Varsities condemn foreign quota call
MP calls for debate on international student and staff numbers
● Members of parliament want to regulate the number of foreign students and lecturers at the country’s universities, saying they want to “protect the South African brand”.
But management at some of SA’s top institutions have slammed the MPs’ comments as “populist” and “divisive”, and say the institutions would lose their international standing if such quotas were implemented.
The outcry follows comments by the chair of parliament’s higher education portfolio committee, Mohlopi Mapulane, late last month. He wants to reduce the number of foreign students and lecturers to “below 10%” of a university’s student and staff population.
At a parliamentary sitting just days before recent xenophobic attacks, Mapulane told MPs that “the universities are institutions of learning and teaching primarily to skill [and] to make sure that you impart knowledge on the South African population”.
“They are established for that reason so we shouldn’t lose sight of that. Allow institutions to compete at an international level but protect them as South African universities so that we protect the South African brand.”
Mapulane said that at some point “we also have to protect our own institutions”.
“In as much as we protect our national sovereignty, sometimes that national sovereignty gets undermined through some of the things that we are not regulating.”
He reiterated his stance to Sunday Times this week, saying: “As a country we should debate the question of the possible introduction of legal mechanisms to regulate the number of foreign students and academics in our institutions of higher learning.”
Walter Letsie, an ANC MP and member of the higher education portfolio committee, agreed with Mapulane, saying there should be a quota on the number of foreigners doing postgraduate studies “because generally people, after graduating, they get their PhDs or master’s [and] they will be biased towards developing their own country first”.
“We must make sure we produce more of our own here and we produce more PhDs so they write in journals and they create new knowledge.”
Academics, however, are having none of the MPs’ views. Wits vice-chancellor Professor Adam Habib said MPs and the state shouldn’t interfere in the “fundamental roles and rights of universities to determine who to enrol [and] who to employ” because they “do not have the knowledge or skills sets required”.
“We cannot have universities that do not have a substantive layer of international students and staff,” he said, adding that were they to leave, “it would not only jeopardise our standing in the international community but would also undermine our quality to innovate, to undertake good science and to produce cutting-edge technologies”.
Veliswa Mhlope, spokesperson for Rhodes University where 17% of students are not South African, said Mapulane’s statements were “divisive” and “inappropriate”.
“The argument that international students and staff in any way threaten the sovereignty of the state is misplaced and unjustified,” she said.
“By sending out unwelcome messages of quotas that may be perceived as hostile to internationals, it will ultimately decrease international recognition of the South African higher education system.”
Sol Plaatje University vice-chancellor Yunus Ballim said though local students should not be displaced in favour of foreign students, “for a university to represent the universal in the world of ideas, the presence of academics who bring a lived experience from around the world is essential”.
Professor Belinda Bozzoli, a DA member on the higher education portfolio committee, said that “the poison of xenophobia should not be allowed to contaminate the university system”. “The best universities in the world and in SA thrive on contributions made by international staff and students,” she said.
Professor Ahmed Bawa, CEO of Universities SA, said it was not difficult to understand the concerns raised by Mapulane, “especially in the context that there is continuing and high local demand for higher education”.
But he said that having international students was good for universities as “they contribute directly to greater diversity and difference”.
At postgraduate level, it was very important to have as many high-quality international students as possible because “they contribute to knowledge production and building an intellectual culture”. It was also critically important to have a high-quality international professoriate, he said.
“There are areas in which we simply do not produce sufficient lecturers and professors and it would be a huge mistake not to make it amply possible for universities to recruit outstanding academics from other countries.”
Higher education spokesman Ishmael Mnisi said there were no plans to impose quotas. “It should be noted that in terms of the Sadc [Southern African Development Community] protocol, the South African university system should enrol at least 5% of students from the Sadc region.’’
He said at least 5.7% of students and 11% of academics at universities last year were foreigners.
“Most universities benefit from global exchanges and international staff and student bodies.”
The poison of xenophobia should not be allowed ... the best universities thrive on contributions made by international staff and students Professor Belinda Bozzoli DA member, higher education committee