Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education and training has requested that all 26 institutions of higher learning submit updated statistics on employment of foreign national academics.
This follows outrage over the Central University of Technology (CUT) revealing that it employs more foreign academics than South Africans during their meeting with the committee in April.
In a letter dated May 2, 2025, addressed to Minister of Higher Education and Training Nobuhle Nkabane, the committee requested that all universities make submissions on the matter by May 21.
The committee wants institutions to provide “detailed background about how many foreign nationals are employed at each university; when were they appointed in their current jobs; breakdown by faculty, department, and administration; country of origin of the foreign academics, including their qualifications”.
Last month the University of Cape Town (UCT) came under fire after it disclosed 15% of its workforce consists of foreign nationals while only 1% of faculty positions are occupied by South Africans from Asian, coloured and white communities. The information prompted public discourse and led to debates about employment equity at institutions of higher learning.
The committee believes that new data is required because the last report was released in 2019.
The Report of the Ministerial Task Team on the Recruitment, Retention and Progression of Black South African Academics, released by the higher education department says the national average for international academic staff across the 26 universities was 11.2% in 2017.
While the overall percentage of international permanent instructional/research staff at universities is 11.5%, varying across ranks, with the highest percentages occurring at senior lecturer (13.3%), associate professor (18.5%) and professor (17.4%) levels.
At the time, CUT was just above the average with 11.8% international academic staff. Wits University employed the most foreign nationals at 25.1%, with UCT and University of Fort Hare (UFH) placed second and third respectively.
The study, however, stresses that further steps should be taken if the reliance on international recruits is a result of inability or reluctance to recruit and retain South African academics.
At least 34% of the international academic staff in South African universities were from Zimbabwe and Nigeria, with Zimbabweans accounting for 25%.
“For UFH and University of Venda, large numbers of the international academics are from Zimbabwe and Nigeria, while UCT and Wits appear to be able to attract academic staff from a much wider range of countries,” the report reads.
The report acknowledges that international staff representation adds immense value, but representation needs to be truly broad rather than predominantly from a few countries.
“When the main reason for international staff recruitment is not a purposeful and reasonable internationalisation agenda, but rather a result of an inability to attract, recruit or develop local academics, then the challenges need to be fully understood and addressed,” it reads.
It then raises concerns about recruitment practices that result in disproportionate representation of international staff from one country in specific departments at some universities.
