Degrees for sale: the scam killing education

IN SEAN O°Casey’s scathing definition, universities have ignominiously become “places where they polish pebbles and dim diamonds”.

- VUSI SHONGWE

Thomas Jefferson, one of history's most persuasive and poetic writers, left an enduring vision for higher education. His words, inscribed on the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC, remain resonant: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilisation, it expects what never was and never will be”.

Jefferson's ideas were revolutionary, not just in curriculum or architectural design, but in his belief that universities should enshrine “the illimitable freedom of the human mind ... for here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.” He imagined institutions that extended beyond classrooms, embracing museums, galleries, and gardens open to the public.