The missing link: Finding space for gerontology content into university curricula in South Africa

ABSTRACT

The rapid increase in the global elderly population has been widely documented in both demographic and popular literature in recent decades. Population estimates produced by the national statistical service of South Africa in 2017 show that the proportion of elderly (60 years and older) in South Africa is growing fast, reaching 8.1% of the total population in 2017. The country is set to experience a doubling of the population over the age of 65 by the year 2020. Similar to their counterparts in the developed world, tertiary institutions throughout Africa too are faced with the challenge of training professionals capable of understanding and responding to the socioeconomic consequences, social priorities, and complex needs of an increasing aging population. The right set of policies can equip individuals, families, and societies to address the challenges of an aging population. After conducting an extensive literature review, we recommend that policy-makers in South Africa should look into ways that will enable them to meet the many challenges of an aging population in the coming decades. One way to address this issue would be to include gerontology content into the curricula of programs in the humanities and social sciences.

KEYWORDS:

• Population aging
• gerontology
• course content
• curricula

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Perpetua Lum Tanyi

Perpetua Lum Tanyi is a postdoctoral research fellow with the University of the Free State, South Africa. She is a full-time lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Her research interests include gerontology, care of the elderly, intergenerational relationship, and HIV/AIDS.

André Pelser

Pelser Andree Andree holds an MA (Sociology) and Ph.D. (Sociology) from the University of the Free State (Bloemfontein, South Africa) where he is currently Professor of Sociology. His areas of expertise include applied social and policy research, social ecology, and the implications of changing population dynamics for human development and the environment. André is the author/co-author of approximately 50 peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals, nine books/chapters in books, and more than 40 commissioned research reports and has occasionally acted as reviewer for 14 scholarly journals.