South Africa is about Quality
SOUTH Africa’s population is 64.7 million. All Universities (37), Public Universities (26), and Private Universities (9). The system also includes research institutions (30), South Africa has 26 public universities, all parts of Universities in South Africa, distributed across nine provinces. Each province has at least one university, with Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape establishing their own institutions in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Most universities are found in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western Cape, which house major metropolitan areas.
Top Universities in South Africa – UNIRANKS® 2025: The University of South Africa (UNISA) is the largest university system in South Africa by enrollment. It attracts a third of all higher education students in South Africa. Through various colleges and affiliates, UNISA has over 400,000 students, including foreign students from 130 countries worldwide, making it one of the world’s mega universities and the only such university in Africa.
It is the only higher education institution to carry the name of the country. As a comprehensive university, Unisa offers both vocational and academic programmes, many of which have received international accreditation. It also has an extensive geographical footprint, providing its students with recognition and employability in many countries around the world.
The university lists many notable South Africans among its alumni, including two Nobel Prize winners: Nelson Mandela, the first democratically elected president of South Africa, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Founded in 1873 as the University of the Cape of Good Hope, the University of South Africa (commonly known as Unisa) spent most of its early history as an examining agency for Oxford and Cambridge universities, and as an incubator from which most other universities in South Africa were founded.
Legislation in 1916 established the autonomous University of South Africa (the same legislation also established Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town as autonomous universities) as an “umbrella” or federal institution, with its seat in Pretoria, playing an academic trusteeship role for several colleges that eventually became autonomous universities.
The colleges that were under UNISA’s trusteeship were Grey University College (Bloemfontein), Huguenot University College (Wellington), Natal University College. (Pietermaritzburg), Rhodes University College (Grahamstown), Transvaal University College (Pretoria), the South African School of Mines and Technology (Johannesburg), and Potchefstroom University College.
In 1959, with the passage of the Extension of University Education Act, UNISA’s trusteeship also extended to the five “black universities”, namely University of Zululand, University of the Western Cape, University of the North, University of Durban-Westville, and University of Fort Hare.[6] In 1946, UNISA was given a new role as a distance education university, and today it offers certificate, diploma, and degree courses up to doctoral level.
We can see why South Africa is ahead of the pack in Africa and why South Africa is a member of G-20 and BRICS and Nigeria isn’t. You can see why MTN, Multi-Choice, are located in South Africa with well-equipped technical universities to support maintenance and sustainability.
Do we need more or better tertiary institutions in Nigeria?
We need therefore to look at the new world order in this century that is totally driven by the power that technologies can offer. From what we have just seen from the world powers from the United States to the Asian Tigers in Japan, China, Singapore, South Korea, et cetera, there is a sense in which we can no longer claim that we do not need more tertiary institutions. The only take away from the strategic plans that drive development of the world powers is that we need more tertiary institutions that are better than what we have now.
We cannot rely on the example of South Africa that has only 26 public universities and nine (9) private ones with so many other degree awarding outposts of foreign universities. Despite that, the country, (South Africa) parades most times in world university rankings, seven of the top 10 in South Africa, with Cape Town leading the pack in Africa most of the time.
But there is a thread to all the arguments: there is a correlation between the quality of university education and development from the United States though South Africa to China and India. From Korea, through India and China, they parade both quality and quantity. They ensure that all, yes all their universities are well equipped to produce the workforce they need to remain and compete as entrepreneurial nations.
So as some are saying, we don’t need more universities because avenues for people to be gainfully engaged will be better at this time with vocational education, others are saying we need more and better universities. Unfortunately, our social structure in Nigeria too isn’t helpful: people think that unless you go to the university, you cannot be a success in life, which is unfortunate.
Let’s hear from some gurus in the academia: Prof. Muyiwa Falaiye, former Dean, Faculty of Arts, University of Lagos once told a newspaper: “Over 60 per cent of those in universities today ought not to be there in the first place; they ought to be somewhere else. Unless we have a change of mindset about this, things will remain the same. We have too many Universities already”.
Senator Joy Emodi, former Chairman, Senate Committee on Education once agreed with Professor Falaiye in a symposium interview on the point at issue: more or better universities in Nigeria: In her view, “Honestly, we don’t need additional universities. The most important thing is to consolidate and build on what we have now. If you ask me, I think there is even a need for us to reduce the number.
What I still can’t explain is why we are establishing universities all over the place when the teaching and learning environment is nothing to write home about. What we need is to update and increase the quality and quantity of teaching and learning facilities. We should also ensure that our universities are provided with up-to-date libraries. Teaching and supporting staff should be exposed to modern techniques of learning, teaching and research”.
The late Tunde Fatunde, Professor of Francophone Studies, Lagos State University, Lagos, Nigeria) supported in the same vein, the motion that there shouldn’t be more tertiary institutions: His words: “The ones we have now are underfunded. We don’t need a polygamous environment in terms of universities. Take the total budget of education in Nigeria today, it is about three or four per cent compared to South Korea, where education and vocational training are funded at about 60 per cent of the annual national budget.
This is why South Korea is the fifth economic power in the world. We are not a serious nation. This is the century known as the century of knowledge and digital education. If you don’t invest in education, you are going nowhere as a nation in this century. In Nigeria, the most lucrative industry is politics but the most lucrative industry in South Korea is education and vocational training. You can see the gulf of difference and implication. It is not the issue of how many universities. What is the percentage that is devoted to education and vocational training?
If we had had like 60 per cent like in South Korea, we will be having more universities and vocational training schools all over the place solving problems, advancing technological development and creating jobs. What do we spend our money on here? We spend it on politics and politicians. With that, we won’t go anywhere; we will remain at the level of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This century is one that is driven by knowledge and digital economies and to be driven by that, you need massive investment in education and vocational training.
We were at the same level with South Korea in the 50s and 60s, but can we compare ourselves with them today? The massive investment we have today in Nigeria is in politics and politicians. You can see the difference. It is convenient to pay politicians as and when due at a time teachers are roaming the streets demanding their legitimate wages”.
But Dr Owojecho Omoha, Department of English, University of Abuja disagrees: According to him: “We must not forget that the number of applicants seeking admission into Nigerian universities yearly is quite overwhelming. Of this number, fewer than half are admitted. That gives an indication of a need for the establishment of more universities.
One may argue that some of the existing universities have not been maintained, but such argument is not valid. Even if the existing ones are maintained, it does not stop the quest for higher education in Nigeria. The establishment of more universities must not be discouraged; but at the same time, it is important to maintain the existing ones. Either way, the two should be taken together. The less the number of universities, the more frustrated are our children”.
Prof. Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, former Vice-Chancellor, Kwara State University and University of Abuja supports the motion for more institutions of higher learning; Hear him: “It depends on how we look at it. Nigeria today has a population of about 230 million with a very high young population. If we look at it in terms of population, definitely 300 universities are not enough.
The truth is that we need more universities but we also need to increase capacity of existing universities. We need to do both. It cannot be do one and leave the other. Obviously, we need more universities. Some of them will be specialised universities just like you have universities of agriculture, medical university, among others, while some will be conventional. My point is that we need to categorise our universities in Nigeria. There are some universities that should only run first-degree programmes.
There should be some universities that should concentrate on running masters programmes, and some universities should be research oriented. That is the way our universities will know which one will have to collaborate with industries, which one has to focus on teaching. Right now, we are not responding adequately to our realities. We should move away from old ways so that universities can really function and perform their expected roles. University wants to do the same, whether they are private, public or even state.
All universities think they are the same. Believe me; we are not getting more out of our universities at the moment. Also by categorising our universities, government will know how to distribute funds. We need more universities; we need to increase the capacities of the existing ones, but we should categorise our universities and differentiate them so that some will be only four years programme and will not run masters programmes.
Some will be running masters programmes only and will not run doctoral programmes, while others will only run doctoral programmes… That way, government will know how to allocate funds and what kind of funds should go there. A teaching university will need more resources for their teaching facilities, and they will create excellent platforms.
Many people will like to go there because they will produce quality graduates with sufficient and excellent professors, whose responsibility is to teach and bring out the best in their students who will contribute meaningfully to society. Such universities will collaborate with industries to create products capable of solving simple and complex problems.
To be continued…
- Oloja is former editor of The Guardian newspaper and his column, Inside Stuff, runs on the back page of the newspaper on Sunday. The column appears on News Point Nigeria newspaper on Monday.