1 / 15

Jennifer Glennie

Funding Principles for Distance Higher Education in South Africa Presentation to Nadeosa Workshop June 2011. Jennifer Glennie. Rationale: Review of Higher Education Funding. Ministerial task team established under chairmanship of Cyril Ramaphosa but has not yet met

coen
Download Presentation

Jennifer Glennie

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Funding Principles for Distance Higher Education in South Africa Presentation to Nadeosa WorkshopJune 2011 Jennifer Glennie

  2. Rationale: Review of Higher Education Funding • Ministerial task team established under chairmanship of Cyril Ramaphosa but has not yet met • Meanwhile draft distance education policy required by end July, 2011 • Hence ‘Funding Principles for distance higher education’ required to feed into the task team

  3. Context: Higher Education and Post Schooling – the need for growth • In 2009, with 837 000 headcount enrolments, public higher education participation rate was 16/17% - national plan aimed at 20% by 2015 • In 2009, public FET Colleges had 420 000 headcount enrolments– about half higher education! • 2.8 million (or 41.6%) of18 to 24 year-olds in 2007 not in employment nor education and training • 2 million of these have less than Senior Certificate • 600 000 have SC without ‘university exemption’

  4. Context: Prevalence of Distance Education - Headcount enrolments: 2000 to 2009

  5. Context: Distance Education in South Africa - Changes 2000 to 2009 • FTEs (Full-time equivalent students) • Science, eng. & tech:12% to 11% of national provision • Business/management: 35% to 34% • Education: 66% to 54% • Other humanities: 35% to 30% • Total: 31% to 28% • Graduates/diplomates • 29% to 25% of total, with Unisa providing 15.6% in 2009

  6. Context: Distance Education in South Africa - Providers: 2001 to 2009

  7. Roles of Distance Education • Can accommodate students who are unable frequently to attend fixed classes at a centralised venue – especially more marginalised groups and lifelong learners • Has the potential to be more cost-effective • Can more easily accommodate large numbers • Using ICTs, can provide for very low enrolment national programmes • Can produce quality learning resources for the system as a whole

  8. Expanding Higher Education • Must be premised on increasingly cost-effective provision • This includes the necessity to couple access with a reasonable chance of success – not only for module but also for graduation

  9. Some Policy Issues in Distance Education • Should distance education constitute more or less than the 38% headcount enrolment it currently enjoys? • Under what conditions should providers be ‘allowed’/encouraged to offer and/or expand distance education programmes to ensure quality?

  10. Some Policy Issues in Distance Education • How could distance education contribute to the need to expand the post-schooling system? – an ‘FET’ national college linked to existing institutions and the new HEIs in NC and Mpumalanga? • How can policy support higher distance education utilise ICTs to the benefit of all potential students? • How can policy support the development and utilisation of OER?

  11. Some Policy Issues in Distance Education • Should it be funded differently from face-to-face? If so, how does one define distance education precisely enough to differentiate it from contact • On % of notional learning hours in ‘contact’ or ‘contact equivalent’ sessions’? • On % of time expected to be on-campus? If not, how does one retain the notion of cost-effectiveness?

  12. Possible Funding Principles for Distance Education • Parity of funding for distance education and contact for teaching outputs • Reward for any contribution to teaching output • Greater weighting for teaching outputs • Parity of funding for teaching inputs at Masters and Doctoral level • Acceptance that emerging distance education models of provision are more expensive than the traditional correspondence model

  13. Possible Funding Principles for Distance Education • Input subsidy adjusted accordingly (grid developed for different types of offerings on basis of empirical evidence) • Input subsidy available on basis of meaningful student activity –with adjustment of census dates as necessary • Initial national investment required for ICT infra-structure for higher education in 21 century

  14. Possible Funding Principles for Distance Education • Ring-fenced financial support required for collaborative development of high quality curricula and associated OER which address identified national priority needs • Commitment to student financial aid regardless of mode of delivery

  15. Contributions most welcome! Thank you

More Related