South Africa should close many of its universities

South Africa should close many of its universities and replace them with technical colleges that focus on skills development to ensure more graduates are employable. 

Universities, in this scenario, should focus on offering courses in certain areas where they have expertise and the skills taught remain relevant, such as medicine, accounting, economics, and the hard sciences. 

These institutions should also focus on research in these spheres, instead of offering a wider range of courses and degrees that are largely irrelevant to a modern economy. 

This is feedback from Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt, who said the state wastes money on funding degrees that end up with unemployed graduates, as their skills do not match what the labour market demands. 

“There are many skills that universities teach that are very well suited to a modern economy, such as medicine, engineering, economics, and many other things,” Roodt told Daily Investor. 

“Unfortunately, there are plenty of other degrees that are also offered that there simply isn’t demand for, such as political science.” 

Roodt explained that this results in significant resources being spent at universities to teach degrees that are not relevant to a modern economy. 

South Africa’s government spends a substantial amount of money on education, with it expected to spend R509 billion on learning and culture. 

This is made up of R332 billion on basic education, R55 billion on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, and R48 billion on direct transfers to universities. 

Roodt explained that it is untrue to say that everyone should have a university degree, regardless of what it is. 

This has resulted in billions of rands being spent to fund the teaching of irrelevant degrees, while there are clear skills shortages in other areas of the economy.

“Only approximately 10% of the population should attend university, and it is crucial that these institutions produce high-quality graduates,” Roodt said. 

“There are so many degrees that are offered and people only take them because they just want a degree, regardless of what it is.” 

South Africa has 19 public universities and 7 universities of technology, totalling 26 state-owned institutions. Many of these institutions are poorly run. 

“The quality of South Africa’s universities has also deteriorated quite significantly in recent years, slipping down international rankings,” Roodt said. 

“Our universities still provide good quality education and skills development, but they are slipping and quite often offer stuff that is not relevant for a modern economy.” 

“I have said previously that many universities should be closed down, and they should, without a doubt.”

Roodt said South Africa could easily close half of its universities, without much of an impact on the country’s economy.

The solution 

For Roodt, the solution is to replace many of South Africa’s universities with Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges. 

This should also be coupled with the expansion of so-called ‘technikons’ in South Africa to teach industry-relevant skills. 

Roodt explained that this will help alleviate critical skill shortages in South Africa’s economy and is a far cheaper and more efficient way to ensure an increasing number of people are employable. 

These kinds of skills, including building, plumbing, woodwork, and electrical skills, have been shunned in favour of the prestige offered by a university degree. 

However, in South Africa’s economy, they are often in much higher demand than a significant number of university degrees. 

“In South Africa, you could easily replace up to half of universities with TVET-style colleges and you would be doing everyone a favour,” Roodt said. 

Roodt’s comments about South African universities echo those of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The organisation said South Africa’s labour market is characterised by persistent mismatches between workers’ qualifications, fields of study, and available jobs. 

This highlights a shortage of skilled and semi-skilled workers in the country, which ultimately constrains long-term economic growth.

The organisation added that this reflects severe inadequacies in technical and vocational education and training programmes. 

This is part of a broader issue within South Africa’s higher education sector – its failure to align its programmes with the skills demanded by the labour market. 

The OECD also called for more teachers and university lecturers with real-world industry experience and greater use of internships to better prepare students for the demands of the job market.