SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25713, 27 January 1949, Page 3

SOUTH AFRICAN UNIVERSITIES

SERIOUS FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES

(From a Reuter Correspondent.) JOHANNESBURG, Jan. 18.

Some African educationists are urging the setting iip of a special grants committee to investigate the position of the Union’s universities, some of which are said to be on the verge of bankruptcy. The causes of their troubles are mainly extreme overcrowding, lack of money to expand, and an excess of expenditure over revenue.

The proposed grants committee would make recommendations for coping with this, according to Mr Hugh Parker, vice-chairman of the Rhodes University College. If the committee is not appointed and the financial problems are not solved, South African universities will not be able to maintain their high traditions.

Mr Parker proposes a university grants committee similar to the committee which functions in Britain on behalf of the Government and distributes grants to the universities amounting to more than half their income. He believes that if such a committee were appointed in South Africa it could give wise and necessary guidance to the universities, while not in any way interfering with their academic freedom.

The serious financial difficulties facing the universities are attributed partly to lack of public spirit, the universities being insufficiently endowed, and partly to the parsimonious view of the present and previous parliaments. While it is agreed that radical measures must be taken now, it is felt that they cannot wisely include the raising of fees. In many letters to the press there have been complaints that a great part of the overcrowding is caused by girls and boys sent to university for conventional reasons, without regard to their ability or will to work. One remedy suggested is that these be weeded out by examination arfd that others coming in should be banned by higher admittance tests. The public feels that fees cannot justly be raised because the cost of living and of books •is already so high that manv students are maintained only by severe sacrifices at home. Newspapers throughout the country express surprise that these universities did not become insolvent long ago. . They not only receive little monev, but they are also in a continuous state of uncertainty as to how much will be given.