Abstract
Higher education policy in South Africa uses the concept of ‘historically disadvantaged’ to address inequities and inequalities. Disadvantage specifically refers to black students who are marginalised in higher education due to structural factors associated with the apartheid legacy of segregation. In this paper, drawing from the capability approach, the authors argue that (dis)advantage can be better understood in terms of students’ capabilities, functionings, and agency, which go beyond race to address other forms of oppression like class, gender and related individual factors. Students with a wider capability set and agency to convert resources into capabilities and functionings are deemed advantaged in comparison with those who have a narrower capability set and lack agency. Based on theory and empirical findings, this paper offers a complex, multidimensional and nuanced conceptualisation of (dis)advantage to understand practical interventions in higher education. The findings show that foregrounding race in addressing disadvantage is limiting and policy should therefore provide opportunities to all students for them to succeed.
Highlights
African students were 55% compared to 65% for white students in three-year degree programmes in 2016 (Council on Higher Education, 2018)
The White Paper 3 of 1997 (Department of Education, 1997) intended to support ‘a section of first-year entrants’, some universities admitted white middleclass students who have not qualified in other universities while others enrolled the black middleclass students without specific plans for those from low- income backgrounds (Leibowitz and Bozalek, 2015; 12)
As stated at the beginning of this paper, the concept of historically disadvantaged in higher education policy refers to black students, which means that the concept is racially defined
Summary
Leibowitz and Bozalek (2015) explain that the concept of disadvantage was not defined in circulars that informed universities about the funds resulting in universities adopting different definitions of disadvantage In this context, the White Paper 3 of 1997 (Department of Education, 1997) intended to support ‘a section of first-year entrants’ (the majority of these students continue to be black low- income students), some universities admitted white middleclass students who have not qualified in other universities while others enrolled the black middleclass students without specific plans for those from low- income backgrounds (Leibowitz and Bozalek, 2015; 12). Necessary to reconceptualise the concept of ‘disadvantage’ to better inform interventions for equal opportunities in access, participation, and success in South African higher education and to reduce inequality in this context
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