Universities must play an active role in changing the society they form part of, Professor Chika Sehoole, Dean of the University of Pretoria’s (UP) Faculty of Education, told the recent Universities20 (Uni20) Conference in Pune, India.

The Uni20 Conference was hosted by the Association of Indian Universities (AIU) and Symbiosis International (Deemed University) under the theme ‘The Future of Universities: Making the World a Better Place to Live in: The Transformative Role of Universities’. The conference gathers senior academics and educational leaders from all the G20+ countries to deliberate on the role universities must play in achieving the UN 2030 Agenda.

“I believe that universities can and should play a role in addressing the social ills of society by providing access to higher education and ensuring that students are supported and leave universities with qualifications,” Prof Sehoole said in his address to the 400 university and industry leaders, and students from 46 countries, who attended. He also spoke about innovations UP has implemented to grant indigent students access to higher education and support them throughout their studies to ensure that they leave the University with completed qualifications.

Using the Faculty of Education as a case study, he argued that it is not enough to grant admission to these kinds of students; it is also necessary to ensure that students turn up for registration. This means providing them with transport money, accommodation, and start-up support in the form of toiletries and food until government bursaries make payment.

“I became Dean of the Faculty Education in 2016, which has its stand-alone campus that houses about 5 000 students from the University’s 56 000,” Prof Sehoole said. “A year after my appointment we under-enrolled students by about 300. The [then] Vice-Chancellor and Principal threatened me with the removal of the Faculty from that campus and replacing us with a bigger faculty that could better utilise the campus if we do not recruit enough students to fill available places. I assured her that I would recruit and fill up that campus with students.

Admission requirements not the last stumbling block

“I used the government bursary scheme that funds students who want to become teachers as a strategy for recruitment. Among the 62% [of] young people in South Africa who are unemployed, there are those who have passed matric and meet the admission requirements to study at a university. However, these young people do not have the resources to pursue their studies further. In order to meet the teacher demand and supply needs, the national Department of Education has a recruitment programme for youth who have matric, are unemployed, have passed matric in subjects that are in demand in schooling system, and they wanted to become teachers. We partnered with the department to recruit those students to pursue teaching as a profession. Those who meet our admission requirements, we admit them, and government funds them.”

He said he only realised at that point that meeting the government and the University’s requirements for admission was not the last stumbling block. “No, it is actually the beginning of a long problem that continues until they graduate,” he said. “Firstly, our university, and many other universities in South Africa, use an online application system as part of their admission process. The poor young people in the rural areas do not have access to technology. Solution? We took manual application forms which we gave to them to complete, and we bring them to the University to be uploaded on the University system.”

Still, he cautioned the audience, the fact that students have been admitted does not mean they will show up when the university opens. “No, these young people, because of the poverty they live in, do not have the means to travel to the University. You have to send them transport money for them to travel to the city. When they arrive in the city, you have to transport them to the University.”

He said these students require food, toiletries, and basic subsistence items once they arrive at their residences. The Faculty has a faculty manager who provides support to students with such basic needs, and they raise funds from the private sector to help. The Faculty also provides additional academic, psycho-social and material support for students who struggle with culture shock after moving from rural areas to the city.

Prof Sehoole said the interventions produced good results:

• Over the past five years, the Faculty consistently exceeded enrolment targets, with 42% of students being first-generation university entrants.
• Helping to address two of South Africa’s biggest problems: poverty and youth unemployment.
• These students are succeeding in their studies and the first cohort that was admitted in 2018 graduated in 2022 with an 80% completion rate, and in the minimum time.
• These students have returned to their communities and have been placed as qualified teachers in local schools, with quality education from one of the leading universities in Africa.
• By bringing funded students to the University, they addressed the problem of student debt, and that contributed to the sustainability of the University.
• Through these strategies, the Faculty of Education has now become the largest and most diverse faculty in the University.