By: Leonie Sampson, Head of Old Mutual Education Trust

As the Old Mutual Education Trust (OMET) marks 20 years of funding dreams and supporting futures, its leadership is choosing reflection over celebration and raising its voice for serious reform.

Instead of a commemorative drumroll, OMET’s message is clear: “South Africa’s education system is at a crossroads, and without a bold, collaborative, data-informed turnaround strategy, sensitive to the changed student demographic, we risk losing potential talent.”

“Universities serve a broader purpose beyond simply preparing graduates for the corporate world,” says Leonie Sampson, Head of OMET. “They play a vital role in nurturing human potential including artists, philosophers, educators and changemakers, who contribute to the enrichment of our society and shape the kind of future and society we all aspire to live in.”

OMET’s experience over two decades has highlighted a growing concern. Students at historically under resourced institutions continue to face challenges their counterparts at better resourced institutions do not.

“Sadly,” says Sampson, “these are often the very institutions where support is most desperately needed by students from challenging backgrounds, and they are more affordable.”

Sampson adds, “It’s heartbreaking. These are brilliant young minds from under-resourced communities who are caught in the middle between funder risk-aversion and a university experience that cannot meet the needs of many students.

OMET encourages management teams, councils, and public authorities to seriously seek ways to ensure the student experience is one that is student-centered. Without this, she says, the system will continue to replicate inequality under the guise of access to higher education.

Sampson highlights that fixing higher education in isolation cannot be done. “This is our moment to reimagine the system. It starts with strong foundations in Early Childhood Development (ECD) and continues through to tertiary level with a consistent focus on how and what we teach, what we value, and how we prepare learners for life.”

This approach, she adds, calls for a long-term, integrated strategy that recognises education as a continuum, one that nurtures critical thinkers, adaptable problem-solvers, and citizens equipped to thrive in a rapidly changing globally connected world.

She argues that the current higher education model, unchanged in decades, may no longer be fit for purpose. The country needs an agile, tech-integrated, global-conscious education system. We need to be innovative, creative and flexible.

“Therefore, the outcome should not just be about passing exams,” she adds. “It’s about preparing young people to navigate complex global challenges, from AI and the Fourth Industrial Revolution to climate change, migration, and cultural integration.”

Since its inception, OMET has quietly provided financial and appropriate supplementary support to 520 graduates. Over the last three years, unemployed graduates have been assisted with job placements through internships. Some graduates secured permanent employment in various business units at Old Mutual. This intervention is aimed at permanently transforming the trajectories of families.

But for Sampson, the next 20 years must be about more than just funding. She points out OMET’s renewed objective to intensify its employment support interventions, a critical step in addressing the rising graduate unemployment rates within an economy that is not growing.

“It’s not enough to just get a student through the gates of a university,” she says. “We must ensure that what they find on the other side is worthy of their dreams”.