Johannesburg — The University of the Witwatersrand School of Construction Economics and Management is in a "state of extreme crisis", according to an internal review completed last year.

The school offers three BSc degrees: construction management, quantity surveying and property studies.

The review report, leaked to Business Day yesterday, lists as the most pressing problems "gross" understaffing, poor staff qualifications (of the six permanent staff at the time of the review, only three had PhDs), low research output and underused laboratories.

This is the second department at the university about which, in less than a year, serious concern has been expressed about staff shortages, deterioration of standards and the quality of graduates.

Last year, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants highlighted its concern that teaching staff shortages could lead to a drop in standards and loss of the university's accreditation to educate chartered accountants.

Acting vice-chancellor Prof Yunus Ballim said yesterday Wits was implementing an improvement plan, restructuring the school's curricula and appointing more staff.

"The university views these issues in a serious light, and is committed to maintaining and raising the quality of its academic programmes across all its entities," Ballim said.

In its report, the review team said the school was "in a state of extreme crisis. Student numbers are unmanageable, staffing levels are far below the requirements to deliver an acceptable education, courses are delivered in a manner that is contravening standing orders on good teaching practices, and a lack of leadership ... has promoted a downward spiral".

The school produces professionals needed in the building industry, which is vital to infrastructure projects running into billions of rands. The sector has a skills shortage.

Umbrella body the Council for the Built Environment said it was aware of the problems at Wits, but they were not unique to the institution.

CEO Bheki Zulu said understaffing was also a problem at other universities, and was of concern to the industry as it affected the "quality and quantity" of graduates. Staffing was a "very serious and worrying" issue, which was worsened by the fact that most qualified lecturers were being lured into the private sector, where working conditions were better.

"This is not unique to Wits ... in fact Wits might actually be in a better position compared to other institutions," Zulu said.

Although the problems might not have an immediate effect on infrastructure roll-out, the effects would be felt in the medium to long term.

Prof Theuns Eloff, chairman of Higher Education SA, an umbrella body representing SA's 23 public higher education institutions, also said that the problems were not unique to Wits.

Many South African universities' management had not adapted adequately to the changes that had come to the higher education sector in the past decade, he said.

Eloff said universities and universities of technology had not matched an increase in student numbers with an increase in staff.

Management style had not changed with the times. Government funding had declined in real terms over many years , turning around only partially about two years ago.