Are foreign academics taking South African jobs? Here’s what the data actually shows.

Foreign academics are under the microscope in Parliament. On 24 June, Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education and training was briefed by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) on foreign academics employed at South Africa’s 26 public universities and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) colleges. The committee raised concerns about foreign academics in senior university posts and said it would revisit the issue later this year.

The discussion comes at a heated national moment, amid public anger over immigration, unemployment, and access to opportunity. But experts warn that this debate is more complex than “foreigners versus South Africans”.

Why this is sensitive now

Professor Teboho Moja, professor of higher education at New York University and extraordinary professor at the University of the Western Cape, told /explain/ the issue encompasses unemployment, transformation, and internationalisation.

Moja said universities need to balance globalisation with local development. She pointed to former University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Mamphela Ramphele’s idea of “growing your own timber”: developing local academics rather than hiring only ready-made senior scholars.

Government relations specialist Pearl Mncube said Parliament must determine whether this is genuinely a skills and governance issue or whether universities are being pulled into the country’s current tense mood around immigration.

Higher-education consultant Birgit Schreiber put it more bluntly: “Xenophobia is a function of failing social-political systems.”

When people are battling unemployment, weak services, corruption and poverty, foreign nationals can be treated as another burden on a system that already feels broken.

What the numbers tell us

The data does not support the idea that foreign academics are taking over South African higher education.

DHET figures show South Africans make up 92.26% of the higher education workforce, and foreign nationals comprise 7.74%. Most full-time foreign staff (82.89%) are in teaching and research roles rather than in administration.

Sioux McKenna, professor of higher education research at Rhodes University, told /explain/: “There is no systematic displacement of South Africans.”

She said foreign academics account for about 7.74% of permanent academic staff at Rhodes and that this figure has remained relatively stable over time.

Foreign academics are a minority. But Parliament is still asking whether universities are properly justifying those appointments, particularly in senior roles and in cases not clearly linked to scarce skills.

Why universities hire foreign academics

Political scientist Jo-Ansie van Wyk said academic appointments should be based on merit. Her example is simple: “How can we, for example, teach North African politics without scholars from the region and scholars speaking French and/or Arabic?”

Foreign academics often teach, supervise postgraduate students, publish research, and bring international networks. McKenna said they also help to fill gaps in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, as well as in postgraduate supervision.

South Africa does not yet have enough PhD-qualified academics. A DHET fact sheet found that only 48.8% of academic staff had doctoral degrees in 2021, far below the national target of 75% by 2030.

Another higher-education fact sheet found South Africa produced 3 690 doctoral graduates in 2022. There’s still some way to go for the National Development Plan to hit its target of more than 5 000 a year by 2030.

Local academics need more opportunities. But cutting off foreign expertise would not magically create thousands of senior South African academics overnight.

The real local opportunity problem

The strongest criticism is not that foreign academics exist. It is that South Africa has not done enough to grow and retain its own academics. Moja said universities are not doing enough to create pathways for young black academics and early-career researchers, adding that institutions need funding for mentoring, training, and development programmes.

Mncube said this is the hidden part of the story. She said South Africa needs better funding and incentives for doctoral study, as well as stronger retention of black South African academics who leave because of poor progression.

McKenna also pointed to workloads. Emerging academics are often overwhelmed with teaching and marking, leaving little time to build research careers.

Academics shouldn’t be a political target

Schreiber said the real issue is governance: migration systems, labour regulation, skills recognition, regional cooperation, and public-service failure. If those systems are weak, frustration gets dumped onto immigrants.

McKenna warned that an inward-looking university system is dying. Universities need international exchange to stay intellectually strong.

Mncube said universities and the DHET must publish clearer data showing who is employed, why they were hired, whether local candidates were considered, and whether the appointment fits a genuine skills or research need.

What needs to change

South Africa needs more granular data on foreign academic appointments. Universities need to explain appointments clearly, particularly when scarce skills are involved. The government must invest more in PhD funding, early-career academic programmes, and mentorship.

Home Affairs must fix visa and work-permit delays that make universities less competitive for those foreign appointments they do make. Meanwhile, institutions must do more to retain South African academics already in the system.

Parliament shouldn’t be asking: “Why are foreign nationals here?” The better question is: “Why have we not built enough local academic capacity and how do we do that without cutting South Africa off from the world?”

Universities need both: South African academics who are properly supported, and international scholars who strengthen research, teaching, and global exchange.

The danger is that a real transformation problem gets swallowed by an immigration panic. When that happens, nobody wins: not South African academics, not foreign academics, and definitely not the students sitting in lecture halls ready to learn.