In the latest move in the debate on UCT’s admissions policy, the DA Student’s Organisation (Daso) has called for race criteria to be scrapped and replaced with criteria such as students’ school background and socio-economic status.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Daso said students with a similar background and education should compete on the same terms for a spot at the university.
Daso was responding to UCT’s call last month for public comment on its admissions policy which is being reviewed. UCT’s admissions policy uses race as a proxy for classifying students as disadvantaged.
Daso’s submission is one of 85 under review by the university’s Commission into Student Admissions.
But SA Students Congress (Sasco) Western Cape chairman Sello Nkatho said the organisation did not want a change to the university’s admission policy.
“The apartheid system used education as a tool to suppress the views of the majority of the people, and the disparities within education are still apparent,” said Nkatho.
Asked whether students from well-off black families should be included through the university’s race-based admission policy, Nkatho said every effort should be made to favour those from poor backgrounds.
Daso member and former UCT student representative council president Amanda Ngwenya said the organisation rejected UCT’s current policy and the university should not “place itself in a position where it decides for individuals that they are disadvantaged, whether they like it or not”.
At UCT whites are the largest group at 37 percent, and 21 percent are black, 15 percent coloured, seven percent Indian, 19 percent international.
In October the South African Students Congress (Sasco) defeated rivals Daso, for the first time in three years, to win the most seats in UCT’s SRC elections.
Ngwenya, a third-year law student, said Daso’s approach would achieve fairness, better academic outcomes and diversity at UCT.
She said “genuine redress” could be achieved by asking applicants for details of the schools they had attended, their parents’ salaries and their parents’ level of post-schooling education.
“Universities cannot, however, be expected to compensate for 12 years of bad schooling. It is the responsibility of the primary and secondary school system to produce a fair distribution of academic ability.”
She said attempts to fix racial outcomes led to:
* Candidates being admitted who are not actually able to succeed at university, and failed.
* Candidates not being selected who might have succeeded.
* Matrics who had the knowledge and skills to improve the country not being accepted to university.
UCT spokesperson Gerda Kruger said the submissions received had reflected a wide range of views from staff, students, alumni, parents, academics and student political groups, among others.
She said the commission would take some time to consider the submissions before listening to oral submissions. It would then deliberate and report its findings to the UCT Council in October.
In a snap survey on campus on Tuesday, students had mixed views.
Thandiwe Ndlovu, 22, questioned the misrepresentation of black students in her final year class.
“UCT is the best university in Africa. Are we saying the best university in Africa should have a misrepresentation of black people? The admissions policy should stay.
Tharwin Isaacs, 21, disagreed.
“The policy’s bad because white kids have to get six As when a black student needs about two As. With those two As, he’s not likely to make it through university because his standards aren’t high enough. The gap in standards is too big.”
Zainab Kagee, 18, said the admissions policy should consider background rather than race.
“I know black people who went to Westerford. You can’t exactly say they are disadvantaged because that is a good school. You can’t look at race alone. Some black people had a really good education,” she said.
Niccolo Passerin, 21, said the quota system was precisely why he had not been admitted to his preferred course of study.
“It’s nonsense. It’s unconstitutional to allow certain people to get a tertiary education without good school records. That’s why I didn’t get into architecture.”
Kruger said UCT had regularly revisited the policy over the years.
“UCT reviews its policy each year, and this year we wanted to broaden the engagement and to hear even more views on the matter.”
She said the Council and Vice-Chancellor Max Price had consistently said the use of race in the admission policy was undesirable and that alternative proxies for disadvantage should be identified.
Last night, while addressing a group of UCT students on the relevance of race in post-apartheid South Africa, DA Parliamentary leader Lindiwe Mazibuko suggested the school quintile system be used to “target entrenched disadvantage in Higher Education”.
“Using the quintile rank of the school from which a university applicant matriculated – which is based on poverty levels – is a better way to ensure that young people from poorer communities get a decent shot at higher education.” - Cape Times
* Additional reporting Sihle Mlambo, the Cadet News Agency.