Universities now have the incentive and flexibility to respond to student interests, and we shouldn’t distract them with policy changes that could make things worse.
A man waves South Sudan’s national flag.
REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya
In some places, the dismal labour conditions of young academics have spurred them to unionise. Not so in the Czech Republic, where students and intellectuals lead lives of “state-ordered poverty”.
Is it fair to make students pay more?
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If universities work together they are more likely to find creative solutions to problems. Collaboration will allow them to benefit from the global academic community’s collective wisdom.
South Africa’s student protests are raising difficult issues, some of which are not being debated openly.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Demands being made by protesting students in South Africa purport to support the poor. But the most marginalised young people in the country will not benefit from free higher education.
The expert advisory panel will hold its first meeting on Monday.
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The government’s long road to a higher education policy has taken another small step forward with Education Minister Simon Birmingham setting up an expert advisory panel.
A new VET student loan scheme will aim at putting a stop to rorting by dodgy private colleges. Education Minister Simon Birmingham says the new scheme is being built from the ground up.
South Africa’s government-run student loan scheme needs an overhaul.
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A “buy now, pay later” model is well suited to financing higher education. Commercial bank loans are not viable. Government-backed loans with income-contingent repayment are the fair solution.
“Free” education is not fair or sustainable.
Reuters/Mark Hutchings
Higher education is a resource intensive enterprise. It cannot effectively function without a massive injection of resources in a sustained and escalated manner.
Ongoing student protests are unlikely to have been a direct cause of universities’ slide down global rankings tables.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
It’s unlikely that student protests are directly affecting South African universities’ rankings. Instead, decades of government underfunding in higher education may be at least partly to blame.
Improved funding will provide better opportunities for students.
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South Africa’s higher education minister has dealt with fee increments for 2017 but sidestepped students’ fundamental issue: an ongoing call to make higher education free for all.
South Africa needs some universities that focus on teaching, and others that concentrate on research.
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South Africa must examine how science funding is allocated to universities. It also needs to acknowledge that not all universities should be focusing on research and development.
Tanzania’s government is spending money on students who don’t exist.
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Tanzania’s government has uncovered evidence of 2 000 “ghost” students who are fraudulently obtaining loans. This costs the country and other students dearly.
There has been an increase in research grants going to high-profile applicants.
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Barnaby Joyce found his political future in doubt this week, with the gunshot announcement from Tony Windsor that he would try to ride back into his old seat of New England.
Dr Blade Nzimande, South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education and Training, oversees a sector fraught with funding worries.
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