From Equity to Efficiency: Access to higher education in South Africa

Abstract

In South Africa, the focus of the democratic government elected in 1994 has shifted from the need to achieve equity in relation to access to higher education to the need to achieve greater efficiency in terms of the way the tertiary system functions as a whole. One result of this shift is that debates about what it means to provide‘epistemological access’ in terms of curricula and teaching methodologies have been sidelined in favour of the need to develop curricula which will allow students to become members of a global workforce. This article examines issues related to access not only in terms of the theoretical debate just outlined but also in terms of the way financial and other constraints impact on the higher education system itself.