Where are our black profs?
Statistics from the Council for Higher Education paint a gloomy picture - only 18% of the country's 4,073 senior and associate university professors are black. The figure drops to 13% if associate professors are excluded.
Professor Jonathan Jansen, University of the Free State vice-chancellor, cited a dysfunctional school system, which results in few black students obtaining their doctorates and a lack of transformation [at universities] as reasons for the low number of black South African professors.
Adam Habib, Wits University vice-chancellor, said proactive recruitment was require to access black academic networks.
University of Cape Town sociology professor Xolela Mangcu said it was difficult for black professionals to break into historically white networks, especially in relation to the publication of journals and articles.
This, he said, resulted in the greater representation of white professors and a weaker network for aspiring black academics.
Habib has proposed that R45-million be set aside for the recruitment and career advancement of coloured and black academics over the next five years,
Jansen warned of the need to strike a balance: "There must never be a compromise between equity and excellence. If we lose that battle it is over. We will have mediocre universities."
Habib also shot down any suggestion of a moratorium on appointing new white professors.
Khayee Nkwanyana, Higher Education and Training Department spokesperson, said it was harder for black South Africans to become professors after a couple of publications of research adding that, if barriers, to entry were not addressed qualified black academics would leave the country.
This was a claim Jansen dismissed because the pool of black professors was already too small [for them to leave in droves].
Earlier this year the department launched the Staffing SA's Universities' Framework which, through its proposed New Generation of Academics Programme, aims to recruit up to 400 senior and post-graduate students - 80% of them women - for permanent positions in the higher education systems annually.