Dave,
The rot started when Kader Asmal joined the the technical colleges to Universities. But there is hope, one of my friends has a family members high up in UJ. They now insisted that the accounting department start publishing academic papers and they were not to judged on results of students passing the CA board exam. That is a step in the right direction. Then the other point he made is in SA we study at university and in England they read towards a degree.