COSATU Submission on the CHE's Size and Shape Report on Higher Education Submitted to the Department of Education, 3 October 2000

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

COSATU appreciates the opportunity to comment on the Size and Shape of Higher Education Report (hereafter the Report). We agree with the Minister’s observation that the shape and size of the higher education system cannot be left to chance if we are to realise the vision of a rational, seamless higher education system, responsive to the needs of students of all ages and the intellectual challenges of the 21st century(1). COSATU identifies higher education transformation as a critical component of the reconstruction and development process. Higher Education plays an important role in producing a critical skilled labour force and intellectuals to fulfil the socio-economic needs of the country. COSATU believes that higher education should be transformed to serve the development needs of South Africa, and should be accessible to historically deprived communities.

The RDP argues that human resource development must address the development of human capabilities, abilities and knowledge to meet people’s ever-growing needs for goods and services, to improve their standard of living and quality of life(2). The size and shape report should be assessed in terms of its ability to accelerate redress for historically excluded communities and ensuring that higher education system produces skilled human resources appropriate to the development needs of the country. COSATU approach to High Education Sector derives both from our broad interest in the role of higher education in socio-economic development and from the fact that we represent a number of workers employed in the sector. Our submission will address COSATU’s key principles for transforming higher education, our main areas of concern with the report, and recommendations.

2. COSATU’s Key Principles for Transforming Higher Education

2.1 Public Sector Higher Education

COSATU believes that education is a right, rather than a privilege. The state should play a central role in ensuring that students from rural areas and working class families have access to higher education. The White Paper commits itself to "ensuring that capable and deserving individuals are not excluded from accessing FET on financial grounds" (..,p.31). A strong Public Sector Higher Education can provide both the institutional and financial basis for achieving access. We further believe that redressing racial and gender imbalances in higher education can best be achieved through a Public Higher Education System.

We have already noted that the strategic orientation of our Higher Education System should be informed by socio-economic and political challenges and needs prevailing in society. Higher education should be geared towards producing critical and multi-skilled students that can participate in developmental processes. We further believe that the higher education system should be geared towards supporting economic development in the SADC region. It should also bolster and instill non-racial, non-sexist and democratic values. There should be close interaction and co-operation between Civil Society and Higher Education Institutions, particularly in terms of capacity building and research.

2.2 Transforming Apartheid Educational Landscape

The Apartheid Higher Education system was based on entrenching white superiority and racism in the country. Higher Education Institutions were designed along racial and ethnic categories, hence the notions of "Historically Advantaged Institutions" and "Historically Disadvantaged Institutions". A transformed Higher Education system should therefore address this legacy. Institutional redress programmes should be formulated and adopted to transcend the structural imbalances between HDIs and HAIs. "A transformed system of higher education should offer access and the possibility of success to all talented individuals- irrespective of race, colour, gender, creed, age or class- with the desire to develop their talent and advance their life chances through higher-level education and learning. For this purpose, transformation will also have to include the redress of disadvantaged institutions" (3)

3. COSATU’s Key Areas of Concern

The report asserts that the higher education system has strengths and immense potential to contribute to the economic and social development needs of South Africa, the Southern African Region and the African continent(4). However aspects of the report undermine this vision particularly in relation to:.

• conflicting ideological assumptions,
• funding, and.
• perspectives on economic development.

3.1 The Report’s Ideological Assumptions

The report asserts that higher education transformation should be radical and comprehensive. However, COSATU believes that the Size and Shape Report is unable to take this view to its logical conclusion. Chapter 1 of the report is not successful in reconciling its commitment to radical reconfiguration with certain neo-liberal assumptions. It asserts that higher education must produce, through research, teaching and learning, the knowledge and person-power to enable South Africa to engage proactively with and participate in the highly competitive global economy(5).

This statement suggests that higher education should be oriented towards global competition rather on meeting developmental needs. This approach is proposed without considering its impact on the poor and the workers, and overall implication for national development. Globalisation has led to "commodification" of education and ultimately exclusion of the poor and rural people.

Madeleile Green and Michael Baer (6) assert that:

"A frequent interpretation of globalisation concerns its entrepreneurial and competitive face. In these discussions, globalisation is viewed as selling or exporting an institution’s educational product. This perspective looks at what the global economy can do for the institution, rather than what the institution can do for the student…"

"Another type of conversation about globalisation deals with academic issues- with the teaching and learning process that provide students with an understating of the global nature of issues such as health and of environment…"

COSATU believes that higher education transformation should be primarily oriented towards serving reconstruction and development of the country. Our development priorities may not necessarily be complementary with an approach that attempts to integrate our national agenda with that of liberalization. While we cannot de-link from global trends, it is essential to note that there are a variety of policy choices can be adopted to prioritise our development needs and which also contest the form of engagement with globalisation. Higher education should promote South African participation in the struggle for an egalitarian international economic and political system. Globalisation can present both threats and opportunities: While globalisation increases class and national inequalities, it also enhances communication on a global scale.

A key challenge is to ensure that higher education institutions expose students to the impact of globalisation on socio-economic issues, including access to higher education. (7)

The Report’s uncritical acceptance of globalisation has also lead to its failure to emphasise a linkage between the South African Higher Education system and the Southern African Region and African Continent. The envisaged Size and Shape Report does not elaborate on the impact of regional integration on Higher Education Transformation. This is despite the fact that some institutions already have a significant number of foreign students. The enrolment of Foreign Students is likely to increase in the near future and it is therefore critical to project its impact on the reconfiguration process.

Recommendation

The report should provide a critical analysis of globalisation and a strategy to transform Higher Education in this context. This should be used to explore viable policy options and constraints.

3.2 Redress, Equity and Differentiation

The report emphasises issues of redress and equity. It correctly argues that increasing the race, gender and social class distribution of students in various fields and levels of study, improving the racial and gender representatively of staff and ensuring financial access for poor students are all issues that have to be addressed(8). However, it seems to reduce the impact of these issues to the students’ access and negates institutional inequities. For example, it argues that the categories of "historically advantaged" and "historically disadvantaged" as applied to institutions are becoming less useful for social policy purpose. COSATU believes structural inequities between the "HDIs" and the "HAIs" should be considered. The "HDIs" are confronting financial difficulties, lack of resources and limited management capacity.

Recommendation

We recommend that there should be a provision of redress funding to support these institutions. We believe that institutional redress can complement access for disadvantaged students.

3.3 Higher Education and Economic Development .

The Report (ibid, 27) asserts that

The expansion of access to, and equality of opportunity within, higher and further education for historically and socially disadvantaged group is essential to long-term development. Equity and access must also reflect greater participation by groups not traditionally well represented in higher education. These include students from working class and rural backgrounds and adults who possess work-related knowledge. The extent to which equity and access are actively promoted or frustrated will determine the nature and extent of social and class stratification and have a direct bearing on the nature of South Africa’s democracy, labour market and social stability

The report correctly emphasises a link between higher education and economic development. However, the conception of this linkage is flawed and it assumes that "a central feature of South Africa’s economic policy is to meet the challenge of international competitiveness" (ibid, 28). On the contrary, COSATU believes that the central challenge of the South African economy is to meet basic needs of the poor and working class.

The RDP (1996, 15) affirms that:

The central objective is to improve the quality of life of all South Africans, and in particular the most poor and marginalised sections of our communities. This objective should be realised through a process of empowerment, which gives the poor control over their lives and increases their ability to mobilise sufficient development resources (9)

Priority should be given towards accelerating delivery of basic services to the poor. Export driven strategy is unlikely to fulfil development needs of the country. The Report assumes that "the governments avowed policy is to pursue the high-road in its industrial, science and technology, trade, investment and other strategies". However economic restructuring is based on downsizing, privatisation, and retrenchment, slashing of budgets and deficit reduction. Higher Education Institutions are also implementing these restructuring measures. Most Institutions are outsourcing services, retrenching workers, privatising residences and catering. However, the report is silent on the impact of these restructuring processes in transforming higher education. Privatisation of residences and services is likely to make higher education inaccessible to disadvantaged students from working class and rural backgrounds. This will likely lead to increase of accommodation fees that may not be affordable. Cost-saving strategies are pursued without considering the developmental and social impacts of measures.

Recommendation

COSATU proposes a moratorium on institutional restructuring until there is a national framework agreement on the size and shape of higher education. This recommendation is based on the premise that the institutional restructuring processes should be informed by national strategic plan.

3.4 Reconfiguring Higher Education System

The Report (ibid, p. 32) indicates that

The country requires institutions with particular social mandates and diversity with different and distinct missions. The heart of the system must be well-resourced high quality predominantly undergraduate teaching institutions oriented towards the production of graduates with the knowledge, competencies and skills to contribute to the economic and social development of the country. Institutions with this mandate must constitute the bedrock of the higher education system. Excellence and the quality of the graduates of these institutions will fundamentally determine whether South Africa will grow, develop and create a better quality of life for its entire people.

COSATU agrees with the overall thrust of this perspective, but it seems that the report narrows higher education to universities. The report is basically silent on other tiers of higher education system, for example Technikons(10). This creates a policy dilemma primarily because we are not certain on whether government is happy with the size and shape of current technikons. The technikon sector is not captured in the main part of the report, but only mentioned in the Planning Section of the document.

We recommend that

• The Report should include a comprehensive analysis of the technikon sector. This

  comprehensive analysis should elaborate on the relationship between different tiers of higher education system.

• The minister consults very extensively with ALL stakeholders, particularly Trade

  Unions, Staff and Students Organisations both at national and local levels when concrete reconfiguration processes are formulated, implemented and monitored.This aspect should be a key requirement for reconfiguring the system.

• A National Framework Agreement should be negotiated that will regulate the restructuring and transformation of the tertiary institutions.

3.5 Differentiation and Diversity

COSATU agrees that "articulation between institutions with different mandates and different missions to ensure student and staff mobility, enable teaching and research collaboration, and promote partnerships must be an integral feature of the new reconfigured system" (ibid, p.34). We further support a move to stipulate specific targets in terms of enrolment of the historically disadvantaged students.

The report asserts "Institutions should be required to incorporate into their planning quantitative targets to ensure adequate representation of African students, women and students from working class and rural poor backgrounds" (ibid, p.36). However, it should be noted that the proposed model has a danger of institutionalising the present inequalities. There is a danger that "HDIs" could become Backdrop Institutions(11) while "HAIs" becomes Comprehensive and Research Institutions. COSATU is concerned that this approach could effectively entrench the racial, gender and class divisions inherited from the past.

We agree with the CHE (ibid, p. 47) proposal that:

Articulation must enable the horizontal and vertical mobility of students between institutions with different missions and mandates. It must also enable staff mobility for the purposes of teaching and research. Thus, academics that have recognised specialist expertise in particular disciplines and fields should have opportunities to teach and supervise students of, and at, other institutions.

We further support the following assertions indicating that:

Not only must there be articulation within the higher education system but also between this system and schooling, further education and training, the world of work and other social sectors. Appropriate admission requirements and programme development should be pursued to enable access of adult and mature learners.

Recommendation

COSATU recommends that there should be an integrated national human resource development strategy to inform the provision of higher education. Such a strategy would enhance implementation of articulation programmes between and within institutions. The final size and shape report also needs to project the medium and long-term implications of enrolment inputs, rather than schooling, on the size and shape of our higher education system. The report further needs to deal with the possible impact of articulation and reconfiguration on job retention and creation.

3.6 Public Higher Education driven approach

COSATU supports the CHE’s emphasis on the significant role of public higher education. We believe that public higher education should be a significant player in ensuring accessible and quality education.

We do not believe that private higher education can fulfil the developmental and transformative role required by our country. Private Higher Education will necessarily exclude students from working class and rural backgrounds on the basis of their inability to pay.

The report (ibid, 45) asserts that "appropriate legislation and regulations would enable private institutions to contribute to providing access to higher education of quality and to meet development needs, on their own or in responsible partnership with South African public institutions". COSATU believes that the state should not provide subsidies to private higher education because it is on profit-making rationale.

Private Higher Education is based on profit making, rather than to provide accessible education. We further believe that the state should encourage public-public partnerships, rather than, private-public partnerships in higher education. We agree with the report’s assertion that "any measures applied to public institutions to ensure achievement of overall social and educational goals should not disadvantage public institution vis-à-vis private institutions" (ibid, p. 46). COSATU believes this can be achieved if the state committing itself to provide the necessary resources and support to public higher education.

3.7 National Steering and Planning Towards Reconfiguring the Higher Education System

COSATU proposes that stakeholders, particularly trade unions, staff and students’ organisations are meaningfully consulted both at national and institutional levels when concrete reconfiguration process are formulated, implemented and monitored. This should be an aspect of the key requirements for reconfiguring the system.

COSATU concurs with the CHE’s assertion that:

The national plan apart from incorporating the issues of size and shape of higher education, should also encompass agreed upon performance agreements and targets for the national system and for individual institutions related to the equity, quality, effectiveness and efficiency challenges identified in chapter one. Concerning equity, the targets could be around the increased representation of black and women students in the science, Engineering and Technology areas of study and their distribution in various fields. They could also be concerned with increasing access for mature learners.(12)

Recommendation

We propose that there should be a great sensitivity to the employment implications of reconfiguring the system. Due to the fact that our economy is facing unemployment crisis, reconfiguration of higher education system should not lead to further job losses. We believe a comprehensive feasibility study should be done to assess the impact of a reconfigured system on employment retention and trends. COSATU believes that broad social and development indicators should be utilised to assess the viability of this model, rather than, cost-cutting measures. We further support the proposed formulation of a social plan to deal with the following stipulated issues:

• The commitment and interactions that would be required from different social partners to ensure the success of reconfiguration.
• The human resource implications of reconfiguration and combination.
• Legal obligations in terms of the Labour Relations Act
• Time-frames for resolution of issues and decision-making
• Adequate resources to give effect to the Social Plan.

 

The formulation and implementation of the plan should be negotiated with trade unions and other stakeholders. We agree with the proposal suggesting that detailed discussions and negotiations on implementation should take place at institutional level, guided by the national framework of the Social Plan.

3.8 Funding

It is apparent that the proposed reconfiguration framework will not be sustainable, unless it receives adequate funding. The state should provide appropriate resources. COSATU agrees with the CHE Report’s emphasis that:

Funding must enable the system and institutions to pursue the social and educational goals and targets that are defined in the White Paper and the national plan. It must ensure that institutions are provided adequate resources to effectively discharge their mandates and missions. It must also enable institutional redress that is appropriate to the mandates and missions of institutions.13

We believe that state funding will largely determine the viability and sustainability of the proposed reconfigured system. COSATU is concerned that the current conservative macro-economic policy is unlikely to provide appropriate funding to higher education.

Recommendation

We propose that a funding system should be developed and implemented to ensure that there is institutional and demographic redress. The state should also commit itself to support financial and management capacity in the Historically Disadvantaged Institutions.

4. Conclusion

COSATU believes that reconfiguration of higher education should be based on a transparent and democratic process. Stakeholders, especially Trade Unions and Students should be an integral part of the process both national and institutional levels. We further believe that it should ensure that historically disadvantaged students and workers in general have access to higher education. This process should ensure that public higher education receives enough funding from government. COSATU further believes that both social and institutional redress should be the key aspects of transforming higher education. We believe that Higher Education should be geared towards fulfilling economic and developmental needs of the country and Southern Africa.

Footnotes:

1 CHE Report (2 000) Towards a New Higher Education Landscape: Meeting the Equality, Quality and Social Development Imperatives of South Africa in the 21st Century, p.5.

2 ANC (1994) The Reconstruction and Development Programme - a policy framework, Umanyano Publications, p. 59

3 NCHE Report (1996) A Framework for Transformation, p. 71.

4 CHE Report (2 000), op cit, p. 12.

5 Ibid, 12.

6 Green and Baer (July, 2 000) What does globalisation mean for Teaching and Learning

7 Merisotis, J (1997, argues that disproportionate investment needs to be made in those institutions of higher education and methods of teaching and learning that target underserved populations the most. Absent (of) such disproportionate investment, the benefits of globalisation will increasingly flow toward those with the financial means to participate in the global education market place. Policies regarding funding of higher education could unintentionally lead to a transfer of talent and human capital from developing to developed countries.

8 CHE Report, op cit, p.23.

9 it further says that the strategy for meeting basic needs rests on four pillars, namely- creating opportunities for all South Africans to their full potential, boosting production and household income through job creation, productivity and efficiency, and improving living conditions through better access to basic physical and social services, health and education etc.

10 Higher Education Act, no. 101 of 1997 defines Higher Education as all learning programmes leading to qualifications higher than grade 12 or its equivalent in terms of the National Qualifications Framework as contemplated in the South African Qualifications Authority Act, no. 58 of 1995, and includes tertiary education system in schedule 4 of the Constitution.

11 The Report (2 000, p.39) defines Backdrop Institutions as those focusing on undergraduate programmes and providing limited post-graduate programmes up to taught masters level in alignment with their capabilities and institutional missions.

12 CHE Report, op cit, p.52.

13 ibid, p.56.

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