Officials say critical-skills visa data isn’t easily produced and might be legally fraught to collect
South African universities could face renewed scrutiny over employment of foreign academics, after government officials admitted they lack reliable data to determine whether institutions are complying with labour and immigration law.
The admission came during a 24 June parliamentary hearing, where Department of Higher Education and Training officials said they had struggled to access information on the numbers of staff who are hired based on special visa categories, such as critical-skills visas.
The higher education portfolio committee is investigating claims that universities have favoured foreign academics over South Africans under the guise of internationalisation. However, the data collected so far “isn’t really great”, Thandi Lewin, a senior department official, told MPs, while confirming earlier reports that only a small proportion of academics in the country are foreigners.
Loopholes and privacy concerns
Lewin said the department will close a reporting “loophole” that allows universities to classify staff as “other” rather than specifying their nationality or citizenship status. She said information on visa status is typically held in individual human resources files rather than in a central database, and that there could be privacy concerns around collecting such information.
Tebogo Letsie, chair of the portfolio committee, rejected suggestions that data...
A California-based physician was recently arrested after pleading guilty to charges of healthcare fraud. Dr. Sanjoy Banerjee, was a medical director for Fountain Hospice, based in Los Angeles. Two...