Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education

1. Presentation to the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education Tuesday, 08 February 2011 CAPE TOWN 11

2. HESA • A unified body of public higher education in South Africa • Committed to: • WP3, HE Act (1997), and NPHE) (2001) transformation agenda for HE. • creating a proactive energetic higher education sector that is committed to promoting the national development agenda • responding to the call to: • Increase access into higher education • Make higher education more affordable, especially for poor students • produce more graduates with appropriate high level skills to meet the needs of a growing economy 22

3. Presentation Outline • A STUDENT ACCESS • Student enrolment trends in the past years • HESA’s perspective on post-school education system • HESA’s commitments and initiatives • Possible models for expanding access • Articulation arrangements • HESA’s view on NSFAS B STUDENT SUCCESS • Graduation trends in the past few years • Drop-out rates in the past few years • Sector intervention (institutional practices and HESA working group on Teaching and Learning) • Recommendations C STUDENT DEBT MANAGEMENT BY HEIS D CONCLUSION 33

4. STUDENT ACCESS • Student Enrolment Trends (1996-2006) and to 2009 • An increase in the overall student enrolment in both headcount and FTE enrolments; from 2000 to 2009 the increase was from 588 000 to 837635 (undergraduate 456K to 684K ; postgraduates 88 393 to 128 747) • Trend positive for all racial groups as well as for women. • Increased student participation rate from 14% to 16,8%. • A shift in enrolments towards the target set in the NPHE with the desired increases in SET • Increases in graduate outputs • Student support arrangements in place at most institutions; foundation programmes as stand alone pre-university year or integrated into the curriculum through extended curricula. 44

5. Entry into HE

6. Improved Equity in Student Success Rates

7. Growth in Enrolments in Science & Tech and Business and Management.

8. Increased Participation of Female & Black Students in HE 15 May, 2007 88

9. Growth in Master’s and Doctoral Enrolments 99

10. HESA Commitments • Ensuring that no academically capable students are denied access solely on the basis of financial need. • Contributing to the restructuring of the post school system to increase post school opportunities for learners • Strengthen HESA’s information guide (NiSHE) on entry requirements and study opportunities in further and higher education • Developing a credit accumulation and transfer system to promote: • mobility within the higher education system; and • articulation between HE and the FET College sector • Increasing HE capacity for part-time and lifelong learning. 1010

11. Recommendations on improving access • Great attention should be paid to improving the performance of basic education • Expand and make visible the FET College sector which: • Offers opportunities for the 200 000 NSC holders each year who do not have Bachelor degree passes • has a good number of short study programmes • Expansion of the university sector (with 2 institutions approved for Northern Cape and Mpumalanga) • Improve articulation routes between the FETC sector (and other single-purpose providers) and HE sector, including NCV and Nated courses graduates. 1111

12. B. FUNDING AND INFRASTRUCTURE • Trends (1996-2008) • Both block and earmarked grants have increased over the period • Earmarked grants have increased at a faster rate compared to block grants. • NSFAS allocations increased • Real state support per FTE student has decreased • Since 2008, the DoE and DHET made ad hoc allocations to HEIs for infrastructure and efficiency purposes: R1 095m (2008/09) ; R1 462m (2009/10); R1 585m (2010/11) • Average state subsidy about 43% of total income • As high as 57% in some institutions • Student fees average about 28% of income • As much as 38% in some institutions • Average income from investment about 7.7% • But insignificant in many institutions 1212

13. Financial Support for HE

14. Financial Support for HE 1414

15. Trends in subsidy levels (block and earmarked grants) • The block grants have not been growing to match the growth in student enrolment. 1515

16. Student debt a) Student debt data from DHET: b) The debt owed to HEIs by students is huge, and keeps on rising. This debt is unequally distributed among HEIs and is greatest in numerical and proportional terms at the rural HDIs 1616

17. Sector interventions Institutional practices (academic support programmes): Majority of HEIs make provision for financially needy and academically deserving students through bursaries, merit scholarships, etc. Most HEIs offer extended curricula programmes to support under-prepared students Most HEIs policies allow for alternative payment 1717

18. University programmes and the NSDS III • Universities increasingly produce graduates in the following study fields: • SET; • Business and Management; • Education; and • Other of Humanities and Social Sciences • The Universities of Technology are producing large number of engineering technologists and technicians • The sector needs to do much more to improve success rates in SET (including engineering and health), Education and Social Sciences (including social work). • Meeting high level professional and research skills remains a priority 1818

19. HESA’s position on the recommendations of the NSFAS review: Recommendations • A new and more comprehensive NSFAS is urgnetly needed. • A differentiated funding model should be developed for the higher education sector • The FET College sector must be promoted as a viable and attractive option and one which offers good prospects of employment. (It may also be more affordable option for many). • HEIs must be put in a position to offer meaningful support to the many students who enter and fail in HE. 1919

20. HESA’s position on the recommendations of the NSFAS review: HESA’s position on the recommendations of the NSFAS Review • The use of a single average FCS value as a basis for calculating institutional allocations needs further investigation and discussion) • Implementation issues such as those relating to the provision of fully subsidised education for poor students and students from working class communities need further discussion • An allocation formula based on need or a proxy for need needs to be revisited. • The priority must be full NSFAS funding of the poor. 2020

21. C. STUDENT SUCCESS • Academic performance levels are still below the National Plan for Higher Education benchmarks • The targets set through the enrolment planning: • average sector success rate for all undergraduate and postgraduate courses in the system had to improve from 71% to at least 77% by 2010 • total graduates produced by the system had to increase to 150000 per annum by 2010 • Cohort analysis by the DoE: this shows an alarming picture • excluding distance education institutions, under one-third of intake complete in regulation time; • one in three graduates within four years; • 7 out of 23 institutions meet the success rate norm of 80% in terms of students who pass their course; • There are huge disparities between Black and White student performance, with Black students making up under 25% of all graduates in regulation time (Black students now represent over 75% of enrolled students.). • 45% of these enrolled students had dropped out of the HE system 2121

22. Sector interventions • HESA’s working group on Teaching and Learning established to: • Advise the Board on better ways of improving teaching and learning outputs across the sector, especially with regard to: • The desirability of a four-year period for the basic undergraduate basic degree to improve success rates; • Strengthening academic support programmes in all HEIs; and • Implementation of a Teaching and Learning Charter by the sector 2222

23. Recommendations • Introducing four-year undergraduate curriculum to improve success rates; • Strengthening academic support programmes in all HEIs; • Improve the identification of students’ educational needs and ensure curriculum flexibility to meet these needs; • Develop a sector-wide strategy to improve pass rates and reduce drop-out rate 2323

24. Conclusion • Four priorities • Make the FET College sector viable and attractive; • A revamped NSFAS • A HEI commitment to improved success and throughput rates, so that poor students do not leave with debt but a qualification • A funding dispensation that supports foundation programmes and additional support (possibly in the form of a four year degree curriculum THANK YOU 2424