'Outlook grim for varsities'

26 August 2016 - 08:35 By TMG Digital

There is no hope for South Africa's universities. Outgoing University of the Free State vice-chancellor professor Jonathan Jansen said this with confidence at a luncheon he hosted at the Cape Town Club to discuss current events, prior to his departure for the US.Jansen said history would show that the turning point in the destruction of universities was when President Jacob Zuma, despite Minister Blade Nzimande's position of a 6% fee increase, announced a 0% increase for the 2016 academic year "to get the kids out of the union buildings". "The political situation has caught up with us such that it is now impossible to ask for anything in terms of a fee increase and that is our dilemma."In the next 10 to 15 years, and I don't say this easily, I looked at all the sums, I have done the financials of all the universities, I have looked at the politics of the system, the top 10 universities in this country will look like the bottom 10," he said."What is happening now is completely unsustainable."Jansen will step down on August 31 and will take up an invitation as a Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University next month. ..

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