Higher Education South Africa (Hesa) is reported to have produced a report because of ‘ageing academics’, the lure of ‘well-paying positions in the public sector, as well as in the private sector’ and the need for the ‘transformation of the academic profession’ to make it ‘more representative of the South African population’. According to the report remuneration discrepancies between male and female academics did not result from ‘direct discrimination’ against women and discrepancies between ‘white and Indian academics, compared with black and coloured staff, “is not the direct consequence of discriminatory practices”’.
Victoria John’s A report has revealed enormous disparities between races, sexes and academic levels was first published in the Mail & Guardian on 23 January 2015.
Hesa, the vice-chancellors’ representative body, finalised the report in November last year but has not released it publicly. Titled Remuneration of Academic Staff at South African Universities, the report focuses on 22 of South Africa’s then 23 universities in 2012 and analysed the remuneration of 14 910 permanently employed, full-time academic staff and those with fixed contracts of a year or more with universities.