Transformation, stratification and higher education: Exploring the absorption into employment of public financial aid beneficiaries across the South African higher education system
- Wildschut, Angelique, Rogan, Michael, Mncwango, Bongiwe
- Authors: Wildschut, Angelique , Rogan, Michael , Mncwango, Bongiwe
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478106 , vital:78155 , https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-019-00450-z
- Description: Improving access to higher education is an important strategy for achieving equity in the labour market. Against the backdrop of the ‘massification’ of higher education in a number of countries, most notably in the UK during the 1990s, a growing literature on graduate un/employment has aimed to investigate whether the graduate labour market has absorbed the increasing number of university completers. In post-apartheid South Africa, this question assumes an added significance corresponding with the need to redress sharp inequalities in access to higher education inherited from the colonial and apartheid eras. Measuring graduate employment outcomes, however, is notoriously difficult. Graduate employment studies are often ad hoc and focus on graduates from only a handful of universities or degree programmes. Exploring a novel dataset, this paper presents the first analysis of the labour market absorption rates of publicly funded (through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)) graduates from low-income households across all South African universities between 2005 and 2015. While our findings illustrate the expected differences in the probability of employment by race and gender, we also identify a strong and significant association between the type of university from which NSFAS students graduate and the probability of employment and show that this association holds irrespective of race, gender and the field of study in which a degree is obtained. We conclude with a reflection on what a hierarchical higher education system means for the role of higher education in transformation and creating an equitable society.
- Full Text:
- Authors: Wildschut, Angelique , Rogan, Michael , Mncwango, Bongiwe
- Date: 2020
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478106 , vital:78155 , https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-019-00450-z
- Description: Improving access to higher education is an important strategy for achieving equity in the labour market. Against the backdrop of the ‘massification’ of higher education in a number of countries, most notably in the UK during the 1990s, a growing literature on graduate un/employment has aimed to investigate whether the graduate labour market has absorbed the increasing number of university completers. In post-apartheid South Africa, this question assumes an added significance corresponding with the need to redress sharp inequalities in access to higher education inherited from the colonial and apartheid eras. Measuring graduate employment outcomes, however, is notoriously difficult. Graduate employment studies are often ad hoc and focus on graduates from only a handful of universities or degree programmes. Exploring a novel dataset, this paper presents the first analysis of the labour market absorption rates of publicly funded (through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)) graduates from low-income households across all South African universities between 2005 and 2015. While our findings illustrate the expected differences in the probability of employment by race and gender, we also identify a strong and significant association between the type of university from which NSFAS students graduate and the probability of employment and show that this association holds irrespective of race, gender and the field of study in which a degree is obtained. We conclude with a reflection on what a hierarchical higher education system means for the role of higher education in transformation and creating an equitable society.
- Full Text:
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and its impact: Exploring the absorption into employment of NSFAS-funded graduates
- Wildschut, Angelique, Mncwango, Bongiwe, Rogan, Michael, Rust, Jennifer, Fongwa, Samuel, Meiring, Leana
- Authors: Wildschut, Angelique , Mncwango, Bongiwe , Rogan, Michael , Rust, Jennifer , Fongwa, Samuel , Meiring, Leana
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478062 , vital:78151 , ISBN
- Description: The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) was formally established as an income contingent student loan and bursary scheme in 1999, focusing on: redressing past discrimination; promoting equal access and representivity in higher education participation; responding to the human resource development needs of the nation; and establishing a funding scheme that is affordable and sustainable. Both in terms of the size of funding support (R12.4 billion in 2016/17) and the number of students reached (451 507 students in 2016/17), NSFAS is a core public funding mechanism. A growing body of literature also suggests that NSFAS funding has impacted positively on student access, progression and success in post-school education and training (PSET) (De Villiers et al, 2006, 2013; National Treasury PER Cohort Study, 2016; DHET, 2016). NSFAS is now concerned to assess and demonstrate beyond the academic outcomes, the patterns, of labour market participation of its beneficiaries. In early 2017 NSFAS thus commissioned the Education and Skills Development (ESD) research programme of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) to analyse patterns of labour market absorption amongst NSFAS-funded graduates over a ten-year period (2005 – 2015).
- Full Text:
- Authors: Wildschut, Angelique , Mncwango, Bongiwe , Rogan, Michael , Rust, Jennifer , Fongwa, Samuel , Meiring, Leana
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , book
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/478062 , vital:78151 , ISBN
- Description: The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) was formally established as an income contingent student loan and bursary scheme in 1999, focusing on: redressing past discrimination; promoting equal access and representivity in higher education participation; responding to the human resource development needs of the nation; and establishing a funding scheme that is affordable and sustainable. Both in terms of the size of funding support (R12.4 billion in 2016/17) and the number of students reached (451 507 students in 2016/17), NSFAS is a core public funding mechanism. A growing body of literature also suggests that NSFAS funding has impacted positively on student access, progression and success in post-school education and training (PSET) (De Villiers et al, 2006, 2013; National Treasury PER Cohort Study, 2016; DHET, 2016). NSFAS is now concerned to assess and demonstrate beyond the academic outcomes, the patterns, of labour market participation of its beneficiaries. In early 2017 NSFAS thus commissioned the Education and Skills Development (ESD) research programme of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) to analyse patterns of labour market absorption amongst NSFAS-funded graduates over a ten-year period (2005 – 2015).
- Full Text:
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