The South African government’s policy on higher education is increasingly geared to catering for "vocational training in science and technology", said John Higgins at Think!Fest, a public discussion forum at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.

Higgins’ talk, entitled Two Cultures or One World?, examined the crisis faced by the humanities the world over.

Higgins -- an A-rated professor in English Language and Literature at the University of Cape Town -- linked this to the 1968 student protests in France, noting that European governments then did all they could to suppress freedom of thought, universities and student societies.

Higgins said former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher launched a deliberate attack on universities, especially the humanities.

In European conservative circles, the talk was about “rolling back 1968”. This global picture, Higgins argued, is being “copied in the policy of the South African government”.

He said the government was increasingly redefining what a university should be and was making moves to turn universities in to vocational training colleges on the “grounds that the country can’t afford to have thinking people”.
full story from M&G here
So are they trying to create a docile society, or maybe they're just trying to address the skills crisis and create more employable citizens...

I'm pretty curious as to what the members here think.