Only 15% of university students graduate

The graduation rate among students in South Africa’s 23 public universities is 15%. The rate for masters students is 20% and for doctoral students 12%. These figures are contained in the Department of Higher Education and Training’s first annual statistical report, which looked at the size and shape of the post-school sector, writes Nontobeko Mtshali for The Star.

Nicolene Murdoch, the executive director for teaching and quality at Monash South Africa, said graduation rates have ranged from 15% to 20% for several years now. She said the reasons for the low rates include financial constraints – where students enrol for courses but don’t have funding to see them through – lack of academic preparedness and students not getting enough support from their universities.

Murdoch, who is also the president of the South African Association for Institutional Research, said the highest failure rates were in the maths and science programmes, which covered medicine, science, technology and business studies. She said students tended to struggle with “anything with a maths component”.
Full report on the Independent Online site