MORATORIUM PLACED BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

17 APRIL 2000

A moratorium has been placed on new partnerships between public and private higher institutions in the country, it was disclosed by the Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal, in Cape Town yesterday.

Opening the International Conference on Redefining Excellence in 3rd Millennium, Professor Asmal said there were reasons why the Department of Education adopted the action. The country was experiencing the growth of private higher education sector from both local and abroad, especially from the United Kingdom and Australia.

"Much of the development of this private sector has been taking place in collaboration with local public with local public institutions, in a variety of permutations. Regrettably many of these associations are not partnerships in the true sense of the word but 'marriages of convenience,' Professor Asmal said.

The minister continued: "For example, overseas universities have been using the infrastructure of local public institutions as a base for the offering of their qualifications in targeted academic programmes such as the MBA."

"These relationships contribute little to the development of the teaching or research capacity of the local 'partner.' To give you an example, a number of public universities and technikons, have, in the name of efficiency, outsourced the delivery of some of their academic programmes (especially distance learning programmes) to private sector partners."

"This in itself may not be a problem, but in our experience, these collaborations often result in a compromise of quality. In the South African context, the students who are often short-changed in such arrangements are in the main black and poor," Professor Asmal said.

"My concern to place a moratorium on new partnerships was thus based on a concern to ensure that public resources be used in accountable ways."

The Minister added that his concerns were not motivated by narrow "protectionist agendas or by a national chauvinism." "On the contrary, there are numerous examples of genuine partnerships, especially between local higher institutions and international institutions," Professor Asmal added.

He added that the driving force for overseas institutions in South Africa was simply to "offer new markets."

"There is scant concern for development agenda, or even concern to promote the traditional values associated with higher education. Put bluntly,higher education has been commodified and transformed into a 'service' - to be bought and sold," Professor Asmal said.

Professor Asmal warned that the "unregulated" growth of trans-national universities could have potentially serious consequences for the future of the higher education in the country. His concerns included:

• hemorrhaging of the best academics out of the public system into more prestigious global universities;
• the abuse of public resources, especially expansive library and IT infrastructures, which few foreign institutions have the capacity to provide locally;
• trans-national institutions, in the main, concentrate on lucrative fields of study, especially business and commerce. Unlike public institutions there is no need to cross-subsidise costly areas such as engineering and the health sciences or disciplines of cultural and social importance; and
• scant regard for national social agendas.

For further details contact: Bheki Khumalo
Ministerial Liaison Officer
082-781-2600