s spokesman, Khaye Nkwanyana, said the advice of the council was being considered.
The Mercury