STADIO, the JSE-listed investment holdings company with investments in three private higher education institutions, has set its sights on creating an alternative to the University of South Africa, the largest university system in the country, with in excess of 400,000 students.

Larger universities including the likes of Stellenbosch University, UCT, Wits, and North-West University range between 30,000 and 70,000 students.

Stadio started as a subsidiary of Curro Holdings, but was unbundled in 2017, and listed separately on the Johannesburg exchange.

In 2013, Curro acquired Embury, a registered private higher education institution, which offers accredited teacher education qualifications. This was Curro’s first acquisition in the post-school education environment.

It has since acquired further prestigious registered higher education institutions, namely AFDA, Milpark Education, LISOF, Prestige Academy and Southern Business School, as well as the business of CA Connect. AFDA and Milpark Education operate independently, and the other institutions were consolidated with Stadio to form one Stadio Higher Education institution.

In a note on Wednesday (22 June), Stadio chief executive officer, Chris Vorster said the group is set to enter a growth phase with its eye firmly on widening access to quality education. It currently boasts 9 schools, over 50 accredited programmes and both on and off-campus options.

Stadio, with its current three investments in Stadio Higher Education, Milpark Education, and AFDA, has, from 2016 to 2020, focused on establishing and positioning the business.

Vorster said that in 2022, the group is still focused on the consolidation phase of the business and is positioning to implement its growth strategy, aiming for sustainable growth in profit of more than 20% in the long-term, with minimal capital requirements, whilst investigating the possibility of new markets, and further refining its systems and processes to enable continued innovation and efficiencies.

Addressing shareholders in a virtual AGM, Vorster, said that the foundation for this growth phase has been laid and is visible in the first semester with student numbers up by 11% to 38,414  at the end of May 2022 in comparison to 30 June 2021, with distance learning numbers increasing by 15%.

These figures exclude students enrolled in short-learning programmes, Stadio said.

“Of particular significance, is that new students increased by 16% relative to June 2021 with contact learning students growing by 2% to 2,355 and distance learning by 19% to 11,137 students.

“This is a good illustration of our strategy for growth, by taking new programmes to new sites. In general, new student growth provides Stadio with a good pipeline of roll-over students for the next few years,” Vorster said.

Stadio is on track to achieve its target of 56,000 students by 2026, with an 8% annual growth rate required to achieve this. “The ultimate goal is to provide top-class education to 100,000 plus students over time with a minimum of 80% distance learning students and a maximum of 20% contact learning students,” Vorster said.

“Stadio is well-positioned to achieve these goals with its overall strategy underpinned further by its purpose of widening access to education, taking cognizance of the world of work and student centredness,” he said.

The group’s latest campus in Centurion opened its first phase in 2022 at a build cost of R200 million.

Fees vary greatly, depending on the course, type of learning, location, advancement, and year of study.

Divine Mavungu (14) of Hoërskool Alberton has huge sports ambitions and the future is bright for this young athlete.

This Grade Nine learner was awarded a gold and silver medal at the South Africa Schools Athletics earlier this year, which was an incredible honour for him.

“It was an amazing dream come true and I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Divine remarked.

Divine represented his school this year at the SA Schools Athletics where he came sixth in the 200m, sixth in the 100m and received a gold and a silver medal for his relay performance.

He recorded his personal best time, which was 10.91, at the provincials this year. He was also awarded his SA colours.

“Clocking my personal goals and representing my school at such a massive event is a most pleasurable feeling.”

Divine started athletics in Grade Three at Colin Mann Primary School.

“I made it to the provincials where I claimed fourth place. I qualified for the SAs, but I could not compete that year as I was too young.” His highlights include competing at the district and provincials every year since Grade Three. He qualified for SAs four times in his athletic career.

Covid-19 made it hard for him as there were no school athletics events.

He is also a member of the Boksburg Athletics Club and he competed at a provincial competition this year where he received first place and qualified to go through to the SAs but due to unforeseen circumstances, he could not compete.

It is one of his goals to compete in the Junior Olympics one day.

“I train six days a week for the whole year,” said Divine. He said he feels like he does not have enough hours in a day to do what he wants to do.

“I take my school work very seriously and that is why I always make sure that there is a balance between my academics and my athletics.”

When he gets the chance, he will focus on his school work to make sure that he knows what is going on and that he doesn’t fall behind.
Athletics is part of Divine Mavungu’s life.

“Running and exercising is what I do best. It is my happy place and where I can escape reality,” he said.
Divine said being an athlete is hard work as you don’t just train for the athletic season, but you train throughout the year to stay fit.
“I train a lot and I do need to watch what I eat and drink,” he said.

Short distances and relay are what Divine is passionate about.

Older athletes inspire him because he finds it fascinating to see how they train and compete.

“Athletes are fueled by non-believers. They possess the ability to overcome adversity like no other. Where others see fear, they see the symbolism of what they want and go for it.”

Divine was born in Germiston and grew up in Elsburg with his two brothers. He is the middle child.

In 2011 he moved with his family to Lambton where they are currently staying. When he is not busy training or catching up on school work he enjoys making gifts.

“I like being creative and making stuff. I also like inventing new things.”

He also enjoys watching TV and listening to music. When he grows up, he wants a career in the sports industry.

Something people don’t know about him is that he is frightened of birds, cockroaches and dogs.

“I also want to take this opportunity to say thank you God for blessing me with this talent. Thank you to my parents, my friends, my school and my coach, Lindie du Plessis for supporting and believing in me,” he concluded.

THE National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) will in the 2022 financial year spend R47.3 billion in funding the tertiary education of 691 432 students.

This was on Friday revealed by Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister, Blade Nzimande, during a press briefing.

Of the approved applicants, 462 983 were female and 227 072 being male.  

Addressing reporters, the Minister said: “There has been a new intake of 240 790 SASSA students… and we will continue to support 1 770 students with disabilities who receive quite a comprehensive set of allowances from the NSFAS Fund”.

Of this allocation, he said, 362 482 was for ccontinuing students and 136 460 for new students.

He said that students registering in multiple institutions continue to be a challenge.

“We have found that 2 481 students have registered in more than one institution and NSFAS has received registration claims from more than a single institution,” he said.

To rectify this problem, students are required to deregister in institutions that they are not studying at and submit evidence to NSFAS so that funds can be released to the correct institution. 

Another big challenge identified, he said, was with regards to funding conditions not met, students following incorrect academic pathways, registering on non-aligned qualifications. He said this was the case with even new students who were registered on qualifications that were being phased-out.

“The above requires all institutions and all students to strictly adhere to the approved NSFAS Eligibility Criteria and Conditions for Financial Aid funding without deviations. NSFAS will continue to work with institutions to ensure resolution to the anomalies in the system,” she said.  

TVET CollegeStudent Funding

For 2022 TVET college bursaries, he said NSFAS projected a 10% growth in student numbers across all TVET academic cycles to an estimated 395 000 students. In this regard, NSFAS made provisional funding for 380 000 TVET College students. 

To date, he said NSFAS received registration data for close to 200 000 students. This is at about 52% of expected and provisionally funded students in colleges, he said.

“In seeking to close the gap and understand the issues at College level, NSFAS deployed its staff in May to assist TVET colleges to submit registration data according to NSFAS requirements.

“This intervention assisted in the improvement of data quality submitted by the TVET Colleges. However, this intervention is not sustainable as NSFAS does not have enough capacity to adequately support TVET colleges at various campuses in this particular way in the long-term,” he said.

The Minister said there was a need to capacitate TVET college staff on NSFAS processes.  In the regard, he said NSFAS had committed to support colleges with a contribution of R500 000 per college in the short-term period to appoint financial aid officers.

The main issue affecting the processing of students in TVET colleges, like universities, is the problem of multiple registration status and students following incorrect academic pathways.

“There were 4 287 unprocessed students not processed for payment by NSFAS because of these exceptions.  NSFAS has started a reconciliation and data sharing exercise with institutions for the resolution of these identified exceptions,” he said.

The Minister said this issue would be sustainably resolved through “systems integration between NSFAS and institutions”.

“I am informed that already there is on-going work to resolve this issue,” he said.

Nzimande said the NSFAS Board recently proposed new policy reforms to improve the efficiency of the scheme. He said had considered and agreed to these, saying the changes had proven to be positive in improving service delivery.

NSFAS administrative, student accommodation and other related challenges

After being inundated by student complaints on accommodation and being evicted by landlords, he said from next year, NFSAS would take a proactive role in NSFAS funded student accommodation in order to ensure value for money. This included standardizing the cost and quality by grading student accommodation, thus paying a standard rate based on the grading of each type of accommodation.

He said: “Through numerous engagements with students, student leadership bodies, educational institutions, and accommodation providers, it is clear that student accommodation remains a major challenge to resolve. This is the case in both private accommodation and institution owned-accommodation”.

He said there were insufficient beds to accommodate students, while some institutions did not have sufficient quantities and quality of own accommodation.

“The building of more infrastructure for student accommodation remains a priority for government, and I intend to accelerate such construction, including through partnerships with the private sector,” he said.

Further announcements will be made in this regard later this year.

This included pilots to test various strategies and plans to significantly increase the number of student beds for both university and TVET college students.

SA NEWS

Prompting students and teaching them self-management strategies reduce disruptive behaviors and increase classroom engagement in adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD or ADD) more effectively than do allowing frequent breaks or fidgets, according to a small study published in the Journal of Attention Disorders.

The study found that redirecting students with ADHD back to a task (prompting) and teaching them strategies to independently regulate their behavior (self-management) decreased disruptive behaviors and task initiation time and increased task engagement more than implementing popular classroom strategies such as breaks or use of sensory items or fidgets.

According to the study’s authors, prompting, taking breaks, and sensory proprioception are widespread accommodations used for students with ADHD. The first two often appear as part of Individualized Education Plans (IEPs). On the other hand, self-management strategies are a frequently recommended intervention that is not typically found in IEPs. The authors noted that research supporting specific practices over others is lacking, and such research could inform IEPs.

The researchers evaluated the efficacy of prompting, teaching self-management, encouraging sensory proprioception, and taking breaks in 15 sixth and seventh graders during 20 sessions, each one lasting 20 minutes.

Students were randomly assigned one of the following four strategies in each session.

Prompting condition: Researchers pointed to the task or told a student to continue working if they went off-task for five seconds.Self-management condition: Students checked “yes” on a paper form if they stayed on task for five minutes (indicated by a timer alarm) or “no” if they were off task when they heard the timer ring.Sensory proprioception: Students selected a sensory item (fidget toy, stress ball, etc.) to use throughout the task.Breaks: Students took a five-minute break after working for ten minutes.

Data analysis showed that prompting and self-management strategies delivered the most desirable outcomes in student behavior and engagement, while sensory proprioception resulted in minor or no desired effects.

However, researchers noted that participants were not “fans” of prompting or self-management, viewing the former as “annoying” and the latter as “distracting” (even though it encouraged them to pay attention to their work).

According to the study authors, the effectiveness of self-management aligns with recent research indicating that teaching students with ADHD how to independently manage their behavior is more effective than implementing strategies such as allowing extra time on tasks or distributing a copy of the teacher’s notes.

The findings of this study also build on research supporting prioritizing classroom interventions for students with ADHD above accommodations.

Additudemag

STAFF REPORTER|

THE Servest management company has provided critical support and COVID-19 provisions to learners and teachers at the Grace Christian Private School in Siyabuswa, Mpumalanga.

“Many neighbourhoods have felt the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial burden that it has imposed on communities. Our school has not been spared,” said Hendrik Mahlangu, the principal and one of the founders of the school.

The Grace Christian Private School opened its doors in 2003 with 32 learners, and has grown to 650 learners, providing education from Grade R to Grade 12.

The running operations for the school are funded by parents paying school fees, donors from the local Christian community, as well as assistance from donations from the United Kingdom (UK).

Mahlangu explains: “The cost of personal protective equipment (PPE) became too big a burden for the school, and the support provided by Servest could not have come at a more opportune time.”

“We were paying a lot on PPEs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as it is the responsibility of the school to provide PPE to the teachers and learners. This has been an unexpected cost, and we could not include it in the school fees or impose the financial burden on parents who are already financially overburdened.”

He says that then, as if by a miracle, a UK friend of the school put Servest in touch with the school and the company came to the rescue, offering to donate the necessary PPEs.

The provisions included hand sanitisers, masks, and cleaning products to disinfect classrooms.

The donation from Servest is estimated to the value of about R354 691.

“We have been using the supplies from Servest over the past two years, and this has saved the school a lot of money,” says Mahlangu.
Grace Christian Private School says because of the generous donation from Servest and UK donors, it has in turn been able to help two other nearby schools with some surplus masks and sanitisers.

“This has reduced the strain on the educators who were trying to find funds to help protect the children,” said Mahlangu. “Educators from our schools as well as the other two schools in the area can now focus on their primary role of teaching, and not worry about operational things like PPEs. More support of this nature will go a long way for our schools.”

He explains that the school has been able to continue operating during the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to the PPE provided by Servest, as the school was able to make the necessary adjustments to minimise risk of COVID-19. Online teaching and limited live classroom teaching with alternating classes became the order of the day.

Grace Christian Private School is one of only three schools in the Middelburg region that attained a 100% matric pass rate last year. Mahlangu attributes this success to the grace of God, the dedication of teachers and learners, and the support of kind donors like Servest.

INSIDE EDUCATION

THE Eastern Cape will send six teams to the nationals of the DStv Schools Netball Challenge (DSNC) Nationals that are set for 8-9 August in Johannesburg.

Youth Day saw 16 Botho and Ubuntu schools come together to vie for the top three positions available to progressing to the final stages of the competition.

The group stages saw the schools play against each other before they branched off to play in their different stream.
Despatch High School, Pearson High School and Hoërskool Grens have qualified in the Botho division while kwaZakhele High School, Humansdorp Senior Secondary School and Ngangelizwe Senior Secondary School will play in the Ubuntu stream.

Eastern Cape Schools Netball secretary Satara Ferreira says they are satisfied with how the competition went.

“It was a wonderful day with teams coming all over the Eastern Cape. It was a day marked with players celebrating their talents, celebrating their achievements and just growing as netball players and as people. Thank you to our officials for helping make the day a wonderful success as well as our coaches for preparing their teams. The day was a wonderful success and it was enjoyed by everybody,” says Ferreira.

Free State netball is also sending six schools to the nationals. C&N Sekondêre Meisieskool Oranje in Bloemfontein was the venue where 12 schools competed for a chance to represent the province at the nationals.

Also held over two days, 16 and 17 June, the schools were divided into three pools, two Botho and one Ubuntu with eight and four schools respectively.

Sekondêre Meisieskool Oranje, Hoërskool Sentraal and Bethlehem Hoërskool Voortrekker have qualified in the Botho division while Teto Secondary School, Ikaheng Zakheni Secondary School and Thakameso Comprehensive Secondary School will represent the province in the Ubuntu section.

The schools had to first battle in their respective groups and the top two schools in the Botho pools proceeded to play in the cross semifinals the schools that finished in the top three in the final round moved to the nationals.
While the Ubuntu teams played against each other in a round robin format in their group the teams that finished from first to third progressed to the final round.

SUPERSPORT

UNIVERSITY of Cape Town (UCT) Vice-Chancellor Professor Mamokgethi Phakeng has been elected as International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) chairperson, marking the first time in the organisation’s history that it has been led by an African.

IARU, which was established in 2006, is a network of 11 international research-intensive universities from Australia, Switzerland, Singapore, China, the US, the UK, Denmark, Japan and South Africa.

The network is comprised of Australian National University, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich, National University of Singapore, Peking University, University of California – Berkeley, University of Cambridge, UCT, University of Copenhagen, University of Oxford, University of Tokyo and Yale University.

The purpose of IARU is to promote institutional joint working on various levels of the member universities, such as inter-university networking, institutional learning and staff development.

Its projects cover a range of topics, including equal opportunities, technology transfer, technology-enhanced learning, research administration, libraries and open access.

Phakeng was elected at the recent IARU Presidents’ meeting, which took place at Cambridge University in the UK. She will succeed University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Professor Stephen J Toope as IARU chair at the end of this year.

“Our world is facing extraordinary challenges, and universities have a key role to play in sustaining and strengthening the global connections necessary to meet the moment. Since joining in 2016, UCT has made a significant contribution to all aspects of the alliance,” Toope said on June 20.

Phakeng will serve a two-year term from 2023 to 2025, during which the IARU secretariat will be located at UCT.
“Higher education has a critical role to play in this time of global inequality, rising nationalism and the planetary threat of climate change. UCT values deeply the close relationships within the alliance that generate the trust and insights to play a part in tackling these challenges together,” she said.

IARU has a global reach across a relatively small membership, which allows unprecedented peer-to-peer networking and sharing.
Its activities range widely from working groups focused on vital aspects of running a leading research university – including equal opportunities, cybersecurity, libraries and open access – to tackling global challenges such as sustainable solutions to climate change.

The alliance also offers opportunities for students to attend joint courses and internships.

The 11 IARU members share similar values, a global vision and a commitment to educating future world leaders. Central to these values is the importance of academic diversity and international collaboration.

ENGINEERING NEWS

SINCE the launch of the Cement & Concrete South Africa (CCSA) last year, the organisation has hosted a range of educational and concrete research and development initiatives to promote research, and improve skills and education, in the cement and concrete industry.

The first of these CCSA initiatives is the Young Concrete Researchers and Engineers Technologists Symposium (YCRETS) that promotes research in the local industry.

The YCRETS initiative was initially planned to begin in 2020, but was delayed to early 2021, owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

YCRETS showcased 24 technical presentations from young concrete researchers, engineers and technologists on July 13 and 14 last year.

“This was a virtual event during which young students and researchers 35 years and under would have an opportunity to interact with academics and discuss their research work. “The presentations were of an excellent standard, and we’re hoping to do another event later this year,” says CCSA business development manager Hanlie Turner.

The initiative also involved academic staff from the University of the Witwatersrand, in Gauteng, forming a scientific committee that analysed and peer reviewed presentations that were submitted.

Turner states that CCSA is also creating a scientific committee in conjunction with the Stellenbosch University to have a YCRETS hybrid event in Stellenbosch, in the Western Cape.

“YCRETS has provided great exposure for young students and researchers. The presentations were published in the online proceedings as well as in our quarterly magazine.”

She adds that YCRETS helps to introduce young students to the industry and enables contractors and cement and concrete companies to identify potential candidates for employment.

YCRETS is also not limited to students at academic institutions, as young technologists from private companies can contribute their own research.

Another CCSA educational initiative is the 19 CONCRETEFiX webinars that have been hosted to date, covering a range of topics.

Turner states that the webinar series was initiated in 2020 – before CCSA was consolidated from multiple industry bodies – particularly amid the onset of Covid-19 and demand for online educational opportunities.

“This year, we’ve planned to do a webinar once a month. The tenth edition of Fulton’s Concrete Technology handbook was published last year, and we are getting the authors of some of the chapters in the handbook to present during these webinars. “This will enable the authors to elaborate and provide more background information on their chapters,” she explains.

Holding these webinars provides an opportunity for people who are not able to attend physical classes to become educated on cement- and concrete-related topics.

She also highlights the 2022 Fulton Awards, held earlier this month, which had 24 submissions this year.

The awards are held every two years for excellence in concrete design and construction, and the winners are chosen as entire teams responsible for producing a submitted constructed structure or development.

The categories include buildings of up to R50-million in value, buildings worth more than R50-million, infrastructure of up to R100-million and infrastructure of more than R100-million, as well as innovation and invention in concrete.

“This isn’t just a judgment based on a written submission – the judges, comprising a materialist specialist, structural engineer and professional architect, would visit and assess projects on site.”

She highlights another benefit to this year’s awards being that CCSA became an international partner of industry body the American Concrete Institute, which also has an awards scheme. The winners of CCSA’s five categories will be entered into the American Concrete Institute Awards.

Further, the CCSA KwaZulu-Natal branch introduced the Careers in Concrete initiative last year to promote diverse career opportunities in the cement and concrete industry.

Owing to the successes of this initiative, Turner says the branch is looking to expand this initiative to other education institutions in the province.

While the initiative was done in partnership with the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the KwaZulu-Natal branch is engaging with the Durban University of Technology on the possibility of partnering with the institution on this initiative.

The CCSA is also examining the possibility of running this initiative with academic institutions in the Western Cape, and Gauteng CCSA branches in the future.

“The challenges of the past year were formidable, but presented opportunities, and opportunities culminated in development. This is exactly what CCSA stands for: a unified body to lead the local industry towards relevance and growth. We are confident that CCSA will grow even further in its second year of establishment,” she concludes.

Engineering News

MATEBOHO GREEN|

UNIVERSITIES South Africa’s Research and Innovation Strategy Group has endorsed a list of actions and initiatives to focus on in 2022 and beyond, stemming from the recommendations of the 2nd Higher Education Conference of October 2021. At their second meeting for the year on 9 June, members of the Group elected a four-member task team to dissect this list of actions and draw a workable implementation programme.

In the action plan, the most dominant theme is collaboration amongst universities. Recognising the benefit, for institutions and society, of working together to advance research and strengthen innovation, the RISG will advocate greater collaboration between universities nationally, in the region and globally and encourage student and staff mobility across systems for the cross-pollination of ideas and collective resolution of global challenges.

In the context of CoVID-19, the RISG, chaired by Professor Thoko Mayekiso (left), who is also the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Mpumalanga, will investigate in detail, the pandemic’s impact on research practices within institutions.

This will include identifying best practices and innovations inspired by the pandemic and exploring viable mechanisms to replicate those practices across the system. The issue of research funding also received much attention during the Higher Education Conference. In collaboration with USAf’s Funding Strategy Group, the RISG will explore alternative funding mechanisms available to universities, acknowledging South Africa’s low research funding base, including the funding crisis faced by the National Research Foundation (NRF).

At the Higher Education Conference, delegates acknowledged that research is of little use if its findings and value are not shared publicly for societal understanding. The RISG will examine multiple ways to make research findings more accessible to the public. The Group will also dedicate efforts to entrench the principle of the Engaged University by championing engaged science and scholarship, which requires more meaningful collaboration with society in research during all research processes, such as design, resourcing, implementation and, ultimately, in information sharing on findings and facilitation of mutual appreciation for research benefits.

Alongside championing engaged research, the RISG will invest more effort in promoting research quality across the system. To that end, the Group will review current research incentives to shift their emphasis from research quantity to quality, and ensure a shared appreciation of the changing focus across the system.

Finally, in its Plan of action to embed societal impact in universities’ research endeavours, the RISG will work closely with the NRF to disseminate information and facilitate understanding across the system, of the research impact criteria developed by the NRF. In 2021, the NRF decided to assess new research proposals for their potential societaland knowledge impact as part of the criteria informing research funding decisions.

According to the NRF, impact in those two respects is described as “beneficial change in society or knowledge advancement, brought about as a direct or indirect result of the NRF’s research support interventions, whether planned or unintended, immediate or long-term.”

Stakeholder updates from the sector

The 9 June meeting of the RISG also saw members receiving updates from other stakeholders, on matters of common interest in the higher education sector. From the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), Mr Bheki Hadebe, Director: High-End Skills, informed the Group that the Department would be winding up stakeholder consultations on the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Decadal Plan during the coming months of July, and August. Following the consultations, the Plan would be tabled to the management committee of the Forum of South Africa’s Directors-General (FOSAD) before being presented to Cabinet for final approval. The second convening of the Inter-Ministerial Council (IMC) is planned for November.

Mr Bheki Hadebe also mentioned that the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation had approved the public release of the National PhD Tracer study report. The study traced the mobility, career paths and other attributes of about 16 000 PhD graduates who graduated from South African universities between 2002 and 2018. The study was commissioned by the DSI, project-managed by the Water Research Commission and conducted by the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Scientometrics and Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (ScISTIP) at Stellenbosch University. Mr Hadebe said the DSI was finalising the branding of the report for public release and however committed to making the un-branded report available to RISG members with a caution that they make the necessary acknowledgements in its usage (DSI study, project managed by the WRC and conducted by SciSTIP/CREST).

From the University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Professor Nithaya Chetty, Dean of Science at the institution, shared information on Wits’ new initiative seeking to nurture entrepreneurial thinking to create more innovative graduates, especially at the doctoral level — while maintaining the highest levels of academic scholarship and critical thinking (more on this in a separate report.)

In addition to the updates above, the RISG members also heard from the Chief Executive Officer of the South African National Library and Information Consortium (SANLiC), Mr Glenn Truran, on the progress made to date in steering South Africa towards Open Access to global academic journals.

From the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA), the President, Professor Andrew Bailey, explained measures being undertaken by his organisation to professionalise portfolios in research administration for better career pathing in distinct research management areas.

USAf also presented its own updates as Ms Janet van Rhyn, USAf’s Project Manager for Operations and Sector Support, briefed the RISG members on the 5th South Africa-Japanese Universities (SAJU) Forum conference coming up from 28-29 July, that will be hosted as an online event with Japanese counterparts. Dr Linda Meyer, USAf’s Director: Operations and Sector Support, in turn, appraised the members of the R1billion fundraising milestone that is on track to be reached in September 2022 towards student bursaries and historical debt.

Professor Thoko Mayekiso, Chairperson of RISG, expressed her appreciation at all the presentations and congratulated Dr Meyer for her on-going fundraising efforts. The meeting on 9 June was the second of three annual meetings of the RISG. The last meeting for the year will be held in October and will be a joint meeting with the Deputy Vice-Chancellors: Research.

USAF

MORE than 10,000 school leavers who are predicted three Bs in their A-levels this summer have not got a firm offer at any university, as competition for places at top institutions places increases.

Experts say that in recent years school leavers were entering a “buyer’s market” in university places, with applicants standing a good chance of talking their way into a good university even if they missed a grade. But this year, with elite universities fearful of over-recruiting after being forced to take more students than they wanted during the pandemic, and a demographic surge in the number of 18-year-olds, competition has been fierce.

Andrew Hargreaves, founder of Data HE, a consultancy that advises universities on admissions, and a former director at admissions service Ucas, said: “Ucas hasn’t released any official data yet, but I have been told that over 10,000 applicants with predicted grades of BBB are not holding a firm offer at any university. That is really shocking.”

Pupils predicted BBB at A-level are generally regarded as strong university candidates. But with elite Russell Group institutions giving out fewer offers or raising their entry requirements in popular subjects including law, medicine and psychology, Hargreaves said these grades will not have been good enough to net an offer on many top university courses this year. Pupils can apply to five universities, but Hargreaves thinks many BBB students have pitched their choices too high.

“This is a big failure of information and advice,” he said. “We’ve been saying for the past decade that it is a buyer’s market, but the environment has now changed, and Ucas and advisers in schools really need to be stressing that.” Hargreaves said it was fine for students to aim high by applying to “stretching” universities, but they should also have an insurance choice at a university that required lower grades.

He suspects that some 3B students may be “holding out” for clearing in August, hoping they will be able to pick up a last-minute place at a top university. But, he warned: “I think they will be disappointed. I have 12 Russell Group clients and all are telling me they won’t be in clearing.”

Last summer, some selective universities were left scrambling to find bedrooms, seminar space and staff, after thousands of extra students got the high A-level grades they needed to secure their place.

The Ucas chief executive, Clare Marchant, wrote in a blog on Wednesday that the proportion of applications to so-called “higher-tariff” universities resulting in an offer had fallen from 60.5% in 2021 to 55.1% this year.
Prof Colin Riordan, vice-chancellor of Cardiff University, a member of the Russell Group, said: “It’s absolutely clear that this has been a competitive year for applicants. We’ve increased our entry requirements in areas at risk of being oversubscribed.”

He said Cardiff had expanded capacity in some subjects during the pandemic and “we can’t just keep on growing”.
He added: “It is also going to be much more difficult for us this year to help people who miss their offer by a grade, especially in popular subjects.”

Mike Nicholson, deputy head of education services at Cambridge University, said: “Most selective universities have been more cautious as they don’t want to get caught out for a third year in a row.”

Nicholson said that teachers had become used to many universities “saying one thing about what grades they will accept, and then in reality being prepared to drop the grade if they want someone”. He thinks that many don’t realise this has changed at leading universities.

He said: “I don’t blame teachers. They often try to be realistic with students, but ultimately the choice of where to apply rests with applicants who can be influenced by peer or parental views.”

Experts say, though, that disappointed applicants should think hard before deciding to put it all off until next year. Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute thinktank, said: “If this year’s applicants think they’ve got it tough, next year’s pressure could well be worse, as there will be more 18-year-olds again.”

He added: “Students and parents need to know that there are really good courses throughout the sector, and not just at the most prestigious universities.”

THE GUARDIAN