insert_link Business / Economics South Africa’s national student financial aid scheme has helped millions but is in trouble: here’s why South Africa’s minister of higher education and training, Blade Nzimande. Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images By Thandi Lewin, University of Johannesburg The board of South Africa’s National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) has been dissolved by the country’s higher education and training minister, Blade Nzimande, and the organisation placed under administration. Nzimande made the decision because of “(the problem of) non-payment of (students’) allowances”. Thandi Lewin is […] today6 May, 2024
insert_link South Africa Academics with disabilities: South African universities need an overhaul to make them genuinely inclusive Academics with disabilities need support to ensure they’re fully included in university life. LumiNola By Sibonokuhle Ndlovu, University of Johannesburg Very little research has been conducted about academics with disabilities working in South African universities. This means their stories, and the challenges they face in the daily demands of their jobs, are not often told. Sibonokuhle Ndlovu, who holds a PhD in education and lectures on the […] today23 April, 2024
insert_link Africa Young Kenyans are not finding work: how universities can do a better job of training entrepreneurs By Renson Muchiri Mwangi, KCA University; Judy N. Muthuri, University of Nottingham, and Mohsen Gul, University of Cambridge Kenya’s long-term development blueprint, Vision 2030, envisions an empowered youth driving economic growth. The focus on its young population (aged 15–34) is apt given that the median age of the country’s population of 55 million is around 20 years. This has led to a succession of policies and strategies […] today8 April, 2024
insert_link Lifestyle University rankings are unscientific and bad for education: experts point out the flaws By Sharon Fonn, University of the Witwatersrand We rank almost everything. The top 10 restaurants in our vicinity, the best cities to visit, the best movies to watch. To understand whether the rankings were any good you’d want know who was doing the ranking. And what it was they were looking for. These are exactly the same questions that are worth asking when looking at the international ranking […] today13 February, 2024
insert_link Namibia UNAM offers conditional admission for Namibian students The University of Namibia has announced that all prospective Namibian students who are already in possession of a grade 12 School Leaving Certificate, apply for Conditional Admission Consideration. Here is the University spokesperson Simon Namesho. today24 January, 2024
insert_link Lifestyle Three South African universities have new approaches to assessing students: why this is a good thing By Danica Sims, University of Oxford South African higher education faces many complex challenges rooted in the legacy of apartheid. They include the fact that many students are unprepared for or excluded from higher education. Quality education is not available to all. It’s therefore difficult for many students to remain in higher education and eventually graduate. The data points to two persistent trends. The first is that, according […] today24 January, 2024
insert_link Africa Kenyan universities are very short of professors: why it matters and what to do about it Ishmael Munene, Northern Arizona University A Kenyan vice-chancellor recently went public about the scarcity of university professors. There are fewer than 1,000 professors for the country’s 68 universities and 562,925 students. That is an average of around 563 students per professor. South Africa has around 4,034 professors and 1,112,439 students – around 275 students per professor. Professors occupy the highest teaching rank in the university. They reach this […] today23 January, 2024
insert_link Uncategorized Colonialism shaped modern universities in Africa – how they can become truly African One of the roles of an African university is to produce critical and democratic thinkers. Vieriu Adrian/Getty Images Saleem Badat, University of the Free State Colonialism profoundly shaped modern universities in Africa. It implanted institutions on African soil that were largely replicas of European universities rather than organically African. For historian and political theorist Achille Mbembe, one problem of universities in Africa “is that they are ‘Westernised”. He describes them […] today16 January, 2024
insert_link Opinion Pieces 20 years ago South Africa had 40 qualified astronomers – all white. How it’s opened space science and developed skills since then Southern African Large Telescope. SAAO, Author provided Patricia Ann Whitelock, South African Astronomical Observatory; Daniel Cunnama, South African Astronomical Observatory, and Rosalind Skelton, National Research Foundation South African astronomy started an important journey two decades ago, when an initiative to attract and train future scientists in the field welcomed its first group of students under the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme. World class facilities have been established during this […] today15 January, 2024
