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With the understanding that universities play multiple social purposes, we aimed to provide an estimation of the economic impact of the public universities in South Africa. Using models described in the literature, we estimated economic benefits from four university activities -- university exports, research at universities, the production of graduates and universities as business entities. Comparative analysis shows that, as an economic sector, Higher Education contributes more to South Africa's gross value added than other economic sectors such as Wood and Wood Products, Textiles, Clothing and Leather Goods, or Paper and Paper Products. It is comparable to sectors such as Gold Mining, and Beverages and Tobacco. Taking into account a number of assumptions, which are explained in the text, for 2018 the total economic impact was estimated at about ZAR513 billion. Governmental expenditure on higher education in that year was ZAR66 billion. These figures produce a cost--benefit ratio for the sector of 1 : 7.7, considering only these four university activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the paper concerning higher education in South Africa. It notes that the paper has placed its emphasis on vocational training but has given little much importance to have a coherent plan to implement the necessary changes in the system. It mentions that the country is facing 3 million 18-24 years old who are neither have tertiary education nor labour market preference.

The article discusses a study estimating the extent of predatory publishing among the South African academics based on an analysis of South African authored papers which qualified for subsidy. It mentions the articles on predatory publishing includes editorials and commentaries in journals which are polemical and critical in nature. It also discusses need for the stakeholders in South African higher education system to focus on addressing issues related to predatory publishing.

THE QUALITY AND QUANTITY OF RESEARCH publications are used as benchmarks to monitor the performance of South Africa's national system of innovation. The indicators are pertinent to the policies of the Department of Education, which distributes funds for research at institutions of higher education by measuring the volume of research outputs. In this article, we present a scientometric assessment of research in South Africa in the context of the rest of Africa and in comparison with Brazil and India—two countries with which South Africa aims to develop strong scientific ties. We find that South Africa has published a significant number of papers in all 22 disciplines represented in the ISI's Essential Science Indicators. The largest numbers of journal articles in a 10-year period (1996-2005) were published in the categories Clinical Medicine, and in Plant and Animal Sciences, with over 7000 papers each. Three groupings, namely, Chemistry, Geosciences, and Environmental/Ecology, form the second cluster of disciplines in terms of the highest number of publications (2966, 2488 and 2386, respectively). In all 22 subject categories, India and Brazil are rated higher than South Africa in terms of number of publications, but South Africa is ranked above these countries in relation to citations per paper in all disciplines. Egypt outranked South Africa in three disciplines in the period 1995-2004, namely, Chemistry, Engineering, and Materials Science, as did Nigeria in Agriculture in 1996-2005. In addition to the three disciplines in the earlier period, Egypt outranked South Africa in 1996-2005 in Physics, Agricultural Sciences, and Pharmacology/ Toxicology. However, South Africa scored higher than both African countries in all disciplines in terms of citations per paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the "Report on a Strategic Approach to Research Publishing in South Africa," that is being distributed among higher education institutions, members of the research community and all parties that have interest in the dissemination of scholarly research in South Africa. The Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology commissioned this report in December 2001 and was prepared in partnership with a number of organizations, convened under Wieland Gevers. The report uses the "impact factor," based on the definition adopted by Thomson Institute for Scientific Information databases, to assess the quality of South Africa's journals and the country's contributions to global science. It provides many tables of statistical information related to journals in South Africa.

Computational physics as a university undergraduate programme, or as a choice of specialized modules or laboratories within the mainstream physics programme, has grown considerably over the past several years, but this trend is yet to develop fully in South Africa. This paper provides a motivation for developing computational physics at our universities and suggests how such a programme may be designed. We argue that students develop a more intuitive feel for physics, that they learn useful, transferable skills that make our graduates sought-after by industry and commerce, and that such graduates are better prepared to tackle research problems at the master's and doctoral levels both in theoretical and experimental physics. We also discuss current research topics in computational physics that are of relevance to South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors respond to commentaries to their articles regarding the transformation in South Africa and quality high-level knowledge production of higher education institutions. They indicate how their statements have been misread, misunderstood or misinterpreted by the readers, rejecting any suggestions of bias or smoke and mirrors in their articles. They stress that they have transparent approach and they have given a snapshot of the sector in an objective manner.

The article provides information on the commercialization of higher education and growing number of private higher education institutions in South Africa. Topics discussed include cost of vocational education, credibility of higher education and protection of universities from corrupt practices of education.

In the midst of massification, targeted funding has been used in various countries to address inefficiencies in teaching and learning. In South Africa, arguments have been made for significant investments to be made and the University Capacity Development Grant (UCDG) in particular is being used as a driver for improved outputs. Prior to its implementation in 2018, the UCDG comprised the Research Development Grant and the Teaching Development Grant. The Teaching Development Grant was intended to address low retention and throughput rates and ZAR5.5 billion was spent to this end over a 12-year period. The analysis presented here of all Teaching Development Grant budget plans and progress reports from 2007 to 2015 shows that the undifferentiated implementation of the Teaching Development Grant within a differentiated sector limited its potential for system-wide gains. Institutions without adequate resources tended to divert Teaching Development Grant funds to attend to backlogs rather than to address teaching and learning practices and such universities lost much of their allocation through the withholding of unspent funds. This blanket practice addressed the symptoms of underspending but not the structural, cultural and agential mechanisms that led to such under-expenditure. Uneven access to the limited teaching development expertise also impacted on the use of the grant. This call for a context-based approach to funding has been identified as a key success factor in grant interventions in both African and European universities. We recommend a sector-wide response in the form of a national body or plan for the benefit of all universities and investment in financial management enhancement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on the rating system of the National Research Foundation (NRF) in South Africa. It is observed that even early on, the rating system is not applied consistently across disciplines. Several researchers, particularly in the health sciences, social sciences and humanities, do not have faith in the system. Despite the use of both foreign and local reviewers, decisions on ratings are made by 21 discipline-based committees comprising one's peers within the country. The problem of subjective judgments in the rating process is frequently raised.

Internationally, a rise in plagiarism by academics has been reported. The objective of the present study was to examine the extent of plagiarism in articles appearing in 19 South African management journals published in 2016 and to compare the findings to a study undertaken in 2015 using 2011 data from the same 19 journals. This study progresses the debate around academic ethics and academic integrity in the country - a topic, thus far, that has received little research attention. A total of 454 published articles were submitted through the similarity detection software Turnitin™. High and excessive similarity was identified and over 80% of submissions evidenced similarity in excess of 9%. University administrators, journal editors and publishers, and the South African Department of Higher Education and Training are alerted to this plagiarism that undermines the academic pursuit. This awareness is particularly important as faculty serve as role models to students. Measures should thus be taken to ensure that faculty provide sound role models as ethical researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses role of social insurance institutions in providing safety nets for income, health and pension levels of individual citizens. It mentions the conflicts in South Africa's constitution on issues of human rights along with economic and social rights. It also focuses on several factors that raise living standards including growth and diversification in economic activities, expansion of scale economies and the incorporation of knowledge into production.

Although there has been rapid expansion of higher education around the globe, such expansion has not resulted in a more equitable system. Drawing on the work of Nancy Fraser, equity in higher education is conceptualised as 'parity of participation' and includes both equity of access and outcomes. The tensions between expansion and equity are illustrated by comparing South Africa's equity challenges with those of Brazil and the USA. Focusing on South Africa's critical choices, four scenarios or possible futures are provided to illustrate some of the trade-offs and strategic choices. The main argument is that if South Africa's higher education system continues to expand without a concomitant investment in the effectiveness of teaching and learning, it will not achieve the policy goals of equity of access and outcomes. Furthermore the investment needs to be strategically targeted to interventions that can serve as systemic levers of change for reducing drop-out rates and improving graduation rates. To this end, over the next decade the state needs to prioritise an investment in an undergraduate curriculum more 'fit for purpose'. The investment needs to be in curriculum reform that normalises different levels of foundational provision, identifies and removes curriculum obstacles that delay or impede graduation, and provides opportunities for 'breadth' for all students, not only those who come from privileged backgrounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the South African higher education sector, there is increasing concern about the poor retention and throughput rates of undergraduate students. There is also concern that the participation rates in higher education, relative to population demographics, remain extremely racially skewed. With the quality of schooling unlikely to change dramatically in the short term, universities need to look for ways to improve student success, particularly in science and engineering, where graduates are needed for a range of key roles in society. Here we review the research presented at a forum held by the Academy of Science of South Africa in 2010, which sought to bring together the latest expert thinking in this area. The major focus of academic development to date has been the establishment of extended degree programmes. However, it is clear that this model has limited capacity to deal with what is, in fact, a much broader problem. We summarise existing interventions aimed at reducing the 'gap' between secondary and tertiary education, and describe key innovations in mainstream programmes that are possible at the levels of pedagogy, curriculum and institutional environment, some of which are also becoming established internationally in science and engineering. Driving such initiatives will demand visionary university leadership in order to effect the integrated and holistic change that is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the emphasis in Higher Education on community engagement in South Africa and the importance of international collaboration, we discuss a joint approach to chemistry outreach in two countries on two continents with widely differing target school audiences. We describe the history of the partnership between the chemistry departments at Rhodes University and the University of Bristol and provide an outline of the chemistry content of their outreach initiatives, the modes of delivery, the advantages to both departments and their students for involvement in various levels of outreach, the challenges they still face and additional opportunities that such work facilitated. The lecture demonstration 'A Pollutant's Tale' was presented to thousands of learners all over the world, including learners at resource-deprived schools in South Africa. Challenges to extend outreach activities in South Africa include long travelling distances, as well as a lack of facilities (such as school halls and electricity) at schools. Outreach activities not only impacted on the target audience of young learners, they also impacted upon the postgraduate and other chemistry students taking part in these initiatives. This collaboration strengthened both institutions and their outreach work and may also lead to chemistry research collaborations between the academics involved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an analysis of the performance of students from disadvantaged schools (DS) on first-year psychology examination questions. The analysis focuses on the process of enquiry that underpins different kinds of questions (factual, relational and conceptual) of increasing levels of difficulty. The findings indicate that success or failure is not simply a measure of the reproduction of content but is a function of the (in)appropriate form of responses that students generate in engaging with different kinds of questions. This has important implications for the conceptualisation of academic literacy and the development of responsive curricula in the South African higher education context. In order to further understand the reasons for the disproportionately high failure rate among students from disadvantaged schools, the responses of DS failing students are compared to those of their peers from advantaged schools (AS) who also failed the course. This comparative analysis reveals very different patterns of questioning engagement among the two failing groups of students, providing empirical support for the argument that underpreparedness is a distinct systemic phenomenon rather than simply failure by another name. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

South African universities are awarded annual subsidy from the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) based on their research publication output. Journal article subsidy is based on the number of research publications in DHET-approved journals as well as the proportional contribution of authors from the university. Co-authorship with other institutions reduces the subsidy received by a university, which may be a disincentive to collaboration. Inter-institutional collaboration may affect the scientific impact of resulting publications, as indicated by the number of citations received. We analysed 812 journal articles published in 2011 by authors from the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Health Sciences to determine if there was a significant relationship between subsidy units received and (1) citation count and (2) field-weighted citation impact. We found that subsidy units had a significant inverse relationship with both citation count (r= -0.247; CI = -0.311 - -0.182; p<0.0001) and field-weighted citation impact (r= -0.192; CI= -0.258 - -0.125; p<0.0001). These findings suggest that the annual subsidy awarded to universities for research output may inadvertently penalise high-citation publication. Revision of the funding model to address this possibility would better align DHET funding allocation with the strategic plans of the South African Department of Science and Technology, the National Research Foundation and the South African Medical Research Council, and may better support publication of greater impact research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that the South Africa's Council on Higher Education has acknowledged the momentous changes in the world of universities and technikons by issuing its milestone report, South African Higher Education in the First Decade of Democracy. With its supporting statistics, the volume covers aspects of higher education such as the institutional landscape, quality assurance, governance and finance. Each of its 13 chapters summarizes the inheritance of 1994, main developments of the following 10 years, the situation in 2004, and critical issues lying ahead.

The article comments on the quality of research in South Africa. The author stresses the need of the region's universities to address the poor assessment of its research according to some international rankings. He suggests ways to help institutions of higher learning to raise the level of their research. He emphasizes the need to allocate research spending towards individuals and institutions that have the ability to respond to the challenge of lifting research to the next level. He asserts the importance to ensure that scholarship plays its role in the country's development and future prosperity.

Investigates the trends in numbers of students majoring in mathematics at South Africa universities. Comparison with international experience; Decline in the number of mathematics majors; Effect of English as medium of instruction; Difference in the number of students in residential and distance-education students; Possible reasons for the decline.

The article offers the author's insights regarding the roles of the universities on the academic career of the students. Topics discussed include the several changes in the universities' including the increase in corporatisation, managerialism, and commodification of teaching and learning, the aspects of the academic career in South Africa, and the implication of the political sector on the increasing dysfunctionality of the university institutions.