THE Council on Higher Education (CHE) has recommended that the University of Cape Town (UCT) admit more pupils from poor communities and intensify efforts to transform its demographic profile.
In the CHE’s institutional audit of South Africa’s leading university, the statutory body that quality assures the country’s higher education sector recommended that the institution do more to attract matriculants from quintile 1 to 4 schools (no-fee schools).
The CHE also recommended that UCT intensify its efforts to transform the demographic profile of its staff complement and student body.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola told the “Sunday Independent” that the university was preparing its improvement plan in response to the CHE’s audit report.
He said that with regard to the recommendation around pupils from quintile 1 to 4 schools, UCT was assessing the implementation of its admission policy introduced in 2016.
”Gains have, however, been made through application with the current policy. UCT has changed the demographic of its student body to 41% students who are the first in their family to attend university.
“UCT also financially supported 6 389 undergraduate students via financial aid and GAP funding (for students from households with combined annual income above the NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme) threshold but below R600 000.
“The university will look at the actual proportion of students from fee-free schools and respond to the CHE’s audit recommendation based on data on the number of applications received, and the places offered to different groups of students,” Moholola said.
On the recommendation to intensify the transformation of the demographic profile of its staff complement and student body, he said UCT had developed an updated Employment Equity Plan (2022-2026) that incorporated measures such as the review of employment policies, practices and procedures; the working environment and the institutional culture
“The implementation of this plan has already commenced.”
The CHE has called on UCT to address concerns raised by staff, particularly the one related to senior staff turnover, using a comprehensive formal investigation with clearly specified terms of reference as the point of departure.
It noted that there was a high turnover of senior staff, especially senior management staff without substantive reasons reportedly being provided to the broader university community in a timely manner;
”It should be noted, however, that the following concerns were repeatedly raised when the various roles of the executive, and those that they report to, were discussed in the interviews: the apparent difficulty experienced by some council members in raising issues openly in council, and the impact that this may have on governance,” reads the report.
The CHE said staff had also raised UCT’s former ombud Zetu Makamandela-Mguqulwa’s 2019 report and the lack of closure on the 37 complaints against then-vice-chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng, as well as the reputational damage to the university resulting from negative media reports, particularly ones involving senior staff members.
On academic matters, the CHE recommended that UCT urgently address its declining proportion of academic staff who have doctoral qualifications, given that the proportion of a university’s staff complement with doctoral qualifications generally impacted its research productivity and the quality of its research output.