DOES ATTENDANCE AT A HISTORICALLY WHITE UNIVERSITY BENEFIT NON-WHITE STUDENTS OF INTRODUCTORY ECONOMICS IN SOUTH AFRICA?

Abstract

The Equality of Educational Opportunity survey (aka the Coleman Report), published in 1966 in the USA, is arguably the fountainhead of the debate promulgated within the economics of education and allied disciplines concerning the efficacy of schooling. The debate was largely due to the primary conclusion of the Coleman Report that school inputs (other than student demographics) explain little, if any, of the variance in student performance, with the implication that more money was not the solution to educational problems. While the methodology and the conclusions of the Coleman Report have been criticised in the 40 years since its publication, the fundamental question of the magnitude and extent of the consequences of educational inequalities has relevance to the South African situation. Utilising a cross-sectional data set drawn from three universities, and the theoretical framework of an education production function, this paper addresses the issue of whether, over a decade after the first democratic elections in South Africa, black, Indian and coloured students studying Introductory Microeconomics, have benefited academically from attending historically advantaged (i.e. white) universities (HAU) relative to their counterparts who are attending historically disadvantaged universities (HDU).