The Language of Access: How English shapes admissions to South Africa's Universities of Technology

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 9:45 am
  In Roundtable Session: Transnational Insights on Decolonial Education

Abstract

Despite post-apartheid reforms, access to South African higher education remains unequal. This paper argues demographic change within Universities of Technology (UoTs) is a form of ‘soft reform’, a symbolic response that leaves colonial structures intact. A key mechanism is the privileging of English in admission criteria, which reproduces coloniality by reinforcing separability: the idea that certain languages and identities are more valuable than others. Based on policy analysis and interviews with university leaders, findings reveal how high English proficiency requirements systematically disadvantage most applicants. This means that despite demographic shifts, the system fails to unforget the colonial logic that created the margins in the first place, an oversight that undermines national equity goals of South Africa.

Author

• Lyndall E. Kemm-Stols, Durban Universuty of Technology