South Africa is producing an oversupply of graduates in fields that don’t support economic growth.
The problem doesn’t appear to be with the relevance of qualifications and skillsets to employment, but rather with the scarcity of employment.
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The government claims university degrees are failing businesses, but analysis of the latest graduate outcome and employer satisfaction surveys tells us the problem is with underemployment.
As degrees become more commonplace, African graduates are struggling more to find jobs.
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Global economic realities shouldn’t deter African universities from continuing to push for massification. But they must do so armed with knowledge, lessons from elsewhere and strong funding models.