Specifically, are these measures vital to atone for the apartheid past or are they just another form of discrimination, aimed at a different group of people?
Following a bout of letters published in Cape Town newspapers last week, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon attacked the university's policies in his column on SA Today, criticising its use of race as a primary admissions requirement to certain medical and law degrees.
UCT assesses its undergraduate applicants based on a points system -- similar to that used by other South African tertiary institutions. Unlike other institutions, however, UCT's 2007 admission requirements clearly distinguish between different race groups in stipulating the number of points required for specific degrees.
A BSc in physiotherapy, for instance, requires that black and coloured applicants obtain 34 points in order to be considered, while Indian applicants need to obtain 41 points and "Open" applicants need to obtain 43 points.
An almost 10-point advantage for black and coloured applicants in some cases saw Leon chastising the university for "cravenly enacting the ANC's [African National Congress's] obsessive, race-based reclassification of South Africa".
"I think there is a lot of pressure from government," Leon told the Mail & Guardian Online. "UCT goes way beyond … these measures are very extreme."
"These are UCT's measures. We believe in them," UCT registrar Hugh Amoore affirmed, "Whether they happen to tie in with the transformation and affirmative action or agendas of the day is of secondary concern."
The M&G Online looked at the admission requirements of medical faculties of similar institutions and found that although previously disadvantaged race groups are preferred in most instances, UCT is the only university with such formal affirmative action measures written into the application process
Without these policies, the MBChB class, for example, would be predominantly white and Indian; there would be very few black men and women doctors in the graduating class," Amoore said.
With these measures in place, black students accounted for 72% of UCT's MBChB classes last year, but Amoore said that "institutionally we believe we need to do more".
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=283565
Following a bout of letters published in Cape Town newspapers last week, Democratic Alliance leader Tony Leon attacked the university's policies in his column on SA Today, criticising its use of race as a primary admissions requirement to certain medical and law degrees.
UCT assesses its undergraduate applicants based on a points system -- similar to that used by other South African tertiary institutions. Unlike other institutions, however, UCT's 2007 admission requirements clearly distinguish between different race groups in stipulating the number of points required for specific degrees.
A BSc in physiotherapy, for instance, requires that black and coloured applicants obtain 34 points in order to be considered, while Indian applicants need to obtain 41 points and "Open" applicants need to obtain 43 points.
An almost 10-point advantage for black and coloured applicants in some cases saw Leon chastising the university for "cravenly enacting the ANC's [African National Congress's] obsessive, race-based reclassification of South Africa".
"I think there is a lot of pressure from government," Leon told the Mail & Guardian Online. "UCT goes way beyond … these measures are very extreme."
"These are UCT's measures. We believe in them," UCT registrar Hugh Amoore affirmed, "Whether they happen to tie in with the transformation and affirmative action or agendas of the day is of secondary concern."
The M&G Online looked at the admission requirements of medical faculties of similar institutions and found that although previously disadvantaged race groups are preferred in most instances, UCT is the only university with such formal affirmative action measures written into the application process
Without these policies, the MBChB class, for example, would be predominantly white and Indian; there would be very few black men and women doctors in the graduating class," Amoore said.
With these measures in place, black students accounted for 72% of UCT's MBChB classes last year, but Amoore said that "institutionally we believe we need to do more".
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=283565
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, I mean you dont learn flash on the farm)
