Deputy Speaker, during the second quarter, that is July to September, of this current financial year, the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training used all its dedicated oversight weeks for oversight visits. We conducted three oversight visits in this period.
The first visit was at the end of July in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces. We interacted with different stakeholders at the two universities; all the FET Colleges in Limpopo; and the National Institute for Higher Education in Mpumalanga. We undertook the second visit on 06 August 2013 to the University of Cape Town. Lastly, we visited KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng between 16 and 18 September 2013 where we engaged all the further education and training, FET, colleges in the two provinces in different strategic sessions, as well as Wits University.
Hon members should note that the postschool education and training sector is wide, consisting of 50 FET colleges; 23 universities; two national institutes for higher education, adult education and training centres; and 21 sector education and training authorities, Setas. In the provinces where each college was afforded an opportunity to interact with the committee, the committee was able to get a comprehensive insight into the sector with regard to the issues around governance and administration; administration of the student financial aid scheme by colleges; pass, graduation, dropout and certification rates; challenges around student housing; and general successes and challenges, while for the universities, the engagement was around the admission policies and qualification verification; articulation of FET college students to the institutions of higher learning; transformation; research output; and student housing, to mention but a few.
One of the strategic goals of our government is to ensure that access to postschool education and training is broadened; increase the throughput rate; ensure that training and skills development initiated in the country respond to the requirements of the economy; and ensure that rural development challenges and social integration are being met. We have observed that our institutions of higher learning can address the issue of student equity in broadening access to higher education.
In terms of the student profile of the universities that we visited, we have noted that the University of Limpopo and the University of Venda had more than 90% black students; Wits had 74% black students; while the University of Cape Town, UCT, had the lowest number of black students, which is 28%; and 16% for coloured students. The committee was assured that the proportion of black students experienced a steady increase and the race- based admission policy was implemented by the university to ensure that students coming from disadvantaged educational backgrounds get access to the University of Cape Town.
Hon Deputy Speaker, we commend universities such as UCT and Wits for continuing to represent our country internationally when it comes to cutting edge research. We also found that the historically disadvantaged institutions like the University of Venda and the University of Limpopo have increased their research outputs. We thank the Department of Higher Education for investing in throughput research through research development grants allocated to the universities, as well as donor funding. There were notable collaborations between the previously disadvantaged universities and advantaged universities in terms of research and staff development. We do acknowledge that there are still some challenges with regard to transformation and academic staff, especially in senior professional positions at Wits and UCT, while in Limpopo there were few women represented at the senior management level. We hope that this issue will be addressed through the staff development initiatives that these institutions are implementing.
For the FET colleges, we noted that the sector has grown in terms of student enrolment owing to the improved image achieved through career advice services of the department as well as the Khetha Career Guidance campaign and the Mandela Day Career Festival and radio campaigns. However, the demand for training far exceeded the capacity of the sector; colleges enrolled beyond their capacity.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme has played a major role in ensuring that poor and academically deserving students access education and training in FET colleges. The demand for Report 191 by employers, especially in the mining areas, has increased. However, the current funding model is skewed towards the National Certificate Vocational, NCV, programmes.
The colleges were without councils. We are proud to announce that in all the provinces college councils have been installed. We also engaged the National Skills Fund, NSF, and the Quality Council for Trades and Occupations, QCTO, as well as the Mining Qualifications Authority and the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Seta. The purpose was to scrutinise allocation of public funds and monitor their utilisation. The annual performance targets of these entities were also scrutinised to ensure that they were in line with the department's mandate of expanding access to postschool education and training opportunities to the young people of the country.
We have noted that these four entities had good governance and sound financial management. It was commendable that the QCTO and NSF were fully fledged entities that were well funded to carry out their mandates and were in the process of appointing all the staff. It is commendable that the NSF planned to fund the undergraduate bursaries for 12 500 students and postgraduate bursaries for 100 students. The NSF also planned to fund, among other things, the infrastructure development at the University of Pretoria for the expansion of the medical and veterinary facilities. The NSF was advised to strengthen its monitoring and evaluation unit.
The committee recommended that the Mining Qualifications Authority, MQA, revise its targets and commended the two Setas, which are the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Seta, Merseta, and the Mining Qualifications Authority for the good work that has been done. I therefore request that the House adopts this report that has been well scrutinised by the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training.
I thank you. [Applause.] There was no debate.
Hon Deputy Speaker, I move:
That the Reports be adopted.
Motion agreed to.
Report on Strategic and Annual Performance Plans for 2013-14 of Quality Council for Trade and Occupations, QCTO, and National Skills Fund, NSF, accordingly adopted.
Report on Strategic and Annual Performance plans for 2013-14 of Mining Qualifications Authority and Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Seta accordingly adopted.
Report on oversight Visit to University of Cape Town, UCT, on 6 August 2013 accordingly adopted.
Report on oversight visit to Limpopo and Mpumalanga Province from 22 to 26 July 2013 accordingly adopted.