Universities in South Africa have received millions of admission applications from prospective first-year students. However, only a fraction of these applicants can be accommodated at the country’s 26 public universities.
The Grade 12 Class of 2024 achieved a historic milestone with a national matric pass rate of 87.3%, the highest pass rate in South African history.
The number of learners achieving a Bachelor's Pass—the highest level of achievement in the matric exams and provisional acceptance to study and enrol in a Bachelor's Degree programme at a university—increased by 5.6 percentage points to 47.8%.
The Chairperson of the Higher Education Portfolio Committee, Tebogo Letsie, says that despite this achievement by the Department of Basic Education, it's unfortunate that the higher education sector cannot accommodate all these learners.
We must applaud basic education for that kind of achievement but also on the same breath accept that it's not a good thing from a higher education point of view for having less position than we are being fed.
Letsie says several short-term measures can be implemented to accommodate more learners at universities. This includes building new university campuses in underrepresented regions, expanding online education, and encouraging private-sector investment.
Private-sector in South Africa must come in, must play a role, must help government—they must invest in the education of this country.
South Africa is also set to receive two new Universities. Both universities were announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his 2020 State of the Nation Address, with feasibility studies commencing shortly thereafter.
Phase 1 of these studies was completed in September 2022, and the Department of Higher Education and Training is advancing to Phase 2, which encompasses academic planning, financing, governance, administration, and infrastructure development. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2025.
These conditions align with South Africa's National Development Plan, which aims to accommodate 1.6 million students in higher education by 2030, thereby expanding access to tertiary education and addressing skills shortages in critical sectors.
Consider TVET Colleges
Letsie called on learners to consider furthering their education at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges.
Colleges actually can produce the best of the best, and what we need to do is improve the infrastructure.
The Chairperson acknowledged that administrative challenges in the past have hindered Colleges’ ability to improve their infrastructure, saying, "Many times that we appropriate money on infrastructure for TVET colleges, but they just don’t spend it".