President Jacob Zuma says acts of violence and vandalism at universities are unacceptable even though the issues raised need attention.

Zuma was speaking at the start of the three day ANC national general council held in Midrand,Johannesburg.

"The frustrations relating to the slow pace of transformation on campuses have also been sharply expressed by students and this is a reality,” said Zuma.

Recently issues of transformation at institutions such as University of Cape Town and Stellenbosch University have been in the limelight after they were raised by student movements such as Open Stellenbosch and Rhodes Must Fall.

However, Zuma said action must be taken against students who break the law when voicing their concerns.

On Tuesday, Zuma met with vice-chancellors and chairmen of university councils to discuss the ongoing challenges at the higher education institutions which include lack of transformation.

The Department of Higher Education and Training is also hosting a higher education transformation summit in Durban next week.

In his address to about 4 000 delegates at the NGC Zuna also raised the lack of black, female academics at universities which he said was dominated by white male academics.

"New academic posts targeting young black and women academics are being created to address transformation,” he said.

The department has developed Staffing South Africa's Universities Framework to respond to staffing challenges at universities.

One of the key challenges the framework is meant to prioritise is the development of young black female academics.

Zuma also added that while funding for poor students through the National Student  Financial Aid Scheme had increased to about R9-billion it was still not enough.

The issue of funding at higher education institutions is one of the issues that the NGC is expected to discuss.

Macupeb@sowetan.co.za