Business Day
*Revitalise humanities - Nzimande* *Karl Gernetzky, Business Day, Johannesburg, 30 March 2012 *THE government's focus on maths, science and technology in higher education had come at the expense of the humanities, which should be revitalised in the interest of SA's overall development, Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande said yesterday.
Mr Nzimande --- who holds a doctorate in sociology --- was referring to seriously declining student enrolment and falling graduation rates in the humanities and social sciences.
He expressed the hope that by April next year an institute dedicated to increasing and improving the quality of research would be established, serving as the central organising locus for "catalytic projects" leading to new research areas and promoting interaction among researchers and the academic community.
Addressing academics at a conference on the future of humanities in SA, he said while he agreed on the emphasis on engineering and technology being necessary as economies became increasingly technologically dependent, knowledge from both disciplines would be necessary to respond to SA's complex social problems. These problems, as well as the country's history, meant there was space for SA to become a world leader in "progressive social science", he said.
The decline of the humanities at universities, said Mr Nzimande, was a global problem, and reflected the "commercialisation of universities and the commoditisation of knowledge".
State intervention would be necessary to support research even if it had "no apparent economic value", but informed social policy made widespread the tools necessary for informed debate about society, Mr Nzimande said.
Last year, he received a report on the issue, charting the way for the humanities. University of Cape Town professor Ari Sitas --- who co-headed the report --- said it was fallacious that promoting the social sciences would conflict with the natural sciences. He warned that as SA's institutions faced pressure to compete with top research institutions, such as Oxford and Harvard, the "citation bias and reputation" of these institutions could mean climbing university rankings would be a "futile chase".
Mr Nzimande said just as maths and science were a focus in basic schooling, studying social sciences should be mainstream in all fields of study.
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