Act now to save our universities, says Wits vice-chancellor

JORDAN MOSHE

So said the outgoing vice chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Adam Habib, last Wednesday evening. Hosted by the Rabbi Cyril Harris Community Centre, he addressed the challenges and opportunities facing the South African higher-education sector and made it clear that we need to do more to secure the standing of our universities.

“Our institutions are up against several challenges, but they are worth protecting,” he said. “It’s not the sole responsibility of the vice-chancellor to come to the defence of a university, but that of society. South Africans aren’t standing up for their universities.”

Habib resigned from his post last month after being offered the position of director of the London-based School of Oriental and African Studies from 1 January 2021. He has held the position of vice-chancellor for the past seven years, a period during which he has been no stranger to the upheaval of student protests, the latest of which erupted on campus last week.

He began by stressing that we easily forget how good our universities really are. “A graduate from Wits, Stellenbosch, the University of Cape Town, University of Pretoria, and a few others is the equivalent of one emerging from the United States or the United Kingdom at 20% of the price.

It will cost you about R1 million a year (considering fees, accommodation, and subsistence) to study at Oxford University, Habib said. While the environment might be more charming and the equipment better, in substantive terms, you could get an equivalent degree at our universities at a fraction of the cost.

“People are so taken away by the noise, the challenges we face, that they get derailed and think our institutions are in complete collapse. Are they in challenge? Yes. But they are worth protecting, and society can do it.”

Habib expressed concern about institutions like the University of KwaZulu-Natal, which last month experienced violent protests and the destruction of campus facilities.

“Three weeks ago, this institution was burning,” he said. “It’s now on its knees because collectively, we didn’t stand up to say, ‘You can’t go around burning lecture rooms in the name of free education.’ I worry about this.”

When people decide to leave the country and enrol their students overseas, it’s a cop out, said Habib. “Also, it will cost you five times more, and the middle-class can’t afford that. It therefore pays us to rise to the defence of our institutions.”

He said that one of the most pressing issues confronting our universities is the rising cost of tuition. A year of study at Wits costs R150 000 inclusive of tuition and other associated costs. This when 50% of our population earns less than $2 (R31) a day Even the middle-class struggles to pay the fees, spending almost half of its gross annual salary to send two children to university.

Said Habib, “The ANC [African National Congress] spoke about free education but never implemented a policy for it. What it did was expand higher education while it put in less money.” Habib said that between 1994 and 2015, the number of university students in South Africa jumped from 420 000 to 1.1 million while the per capita subsidy declined.

“In 1994, 70% of Wits’ expenditure was paid for by the state. By 2014, the state contribution had dropped to 33%. For us to retain quality at Wits, we ramped up fees, and the cost of higher education became too high.”

Therefore, students had every reason to protest in 2015. What he can’t accept, however, is the means of protest. “There was no logic in marching and burning things,” he said. “Students were being dragged from their classes by those claiming to act in their interest.” Student activists also expected a double standard to be applied to them, avoiding being held accountable for their actions by hiding behind their cause.

The fees issue persisted, and in spite of Habib’s negotiations with students and political leadership, little was done to implement workable solutions like a loan scheme for deserving students. Although a funding system was eventually put into place, it catered only for poorer students, while those who didn’t fall within the lowest bracket (primarily lower-middle class students) missed out. These “missing-middle” students remain a problem today.

Addressing last week’s protests, Habib said that most of the students who demanded accommodation didn’t have a leg to stand on, having lost their funding because they had failed their university courses twice. “They expected Wits to pay for their accommodation,” he said. “How could we justify that? Still, we found R17 million for this purpose, helping 900 of the 1 100 students who needed it.”

Habib said that he was floored by the hypocritical behaviour of student leaders during the negotiation process last week. Not only did they violate their agreement with the university after accepting an arrangement, they balked at the request to repurpose the R10 000 honorarium Wits awards each of them at the end of their term.

“The same SRC leader who toyi-toyied in the concourse and shouted about freedom wasn’t prepared to give up his money,” said Habib. “It’s nice talking about inclusion when it’s somebody else’s money, but never easy when it’s your own.”

“Students leadership moans, correctly, about the lack of integrity amongst our politicians, but how different are they? I accept that they’re young, but if you don’t hold them accountable now, why are you surprised that you have someone like Julius Malema in 15 years’ time?”

These problems need to be addressed promptly, he stressed. Regarding the “missing-middle”, he believes in the establishment of a loan system in which students repay loans once they start working. Banks and large companies would gladly participate, he said, helping universities to work out a scheme as part of their contribution to the system. The other pressing need is to hold students accountable for violence.

“When you don’t hold them accountable for breaking agreements or burning buildings, you can’t be surprised at violence in South African society. Since 2016, we’ve had buildings burned worth R2 billion in South Africa, and there hasn’t been a single arrest. How many societies would allow this?”

This is why society needs to draw the line, or risk the collapse not just of its universities, but the entire country. “People grumble about collapse, but don’t do anything,” Habib said. “People are gatvol (fed up), and the right-wing steps in when no one else does. I fear we’ll all lose out if this happens. We need to prevent things from unravelling now.”