Public Talk: Post-secondary education enrollments must rise, 3 April 2019

Join Sebastien Dessus, leader of the recent World Bank South Africa Economic Update, “Tertiary Education Enrollments Must Rise”, as he provides an overview of the study’s findings, as a basis for discussion.

Date: Wednesday, 3 April 2019
Time: 13:30 for 14:00
Venue: The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance, Linkoping House, 27 Burg Road, Rondebosch

Presenter: Sebastien Dessus, World Bank
Chair: Professor Faizel Ismail, Director Designate, the Mandela School
Discussants: Professor Brian Levy, Academic Director, Mandela School; Musa Nxele, lecturer, Mandela School

There is a growing recognition in South Africa on the need to expand the various segments of the post-secondary education system: universities, higher education institutions, TVET and community colleges. Raising enrollments and improve graduation rates is seen as key to reduce South Africa’s record-high youth unemployment rate and consolidate its social contract.

The decision taken in December 2017 to grant free higher education to students from poor and working-class families reflect the commitment of authorities to devote more fiscal resources to attain such objective.

The seminar will discuss the implications, from a fiscal and equity, and sustainability perspective of this decision and explore policy options to significantly and sustainably expand enrollments in the post-secondary education system without compromising the quality of education it delivers.

Sebastien Dessus has worked in the World Bank for the past 20 years, including in Southern and West Africa, in the Middle East, and the Chief Economist's office.  He holds a PhD in Economics from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, and has published extensively in academic journals and books on issues related to growth, trade, macroeconomic management, environment, poverty, political economy and general equilibrium modelling.