A racial dispute over the admission policy at the country’s only veterinary institute of its kind has resurfaced with allegations that white students are being unfairly refused entry in favour of black students.
The issue has brought into the spotlight the issue of transformation at higher education institutions and the policies adopted to address the matter.
AfriForum Youth has accused the University of Pretoria (UP) and the Department of Higher Education and Training of “racial targeting” and discrimination against white students through the university’s admission policy at its veterinary science faculty.
The policy intends to provide more spaces for previously disadvantaged students and those from various geographical parts of the country to be trained as veterinarians. But this has been described as discrimination by AfriForum, which believes that the policy discriminates against white students who have performed excellently in their matric exams.
But the group has also been dismissed as not understanding the intention of transformation in higher education and not acknowledging the inequalities created by the country’s past.
The youth body of rights group AfriForum on Monday staged a protest at the offices of the Department of Higher Education with their faces painted black, emphasising that they needed to be black to be treated equally and gain admission to the faculty.
It has claimed that about 30 prospective students with a combined total of 190 distinctions have not gained admission because they are not black.
According to AfriForum Youth chairman, Charl Oberholzer, the policy is restricting white students from following their chosen career paths, with many white matriculants sidelined. “Every year, 140 students are admitted to the veterinary science faculty and only 22 white matriculants from the 2011 group may be admitted.
“The vast majority of the applicants are white students, but the UP set out to recruit black students in order to meet the demographic targets,” said Oberholzer.
The university has rejected AfriForum’s assertions and also disputed some of the facts put forward by the group on the matter.
According to the university, it was true that only 22 white matriculants would be admitted into the faculty this year, but that there were other white students who would be admitted but who matriculated before last year.
These were students who had already been exposed to tertiary education, including those who can be considered for admission to the veterinary science degree programme after the first semester of the animal science or biological science degree programme.
Other prospective students include those recommended by the SAPS and the SA National Defence Force and a limited number of international students.
“It is not in the national interest that vets only practise in the urban areas. South Africa’s food security is at risk if there are rural areas that do not have the services of veterinarians at their disposal.
“The university views its selection regulations for veterinary science as fair and reasonable against the background of the educational history of the country, the limited resources that are available for veterinary training and taking into account the needs of our country,” it told the Pretoria News on Monday.
UP’s veterinary institute, located at a campus in Onderste-poort north of the city, is the only one of its kind with state-of-the-art resources in South Africa and the third oldest on the African continent with its origins dating back to the 1930s.
Higher Education director-general Gwebs Qonde said on Monday the issue of the admissions policy to the course had to be used to “educate” people who might have “certain stereotypes” about education in South Africa.
“We need to educate people about the sharing of resources and addressing certain inequalities created by our past. The admission policy at the institute is based on the core principle of our constitution which aims to create equal opportunities for everybody.
“When the students apply for admission, there is no certainty on whether or not they will be admitted regardless of their race mainly because of the capacity of the facility. But to say that the policy is discriminatory to white students is absolutely inaccurate,” said Qonde.
He said the basis of the policy was to level the playing field and to create opportunities to groups that would otherwise not get the opportunity to study there. “We will look at the memo they have submitted and try to make them understand the importance of the policy and what it is intended for.
“This is also a call to save them from certain stereotypes about education in this country,” said Qonde.
The University of Cape Town has also recently faced criticism about using race when deciding who to admit at the institution, but its vice-chancellor Max Price has defended this, citing injustices of the past. “Any reduction in opportunities for white students as a result of affirmative action is not nearly as great as it would be if the township and rural school system had already been corrected and there were half-a-million more qualified black applicants competing for the same number of university places.
“We need to recognise where the primary unfairness lies,” Price was quoted as telling the Mail & Guardian.
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