SOUTH AFRICA: Skills shortage cripples universities

South African universities are haemorrhaging lecturers and are being forced to pay professors in some departments huge salaries to get them to stay, writes Prega Govender in the Sunday Times. A snap survey, conducted by the newspaper found that there were almost 600 vacant posts for professors and lecturers in five universities.

The institutions include the:

* University of Johannesburg, which needs 142 lecturers and 28 associate and full professors in nine faculties.
* University of Pretoria, which has advertised 127 posts since January.
* University of Cape Town, which still has 75 academic vacancies after 40 resignations this year.
* University of Zululand, which needs 31 lecturers and 14 professors.
* University of Limpopo, which needs 182 academic staff.

Staff from the country's 23 higher education institutions are being poached by the private sector and they are battling to attract replacements, leaving wide gaps in accounting, statistics, engineering and health sciences departments.

University of the Witwatersrand deputy vice-chancellor Professor Rob Moore said the institution had difficulty recruiting staff in disciplines requiring highly skilled professionals and academics such as accounting, actuarial science, science and the humanities - and that lecturers in these fields were thus able to command very high salaries.
Full report on The Times site