South African universities ‘need new social compact’

Research funding crisis and “political destabilisation” highlighted by head of universities body

South Africa needs a new National Commission on Higher Education to tackle problems in the sector, the head of the body that oversees the country’s universities has said.

The Fees Must Fall protests of 2015 to 2017 led to a breakdown of the social compact ushered in by the NCHE, Ahmed Bawa (pictured), the CEO of Universities South Africa, told a special sitting of Parliament’s higher education and science portfolio committee on 29 March.