JONATHAN JANSEN: You had better pay attention - This could be the final nail in the coffin of higher education
TO THE rational mind, the new outbreak of student protests makes no sense. The minister of higher education‘s announcement this week provides unprecedented levels of financial assistance to the children of the poor and to the “missing middle”, those students too well-off to qualify for government bursaries but too poor to fund their own studies.All university leaders, and any number of analysts, greeted this official statement with relief.Not the protesting students. They want free education, period, and so the disruptions, the intimidation, the violence start all over again as this group of activists relish their new-found power — they can shut down a university.The public has many other issues that hold its attention, such as the deaths of kwaito star Mandoza and veteran journalist Allister Sparks, or the Brangelina divorce. We are not paying attention to what might well be the final nail in the coffin of higher education, and a minority of students are trashing higher education f...
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