BusinessLive writes that the largest demographic in the country, namely African women, is significantly under-represented among science graduates at some of SA’s top higher education institutions.  

At the University of Stellenbosch (US) and the University of Cape Town, African women — including those from the rest of the continent — account for 3% and 16% of science graduates, respectively, the worst output of this demographic in the country.  Women do represent more than half of science graduates at some historically black universities.  There is also a lack of diversity in science academia, which is often blamed on a "leaky" pipeline in that African women leave the sciences before they are qualified enough to be hired as academics.  According to the Department of Higher Education and Training’s 2014 data, African women comprise 32% of all science graduates.  In 2014, about 26,000 people graduated with either a three-or four-year science degree.  About 8,300 of those were African women.  Eugene Cloete, vice-rector for research at US, says he can’t think of a university that is pushing back against transformation.  He acknowledges the diversity of the university’s science graduates is a problem and says US has instituted policies to attract and support African students.

Read this article by Sarah Wild in full at BusinessLive

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