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Permanent black academics make up more than 50% of staff in public higher education

Naledi Pandor.
Naledi Pandor.
Image: Simon Mathebula

Minister of higher education and training Naledi Pandor has raised concerns on the hiring of temporary staff members at institutions of higher learning.

Pandor officially released two key reports on SA's performance of the post-school education and training system at an event held at Burgers Park Hotel in Pretoria on Tuesday morning.

The first report is statistics on post-school education and training (PSET). The second report is the Post-School Education and Training Monitor: Macro-Indicator Trends which focuses on key indicators that measure the performance of the PSET system and this is the first time the department is publishing a report of this nature.

"In public higher education the proportion of permanent black academic staff has increased from 43% in 2010 to 53% in 2017 while the proportion of women increased from 44% to 47% over the same eight-year period.

The number of permanent white staff is declining. It is also worrying that few permanent posts are being released. Instead universities rely on temporary staff and the workload taken up by temporary staff is worrying," Pandor said. 

She said the Council on Higher Education (CHE) 20-year review of a few years ago highlighted the fact that there has been little if no increase in permanent staff in the face of  a doubling of student numbers over the past decade.

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