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Social Justice and S outh A frican University Student Enrolment Data by ‘Race’, 1998–2012: From ‘Skewed Revolution’ to ‘Stalled Revolution’
Author(s) -
Cooper David
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
higher education quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.976
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1468-2273
pISSN - 0951-5224
DOI - 10.1111/hequ.12074
Subject(s) - race (biology) , economic justice , inequality , institution , social class , social justice , class (philosophy) , political science , order (exchange) , sociology , social science , gender studies , law , economics , computer science , mathematics , mathematical analysis , artificial intelligence , finance
The paper looks closely at student enrolment trends through a case study of S outh A frican ‘race’ enrolment data, including some hypotheses about how student social class has influenced these trends. First, data on 1988–1998 enrolments showing a ‘skewed revolution’ in student africanisation are summarised. Then, using 2000–2012 data for the 23 new post‐2000 universities and universities of technology, it is argued that the ‘official’ categorisation of these institutions masks new socio‐economic inequalities; and a better understanding of the ‘skewed’ and ‘stalled’ africanisation revolution is possible using classification into three proposed new categories based on postgraduate enrolments and staff publications as indices of research‐intensivity at each institution: (1) five ‘upper band’ universities; (2) seven ‘middle band’ universities; and (3) eleven ‘lower band’ universities. The paper concludes by distinguishing between ‘reformist’ and ‘radical’ national transformation policies in order to identify their impact on these new race‐ and class‐based student inequalities.