Thousands of South African university students have taken to
the streets in the biggest unified student protests since the first democratic
elections in 1994. The protests began at the University of the Witwatersrand in
Johannesburg on October 14. Over the following week, students from universities
across the country joined the action – in many instances occupying campuses.
South Africa’s universities are underfunded. This isn’t
supposition or opinion: it’s a fact borne out by the country’s own Department of
Higher Education and Training. Now students have had enough. They have
organised themselves into protest groups at universities around the country, in
some cases shutting down entire campuses and surrounding public roads.
There is a new student movement sweeping South Africa’s
universities. Its enemies? Excessive fee increases and underpaid workers. Black
Africans make up 79% of South Africa’s population, yet their participation rate
in higher education is “less than 15%
South Africa’s budget for universities as a percentage of
GDP, the committee reported, was just 0.75%. That’s lower than the Africa-wide
proportion of 0.78% and the global proportion of 0.84%. It also falls short of
the proportion of 1.21% spent by OECD countries. The committee also found that
in the decade between 2000 and 2010, state funding per full-time equivalent
student fell by 1.1% annually in real terms. But each of these students' fees
increased by 2.5% annually during the same period.
If students continue to ally with underpaid university
workers the challenge ahead is crystal clear: target the men who control the
finances. Most universities in South Africa now hire executive deans, paying
huge salaries to people who may bring an expertise in business management. One
major thrust in the “university as business” models is the ranking of
universities in a competitive list. We are no longer a public sector working
together to achieve a public good by contributing to knowledge and preparing
skilled critical citizens. Instead, we are a set of businesses trying to
maximise our brand value. The university is just one small social structure.
That doesn’t mean it has to replicate the injustices of broader society.
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