Dear Dr Nzimande*
This has been one of the most difficult letters to pen and having reflected deeply on this I then took the decision to share my suggestions and thoughts with you and let history record that I played my part.
South Africa has recently been rocked by student demonstrations under the banner “#fees must fall movement”. This resulted in President Jacob Zuma announcing a freeze on fee hikes at public tertiary institutions for 2016 with the state providing the financial support to mitigate the increases through the fiscus.
Whilst this has managed to calm the situation for now, the fundamental issues raised by the students remain.
The country cannot develop fully if we cannot equip the next generation with skills and knowledge necessary to grow the economy. The country must equip the youngsters with skills expected from a productive workforce and in entrepreneurship skills for them to become employers as well.
In a separate opinion article “The Tragedy of SA Business Schools” published on News24. I bemoaned the high cost of business school education in South Africa, which sets one back by at least R200k in the top business schools. With no scholarship or funding, it becomes an insurmountable mountain to attain a business school degree. It has been commoditised and commercialised beyond the reach of those that may need it most.
The previously disadvantaged students in most cases then complete their studies with huge debts and this slays entrepreneurship as few are prepared to risk it all afterwards, they would rather take comfort in stable employment and repay their debts which by then will include mortgage and vehicle finance.
If we are able as a people to reduce the cost of education then more people would be skilled and more entrepreneurs would come up.
In short we need a conducive environment that enables the next generation to acquire skills and take the risk with fewer repercussions on their personal lives and should entrepreneurship not succeed they revert to labour force. The spirit of entrepreneurship must be cultivated in all degrees from science, commerce, arts, engineering and medicine with a compulsory module on entrepreneurship.
All the time the political leadership echoes the importance of education as a major tool in poverty alleviation and yet the focus is on producing quality labour force. How about we empower people with the knowledge of them being employers as well?
The banks have successfully tapped into the technology platform and brought banking to the people’s fingertips. We have come to accept and expect banking at our fingertips from Online Banking to Mobile Banking. There has been a greater efficiency in banking and increased access and the cost of doing business has been drastically reduced.
The biggest cost of our current education sector is the brick and mortar. If we tap into technology just like the banks, we can drastically reduce the cost of education in this country. We would be able to bring education right to the people’s fingertips.
The appeal to your office in this letter is for the establishment of an Online University in South Africa.
A lot of material that is taught at business schools is available online for free. It is unfair that a prospective student who cannot afford the cost of business school and yet has the material is deprived of the chance to be examined by an accredited institution, pay assessment fees and acquire the qualification and skills, simple because they are poor.
The technology is already with us, the majority of private higher education institutions in South Africa already use Moodle an Open Source Learning Platform.
The same platform can be used to deliver online lessons effectively, in an institution that is focused on skilling the nation and not profit making.
I must acknowledge that private institutions in South Africa have made a tremendous contribution to higher education in South Africa in both skills and availability of more opportunities to acquire education to those who CAN AFFORD.
A new online public university (or an online department at existing public universities) offering online degrees from undergraduate right up to postgraduate level supported by your department and the private sector will achieve more in this country than us raising money for scholarships as this does not address the fundamental cost challenges inherent in the current tertiary education set up.
The future in higher education is an increase in online content and universities of the future must be able to blend face to face with online technologies to succeed.
Most universities in America have online departments that offer online degrees to postgraduate level. Liberty University for example offer a wide range covering business, theology and leadership. The question is how can we harness the power of technology to better able deliver and address South Africa’s challenges and skills requirements?
University of the People, is an online university based in California (USA) and founded by Shai Rashef the Israeli Education Entrepreneur. The institution prides itself as being the world’s first tution-free university and levies only exam fees of US$100/module at undergraduate level and US$200/module at graduate level and application fees of US$50.
The university uses Moodle – the open source learning platform to provide the free tution. It has provided low cost education through open source online learning at a small fraction of the cost of education in America. Further-on it is also staffed by volunteers (non-academic and academic) who contribute their time to make accessible education a reality in this world. It has attracted students from across the globe and provided scholarships (exam fee and application fee waivers) to Syrian and Haiti students faced by crises in their countries.
Furthermore a lot of foundations and businesses in America support the institution and provide access to learnerships and scholarships for students including Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, HP, Google and others. The institution is accredited with the Distance Education Accrediting Council in the USA and it recently struck an agreement with the University of California – Berkeley on top of existing arrangements with New York University that enables students to transfer to the institutions and complete their programmes with these institutions.
In conclusion Dr Nzimande, a private-public partnership that taps into technology will drastically reduce the cost of higher education in South Africa and bring education to the people and thus contribute to skilling the nation, economic growth and reducing poverty.
Local government authorities have (are) rolled out free Wi-Fi in major cities and providing access to the internet. Furthermore the Moodle platform can be accessed from a cell phone and the department can rally up retired academics to volunteer their time (with tokens of appreciation) to roll up online degrees in South Africa.
* Minister of Higher Education and Training in South Africa and Secretary-General of the South African Communist Party (SACP)
vusumuzimoyoblog 