So varsity really is more than just fun to some?!

I recently read and column posted in Mail and Gaurdian titled 6 things that white people have that black people don’t. Generally I tend not to read past the first few lines of articles like this because so many of them are just cringe worthy in their bias (I’m thinking back to another such article “naming and shaming” a list of restaurants for being racist, when it was clear that what they had in fact experienced was just plain old poor service) and blatent omission of facts. But this particular piece caught my eye and kept my attention.

It did this because so much of it rang true and reminded me again of the privileges I had growing up that many, myself at times included, take very much for granted. Something like having financially self sufficient parents, to me has always been the norm. I was to be the one asking them for loans and most definitely not the other way around. Working with university students from all walks of life daily (as a graduate recruiter) has opened my eyes to the pressures on students to perform, graduate, get well paid jobs and start supporting their families.

Niq Mhlongo in his book “After Tears” takes the reader through these exact pressures and the lengths that many take to avoid being a disappointment to their immediate and even extended families. Set in Soweto, the main character Bafana, returns home from UCT after having failed his final law exam and what ensues are hilliously sad descriptions of a desperate student trying to save face in the midst of a very public disaster.

Every week in the news cheats are being exposed and degrees stripped away, and while I in no way condone this behaviour, I feel that more work needs to be done to avoid such scenarios, particularly with at-risk students struggling with social pressures. Too many arrive at the doorsteps of tertiary education unequipped for the challenges that they await – socially, financially, emotionally and academically. While teams like the Eduaction Development Unit (EDU) at UCT do amazing work in this field, so many more lives could be positively impacted if we all started to take a deeper look at the root of the problem and face the challenges head on rather than continuing to be retrospective in our thinking.