Abstract:
In this article we respond to the perceived crisis in humanities education in South Africa
which posits firstly that large numbers of students are leaving this field and that secondly,
the value of a humanities education has declined. To do this we track the enrolments
and graduation rates in humanities at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels
between 1999-2007. We disaggregate the data using the racial quantifiers identified
in the HEMIS data base. We show that the small overall numeric decline of students
in humanities education does not constitute a crisis in itself. Instead, it is disturbing
that humanities education does not parallel the patterns of growth evident in higher
education as a whole, particularly for historically disadvantaged groups. We use
Waghid’s ideas on the civic role and responsible citizenship roles of higher education to
comment on the numeric trends we observe with respect to humanities education and
argue that the second perceived crisis, namely that of the declining value of humanities
education deserves national attention.
