QUALIFIED, BUT UNEMPLOYED: DHET admits it cannot track which degrees lead to graduate unemployment

{JSON.stringify(article.attachments[0], null, 2)} --> The Department of Higher Education is spending billions in public funds without tracking which university degrees lead straight to the unemployment line. While this happens, the unemployment rate among graduates has grown from 10.3% to 12.4% in seven months.

The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has admitted that it lacks a longitudinal administrative tracking system to link specific university degrees to post-graduation employment outcomes, leaving the state unable to identify qualifications that consistently contribute to high graduate unemployment rates.

This follows parliamentary questioning by Rise Mzansi leader and Scopa chairperson Songezo Zibi to Minister Buti Manamela. Zibi asked whether Manamela’s department tracks university qualifications with five-year graduate unemployment rates above the national average, and what collaborative measures are being implemented to improve the market responsiveness of these degrees.

In response, Manamela conceded that the department lacked a five-year longitudinal record tracking individual qualifications to subsequent employment status.

“The department’s higher education information systems record enrolments, qualifications and completions at public universities. They do not, however, routinely capture the subsequent labour-market status of individual graduates. Reliable qualification-level employment outcomes require the linking of higher education records with labour-market, tax and other administrative data, subject to the applicable data-protection requirements,” said Manamela.

He said his department was participating in the development of the National Graduate Destination Study (NGDS) being undertaken by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in partnership with Universities South Africa (USAf). “The project is tracking the economic absorption and career pathways of graduates across all 26 public South African universities,” said Manamela, noting that they seek to improve labour-market responsiveness across the university system, including in qualifications whose graduates already experience comparatively favourable employment outcomes.

Daily Maverick has reported that the reality of finding a job as a graduate is difficult, especially now that there is no tracking of what qualifications lead to job employability.

Zibi told Daily Maverick that reports from labour analysts, business leaders and young people show many degree programmes are disconnected from industry needs, leaving graduates without sustainable employment.

“Operating without real-time tracking means the government lacks basic visibility into the return on investment of higher education subsidies. Deciding funding allocations and enrolment targets without tracking degree performance leaves policy planning reliant on delayed, periodic surveys rather than live labour-market evidence,” said Zibi.

Zibi told Daily Maverick that relying on delayed tracking created a major structural disconnection.