CHS Response to The Green Paper on Post-School Education and Training

1. CHS Response to The Green Paper on Post-School Education and Training Professor NG Mtshali Tuesday, April 03, 2012

2. Presentation Outline • Introduction • Increase in enrolments • Workplace demands • Employment opportunities • Expansion and the Private Higher Education Sector • Strengthening and expanding the FET Colleges • Regulatory System • Funding System • Revitalization of the Academic Profession

3. Introduction • Green Paper aims to align the post-school education and training system with South Africa’s overall development agenda • Sets out a broad policy for expanding post-school provision to improve access to education and training opportunities, strengthen the institutions to improve education quality, and build a post-school education and training system that is equitable, accessible and affordable to all sections of the population, including free education and training for the poor.

4. Increase In Student Enrolments (1) • Increase university headcount enrolments to 1 500 000 (a projected participation rate of 23%) as opposed to the 2011 enrolments of 899 120 (a 16% participation rate). • 4 000 000 enrolments for Colleges and other post school institutions including CETCs- approximately a 60% participation rate /six-fold increase over the numbers in 2011, • These were interrogated in terms of; • Infrastructure and Workplace learning • Employment opportunities on completion

5. Increasing in Student Enrolments (2) • Infrastructure and Workplace learning • These should be in place before the numbers are increased, especially for professional qualifications and they should meet regulatory bodies’ minimum requirements ; • Delay in these may result in delay in enrolling more students and create tension between academic institutions and DHET - institutions seem not to want to comply). • The regulatory system must be also be streamlined to facilitate the process,

6. Workplace Learning Demands • Approximately 65% of students at colleges are unable to find workplace experience to complete N diplomas. • Increasing enrolments and work-based learning experience must be well interrogated especially in the fields such as health where opportunities are very limited; Institutions are expected to pay for placing students, which is not part of the budget in public institutions. • Workplace learning should be planned jointly by training institutions and workplaces (both public and private) at a Province or National level to ensure quality exposure, with strict monitoring of learning.

7. Employment Opportunities • Employment opportunities on completion are not guaranteed because a significant number of graduates is not employed. • Creating employment opportunities should be a collaborative effort between the industry and the training institutions • There should be a clear education and training plan that caters for vacant positions and future projections – not training for the sake of training but training for the market. • ‘Entrepreneurship’ outcome to be strengthen in curricula

8. Expansion and the Private Higher Education Sector • The expansion and innovation is welcomed. There are at least 362 private higher education institution according to SAQA databases. Some are underutilized with numbers ranging from 30-15000 • Strengthen private higher education providers to allow those that can afford to access these thereby freeing up spaces in public institutions for advancing transformation. • Expansion by way of a quality assured and accredited private higher education sector provides a feasible mechanism to achieve the target participation rates currently precluded by “capacity restraints”.

9. Private Higher Education Sector has a critical role to play in developing programmes addressing some scarce skills. • There should be wide consultation on programmes to be offered by private providers, and quality assurance bodies should have input, as history has shown that balancing quality standards and income generation sometimes poses as challenge. • Tight control measures should be in (application process, monitoring and regular evaluations) • There is a need to address articulation and progression routes between and among private and public institutions in the new system as the lack of mobility of students between these two sub-sectors may constrain the achievement of an integrated, diverse system.

10. Strengthening and expanding the FET Colleges • The country has a number of platforms to address skills shortage and FET Colleges are one example of these platforms. • NQF should indicate articulation opportunities to other institutions of postsecondary education (Universities of Technology and General Universities. • Critical questions should be addressed including, Can learners use FET Colleges as a route to Universities?, if yes, how. For example, middle level worker training in health take place mainly in these colleges and there is no clear pathway at present.

11. Regulatory System • At present, there is duplication, overlap and, at times, incoherence and inconsistency in the functioning of parts of the regulatory system. • Synergizing the roles and functions of the Quality Councils and Statutory Bodies or Professional Councils in order to rationalize and integrate accreditation and quality assurance is imperative. • The question is how will the new integrated accreditation system be funded? (Will it be through Annual subscriptions, Govt subsidy? Will these bodies still maintain their autonomy?)

12. Funding (1) • Funding should remain the driver of the strategic imperatives of the Ministry of Higher Education and Training with the new higher education funding framework (HEFF) catering for differentiation and collaboration in addition to transformation in all its forms. • Ear-marked funding for academic and non-academic student monitoring, support and development must be included.

13. Funding (2) • The collaboration between SETAs and Universities in terms of funding is welcomed and will release and/or augment NSFAS funding thereby alleviating the burden on NSFAS • While new funding is motivated, the HEFF should be reviewed in terms of the 2-year lag which precludes expansion and timely responses to market need. • Research funding from the various Ministries and their affiliated statutory funding agencies must be consolidated to advance the overall research agenda.

14. Revitalization of the Academic Profession • The “revitalization of the academic profession” (pg 45) by way of direct/indirect innovative incentivization is welcomed, as is the emphasis on research in the context of the new generation of academics and researchers to address the aging academic workforce. • The type of research must however have the appropriate utilitarian/knowledge balance.

15. Revitalization of the Academic Profession • The inculcation of a collaborative culture between historically advantaged and historically disadvantaged institutions to build capacity and to enhance teaching and research in the latter while allowing the former to continue to thrive should be nationally driven by the Higher Education Quality Committee and perhaps incorporated as a driver in the new higher education funding framework. • It is however erroneous to assume that black PhD graduates will take up positions in the historically disadvantaged institutions.

16. Conclusion • To reiterate, the green paper is welcomed, the country needs an integrated post school system, however there is still work to be done, which requires a collaborative effort from all stakeholders.

17. Thank you