South Africa’s top university is in danger of losing its undergraduate law degree, because of its failure to hit transformation targets.

According to a report by the Daily Maverick, an email distributed to law faculty staff this week stated that the Council for Higher Education has already downgraded UCT’s LLB programme status to “notice of withdrawal of accreditation”.

Under current regulations, only programmes accredited by the Higher Education Quality Committee can be offered by a higher education institution.

Some of the criticisms leveled against the programme include a failure to enhance throughput and graduation rates (including race and gender equity), and a failure in the curriculum’s design in that it didn’t account “for educating a well-rounded law graduate”.

“There is no indication of proper and sound planning, no clear targets and timelines provided to convince the Higher Education Quality Committee of the urgency and commitment to address the stipulated conditions,” the email said.

The email further stipulates that UCT has 6 months to address these concerns, failing which he committee warns that the LLB’s status will be further downgraded – from its current “notice of withdrawal of accreditation” to “confirmation of withdrawal of accreditation”.

According to the Times Higher Education ranking published in October, UCT is the only South African university to feature in the top 200 institutions for law at 171st.

This is followed by the University of Witwatersrand in the 251-300 global ranking, and Stellenbosch University in the 351-400 ranking.

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