Navigating the turbulence in South Africa’s higher education

Worldwide, higher education is under unprecedented pressures. While the US suffers the consequences of ballooning, unpaid student debt and the ongoing chronic under-representation of minorities, several top UK universities have implemented faculty lay-offs and cut courses, facility maintenance budgets and student services. These struggles are multi-faceted and nuanced across different markets, however there is some common ground in the overall challenge for modern tertiary education to find the balance between offering both equitable access and excellence in economically challenging times.

Greater demand and increased access to tertiary education are widely regarded as good for society as well as the individual. It delivers the highest economic returns for the graduate over any other level of education; however, countries expect more than this from their higher education systems. Tamara Kenny, the Deputy Dean responsible for Institutional Planning and Regulatory Compliance at SACAP (The South African College of Applied Psychology) says, “I like to think of higher education as having a fundamental role to play in who we are as a society, how we treat people, how we think about the world we live in and how we impact on it through the work we do. As a private higher education institution with a social enterprise business model, at SACAP we don’t see our purpose as merely equipping the next generation of workforce. In our view, we are shaping a generation of humanity, and we teach, learn, research and participate in our communities with that in mind.”

Private institutions are playing a vital role in the South African higher education ecosystem by increasing access and providing more options through offering education programmes in specialised fields, such as SACAP’s lens of Applied Psychology on all their education programmes.

Although smaller than our public universities, these providers are subject to the rigours of all the same regulations, including meeting the requirements of the Department of Higher Education and Training, the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and various professional bodies. In SACAP’s case this means also reporting into the likes of the HPCSA (Health Professionals Council of South Africa), the ICF (International Coaching Federation), the SACE (South African Council of Education), the SACSSP (South African Council for Social Service Professions) and more. Internal checks and balances to ensure financial stability and sustainability can mean that private higher education institutions may well be meeting substantially higher standards than their public counterparts.

Dr Jaclyn Lotter, SACAP’s Academic Dean explains, “Private higher education institutions are compelled to leverage efficiencies and find ways to innovate. It’s sink or swim from a business efficiency perspective and that fosters agility and adaptability and drives constant improvement and innovation. This contributes to the robustness and resilience of the country’s higher education ecosystem.”

More pressures combined with more openness and flexibility may also shape the leadership of private institutions in more progressive and future-fit ways. Data shows that women remain significantly underrepresented in top leadership roles in South Africa’s tertiary education institutions. In 2021, the Businesswomen's Association of SA's 2021 Women in Leadership Census reported that women constitute 23.1% of vice-chancellor roles and in 2019, the Council on Higher Education in SA said that although 41% of academic staff were women, only 35% of executive management positions were held by women.

Bucking the trend, all the roles in SACAP’s Dean’s Office are held by women and their EXCO is almost exclusively female-driven. Kenny says, “This speaks directly to SACAP’s values and how deliberately the culture of the institution is curated and shaped. In our leadership space, each individual is valued and appreciated for what they bring to the table which means that we benefit as a team by drawing on different knowledge, experiences, skills and priorities. Much of education in South Africa is still led by males and administrated by females. To be part of a college where the female voice is significant, and there’s generous space given for all voices to be heard, is empowering for the entire institution and our student body.”

For parents and prospective students needing to make important enrolment decisions, the ongoing uncertainty in South Africa’s higher education system can be nerve-wracking. It’s important to do one’s due diligence to gauge the quality of leadership, stability, compliance and sustainability of the institutions you are considering. It’s also essential to find a learning environment that meets the individual needs of the student. Kenny says, “My advice to anyone wanting to study further, is to ask, “who do I want to be?” not “what do I want to be”. For the most part, qualifications are very similar. Due to the requirements of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and the minimum regulations of the CHE, a BCom Accounting programme at one institution is very much like one in another institution. And in the long run, people will only be concerned that you have the qualification, not necessarily where you got it from.

But where you choose to study becomes part of the fabric of how you see the world, the lens you will use to make sense of your career and, by extension, your life. So, look past the promise of a job and focus on who the institution wants to mould you into being. What are the institutional values and what are the graduate attributes that they subscribe to? Who have they chosen to lead the institution and what do those people have to say about education and quality and the future? If the past turbulent decade in higher education in South Africa has taught us anything, it is that no one academic year is like the next and there is no security, stability or even safety in choosing to study. Classes can be disrupted by protests, pandemics, institutional closures and funding disasters. Deciding on which higher education institution to study with, is a high stakes decision. The best way to make this decision is to ensure that your institution ticks as many of the boxes around accreditation, recognition, quality, employability and costs, and still makes you feel like you belong, as well.”