Nature and Impact of Corruption on the Dysfunctionality of the South African Universities

Abstract

Like other public institutions, universities and higher education sector in general suffer from endemic and chronic corruption including other unethical conduct. Society at large holds institutions of higher learning with high esteem as agents of knowledge production and distribution entrusted with public resources to advance their core business of teaching and research, and community engagement. Corruption manifests itself through grand corruption involving politicians, misappropriation of funds, bureaucratic and administrative corruption, academic dishonesty, and sextortion. This chapter argues that poor leadership and pollicisation of universities render them vulnerable to corruption and corruptible to their own members and members of society. This chapter employs political economy framework to understand the complexity of corruption in post-apartheid South Africa universities. Case studies from traditional and universities of technologies were used to comprehend the rampant nature of corruption and its implications in sustaining higher education sector.