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Reimagining higher education in South Africa

South Africa’s higher-learning system is failing – particularly for black students. Only a fraction (about 4%) of students who start school end up at university, where one in three black graduate in the standard degree period and only half of black students graduate within 10 years of enrolling. The system needs to take up bold solutions to address critical barriers.

With the Motsepe Foundation and BSG, Genesis convened the Reimagining Higher Education initiative to identify concrete EdTech solutions to overcome critical constraints in South Africa’s higher education. The objective of the initiative over the next decade is to double the number of black disadvantaged students who qualify with a university qualification and become economically active.

We initially conducted comprehensive desktop research, analysis and a number of consultations to identify the key challenges in the higher education ecosystem: poor university preparedness, insufficient student support, inflexible teaching and learning, and graduate economic inactivity. Based on the identified barriers, we convened a series of idea-generation workshops to conceive potential digital solutions.

We used our in-house joint-solutions methodology, bringing together a broad spectrum of stakeholders from those embedded with the ecosystem to users, disruptors and those in other sectors facing similar challenges. Through this method, we were able to generate over 150 ideas. 

The ideas were then put through a rigorous set of tests for sufficiency, viability and scalability to formulate promising concept for more detailed solution design. 

Four key proposals were ultimately put forward that could be scaled sufficiently to achieve the initiative’s objectives:

  1. A digital campus to give talented high school students the best chance at university;
  2. Consolidated AI-enabled wrap-around support; 
  3. Education data lab to produce accurate, ecosystem data; and
  4. Pathway management through tech-enabled matching

Genesis delivered a clear plan and technical design for each of these solutions and identified the role the Foundation can play as an advocate for change, convener of key players, and channel of funding to impactful interventions.

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