Quality imperatives versus funding: A case of filial cannibalism in South African Higher Education?

Abstract

Filial cannibalism involves the killing and eating of one's young. This presentation will give attendees an overview of the former binary higher education system in South Africa; the differentiated funding; the cooperative education foundations of current Universities of Technology and Comprehensive Institutions and the existing quality imperatives pertaining to work integrated learning. A comparison will be made with regard to the specific quality imperatives of, among others, the Higher Education Quality Authority and international best practices pertaining to work integrated learning. These include: stakeholder-inclusivity regarding curriculum design and development; the obligation to place students where work-integrated learning is part of the curriculum; effective management and coordination; provision of adequate infrastructure; learning agreements clarifying the outcomes and the roles and responsibilities of the institution, students, mentors and employers; mentoring of students; effective communication; regular and systematic monitoring of progress of students; and academic as well as workplace based assessment. The staffing and resource-intensive implications with regard to the stated imperatives will be elaborated. The realities of discretionary grants which are potentially available for workplace experience of students studying towards scarce skills programmes will be addressed.

The metaphor of ‘parental care, no care/total abandonment, and filial cannibalism’ will serve as vehicle to question the logic about non-funding by the Department of Higher Education and Training (as parent) of work-integrated learning parts of curriculum of certain higher education programmes (the younger programmes in the South African landscape).