House Chairperson, I would like to present a report of the portfolio committee for consideration and adoption by this House.
We visited four learning sites between January and February this year in the Northern Cape and North West provinces. In regard to the Northern Cape Urban Further Education and Training College and Orbit FET College, we have noted; that these colleges have got admission policies that are consonant with the requirements of our legislation. Futhermore, that the National Certificate Vocational, NCV, have students who are indeed undergoing placements for learnerships and apprenticeships to be able to fulfil their requirements for the acquisition of their certificates and diplomas.
These FET volleges do not have a policy for admission and enrolment of foreign students. We think the department should intervene in this regard so that there is a clear policy that governs these institutions in regard to this aspect.
We have noted that there is an exponential growth in respect of head count enrolments in these institutions. This necessitates expansion of the infrastructure to be able to accommodate this growing need. The student- lecturer ratio is very high in these institutions and lecturers are overloaded in respect of work, and we think there is a need for improvement in this aspect. There is a critical shortage of proximate student accommodation in our FET colleges and this precipitates high absenteeism, dropout and failure rates.
Our colleges are struggling with attracting qualified and competent lecturers, and we need really to expedite our efforts to train lecturers for FET colleges. There is a delay regarding issuance of certificates to our learners. In this matter, we have been assured by the Ministry and the department that they are dealing with it and will bring it to finality in due course.
We have noted delays regarding transfers by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS, to FET colleges. It is not going to be very easy to deal with this matter because we are not able to reconcile the academic year and the fiscal year. So our advice is that FET colleges should improvise and put aside resources to operate until such time that Parliament appropriates money for them to be able to run.
We appreciate the improvement of collaboration between FET colleges and the Setas and other companies. In particular, we would like to appreciate the partnerships between the Northern Cape Urban FET College and Gariep Motors, Oranje Toyota, Mac Steel, B & C Engineering and others. We think these efforts will go a long way in improving the employability of our learners and ensuring that the vocational and training programmes that are being offered are of relevance to the workplace.
We note the request that has been made by the Northern Cape Urban FET College for an amount of R15 million to be able to cater for additional expenses, including catering for students, and we would like the NSFAS to locate resources to assist in this regard. We would like to appreciate the good management that we observed at Orbit FET College. We think other colleges must emulate this college in respect of improving performance in Mathematics in the NCV programmes, which are notorious for a high failure rate at our institutions.
We also visited the National Institute for Higher Education and Training that is based in the Northern Cape. It's an institution that facilitates the learning of students attached to partner institutions, such as universities. In this regard, I'm referring to the University of North West and Unisa. We have noted that these institutions would like the institute to get money for applications from the students, yet, they do not contribute any money for ensuring that the institute is able to facilitate learning for their learners.
We have urged these institutions to engage with the institute in order to resolve these matters. When we were at the institute, we noticed that they had not submitted their records for auditing by the Auditor-General. We have therefore recommended that this matter be dealt with urgently, so that there is accountability in this institute.
We have also visited the North West University. This university has about 56 000 students, 85% of whom are enrolled for undergraduate programmes. This institution is experiencing a dropout rate of about 12%. It is amongst the lowest in the country. The reasons for this dropout rate include issues of funding, and social factors like the inaccessibility of learning material to pursue studies and so on. The graduation rate at this institution is about 26%, which is slightly above the national average of 22%.In this year 2 000 prospective students were refused admission because of a lack of space, and this really calls on us to expedite our efforts to build two universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape.
We also visited the University of Stellenbosch Tygerberg Campus, in order to inspect the Stag Students Lodge. The visit was at the invitation of the university in order for us to see a prototype cost-effective housing solution for higher education. This has been suggested as an alternative student housing type that is innovative, quick to construct and durable. We would like the department to investigate these alternatives as future possibilities for provision of housing for our education system.
I think the issue that we need this House to note is the importance of adequate funding for the National Institute of Higher Education, and the need to expedite transformation in our institutions. When we visited the North West Potchefstroom Campus, we noticed that the majority of the students there are white. The staff complement is 63% white, and we think there should be an improvement in respect of reflecting the demographics of our country.
We must fast-track infrastructural development for the higher education and training sector. We have to improve throughput rates, success rates, in order to position ourselves at a level where we are able to compete with the world in this regard.
I present the report for adoption by the House. Thank you.
There was no debate. The ACTING Deputy Chief Whip of the Majority Party: Chairperson, I move:
That the reports be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report on Oversight visit to Northern Cape Urban FET College, National Institute for Higher Education, North West University and Orbit FET College accordingly adopted.
Report on Site Visit to Stellenbosch University (Tygerberg Campus) Stags Student Lodge accordingly adopted.