humanities and social sciences 8
H U M A N I T I E S A N D S O C I A L S C I E N C E S
ate in either science or commerce would ing. This said, statistical and bibliometric
help to ‘grow the economy’ while the value evidence suggests that the humanities and
of a graduate in the humanities could be social sciences (here the definition includes
measured within the logic of economic education) account for approximately 40%
rationality. This approach of course disre- of all output in accredited journals in South
garded Edward Ayers’s assertion that the Africa. However, this work chiefly appears in
“humanities are intrinsically inefficient” and local journals which are not ISI-indexed and
that training in the humanities did “not ob- therefore not internationally recognised
viously translate into the requirements for – interestingly, this outcome is a mirror
a first job” (Ayers, 2009:30). A new funding of that in the natural and health sciences.
formula, which came into effect in 2004, When measured against ten similar science
changed this evaluative balance somewhat. systems (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Ma-
The subsidy is now calculated according to laysia, Mexico, Portugal, Singapore, Spain
the field of study (in a simple funding grid and Turkey), South African humanities-au-
where most of the subjects in humanities thored articles in ISI-indexed journals com-
are in the lowest-yielding category), as well pared favourably in terms of international
as the level of the degree – so, a Bachelor’s visibility, measured as citation rates. Social
degree has less weighting than a Master’s science articles were ranked in the sam-
degree, which in turn is less than that of a ple behind Singapore and Brazil in terms
Doctorate. This funding system is based on of field-normalised citation rates, while the
the input costs of training rather than on humanities were ranked fourth behind Ar-
the output benefit to the economy. This has gentina, Portugal and Egypt.
certainly increased the ‘returns’ – to inten-
tionally use the accounting term – but the Complications have also arisen from the way
money available for humanities is still much in which research funding is organised and
less than it is for science fields. managed in the country. In apartheid times,
the chief funding agency, the the Foundation tion
Within the university funding formula, re- for Research and Development (FRD), was
search outputs are rewarded by a cash pay- devoted to the financing of the natural sci-
out to the author’s respective home institu- ences and technology; around this focus
tion. The greater weighting of these rewards a distinct, and quite effective, operating
is for research which is published in aca- culture had developed. At apartheid’s end,
demic journals, with books and especially along with most other institutions in the
book chapters generally yielding lower country, the FRD went though extensive re-
‘returns’. While some efforts are underway organisation, resulting in the establishment
to repair this situation, there is an overall of the National Research Foundation (NRF),
lack of appreciation of the deep scholar- through a merger between the FRD and the
ship necessary in the writing of a peer-re- Centre for Science Development (CSD), the
viewed book, which in turn shows a lack granting arm of the HSRC. By legislation, the
of understanding of the humanities on the NRF became responsible for the promotion
part of policy steeped in free market think- and support of research in the humanities
229
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