Reply to Fransman's speech on UCT admissions policy
The University of Cape Town welcomes the entry by Marius Fransman, Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, into the admissions debate.
While Fransman clearly shares UCT's commitment to transformation, it is unfortunate that he got many of his facts wrong in the full text of his speech (see here).
First, Fransman says: "In the Law Faculty there is not a single black (coloured and African) student in the final year LLB class of 2012. In 1984 there were about 14 black students out of approximately 150 students graduating in law. In 1995 there were approximately 46 black (coloured and African) students graduating in law. In 2012 there will be 0 black (coloured and African) students graduating in law from UCT."
In fact, there are 44 black LLB finalists in UCT's 2012 LLB programmes at UCT. Over a third of the final year class are black South Africans. The 1995 figure Fransman refers to would have included international students; if black international finalists are included in the 2012 data, there are a total of 51 black LLB finalists. This year, 26 of the 79 students entering the Law Faculty for the first time were black South Africans. Of the 714 students currently registered in the faculty, both undergraduate and postgraduate, 324 are black South African.
In Fransman's speech he says: "Today the number of black students at UCT in some faculties is the lowest it has been in 20 years." In fact, 20 years ago UCT had 3840 black students; 10 years ago that number was 6095; in2011 we had 9369 black students. The student body is transforming, although at a slower pace than we would like.
In his speech, Fransman complains that "of approximately 25,000 students currently studying at UCT today, approximately 150 students matriculated from schools in Mitchells Plain, Khayelitsha, and Gugulethu". This is not accurate. In 2011 UCT admitted 243 first-year students alone from high schools in townships around Cape Town - still a small number, but most students who matriculate from Cape Town's disadvantaged communities are not getting the required marks in mathematics and physical sciences for admission to UCT. Those who do are less than one in every 100 learners.
Students can only be admitted to UCT if they have demonstrated that they have at least the minimum academic potential to succeed in a university environment. (Figures for 2012 will not be available until second-semester registrations and post-graduate enrolments are completed.)
UCT has launched a major Schools Improvement Initiative (SII) to work with the all tiers of government to find ways of improving education in South Africa and to explore different models of university-school partnerships. SII has launched the 100-UP project, in which 100 Grade 11 learners, drawn from all 20 secondary schools in Khayelitsha, are into the second year of a three-year programme that aims to enhance their academic and life skills to better prepare them to compete for places at UCT after Grade 12. 100-UP is now recruiting a second group of 100 Grade 10 learners from the same schools. We hope that once funding is secured, we will extend this project to other school communities in the Cape metropole.
Other UCT projects include tutoring in township schools; the Saturday School programme to provide additional classes at UCT for promising high school learners; the annual Mathematics Competition organised by UCT with the participation of high schools in the Western Cape; and faculty-based outreach projects in support of high schools insurrounding communities.
Fransman asks: "How then will UCT look in 10 years' time if the current policy with all its weaknesses is completely done away ... without taking into account our poorer students subjective conditions. No doubt the current policy must be changed, but it should be changed to more adequately address the historical legacy of Apartheid and advance transformation not to reverse even the mediocre gains."
UCT has applied transformation and redress admissions policies, in one form or another, since the early 1980s. The university's recently established Admissions Policy Commission is examining the current policy, as well as responses to the policy by a wide range of individuals and groups, to determine whether it is still the most effective way to promote transformation within our student community. There is no basis for Fransman's fear that the policy will be changed in a way that reverses what he (incorrectly) details as "mediocre gains".
Statement issued by Patricia Lucas is Head: Media liaison at the University of Cape Town, April 17 2012
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
