Formato del libro

Through critical theory, the researcher in the study attempts to put into operation the deconstruction and analysing of the position of learning guides as a form of social or cultural criticism, and look into other theorists and texts, aiming at establishing clarity on the power of knowledge and its subsequent influence on promotion and sustenance of the present social order in South Africa.

The chapter also incorporates the theoretical framework which informs the stance of the researcher and acts as a lens, colouring all arguments in the study. All the above efforts are meant to address questions central in the discourses, namely: (a) what are the discourses?; (b) are they contestational?; (c) who are the people behind these discourses?; and (d) how do these discourses impact on learning?

2.4 WORLD TRENDS IN MERGERS: A LESSON FOR SOUTH

AFRICA?

The higher education institution mergers in South Africa, as outlined in the White Paper on Higher Education (1997), become problematic by looking at how the forerunners have fared in this process. Considering that education systems (higher education in particular) are informed by multiple diverse factors, it is crucial to refer to one First World country, viz. the United States of America, and a still industrialising country, China.

2.4.1 USA bank and hospital mergers

Addressing the Henrico Business Council in 1998, Broaddus Jr. raised a number of challenges also relevant to South Africa. With mega-mergers extending across the whole of the United States, people were naturally concerned about a whole lot of things regarding these developments.

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Amongst their concerns were higher fees and lower levels of service. They were concerned about credit availability and disrupted banking relationships. From 1933 to 1980 bank mergers were relatively modest due to fear and adaptation to the depression. Merging exploded from 1981 to 2003 with the help of state laws – the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking Act of 1994 which amended interstate banking restrictions (Broaddus Jr, 1988).

One popular hypothesis was that individual banks merged in order to increase their market power. The merger wave was driven by the extraordinary advance in communications and data processing technology over the last two decades. Bank mergers had their fair share of challenges, such as unfulfilled expectations on quality service, because of the change in the mix and pricing of products. There was also a numbing effect on service quality and initiative. Some customers were adversely affected by the disruption of established banking relationships. It was also noted that some customers were forced to pay new higher fees for some banking services. Availability of credit to small business was sometimes adversely affected. Smaller banks are a primary source of small business credit. As smaller banks were absorbed by larger banks, who would make small-business loans?

Another institutional merger of note is that of the health system. The merger of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Mass General Hospital in Boston promised to help stem the rise in health care costs by eliminating expensive duplication of services and squeezing overhead. However, with hospital prices rising sharply, both the employers who paid most of the bills and the regulators who oversaw the nation's health care system were asking whether hospitals were abusing the market power they had gained through consolidation. There was a lot of discontent with the creation of large hospital networks. Abelson (2000) reported that, after

Comment [Hester21]: List of references?

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many years in which hospital costs were largely dormant, they now had become the main source of higher health care costs and were responsible for half of the ten percent increase experienced by private insurers.

In a report by Managed Health executive Bill Gillette in 2004 on the merger of Methodist Hospital and Riley Hospital for children with the Indiana University of Health to form Clarian Health Partners, Gillette highlights some of the problems as:

1. Internally, the newly merged institutions were experiencing a

changing environment characterised by rising lengths of stay, resulting in doctors not being able to get their patients into the hospitals. Medical oversight and management after consolidation were virtually absent.

2. Physicians became consumed with protecting their own turf,

fearful of losing control at their hospital.

3. Physicians became increasingly frustrated about their inability to

get data about their performances from the hospital due to downsizing of staff. Quality and safety issues became neglected.

4. Many computer systems were outdated and did not interface, and

the platform could not red-flag or provide the instant data needed to help physicians make the kind of on-the-spot decisions necessary to provide optimum care quickly and effectively.

The bank mergers resulted in the decline of the economy of the United States. The primary provider of most needed employment opportunities was the small business enterprise, which depended on small credit bank loans. Without the active participation of the small business it was

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impossible for parastatals to absorb all the labour force of a country. It can be safely concluded that merging of both banking and hospital institutions had more negative than anticipated positive effects.

2.4.2 Merging of universities in China

The optimisation of China's systems of higher education was influenced by the change of the international political climate. China's participation in the 1950-1953 Korean War led Chinese politicians into a closer relationship with the then Soviet Union. As required under the first five- year plan, large-scale economic restructuring and construction concentrated on a series of industrial projects with the support of the Soviet Union. As socialist construct needed a large pool of labour talent of mainly technical professionals, a major re-organisation of higher education became inevitable

Two aspects were involved in the reordering process: the geographic rationalisation of the higher education layout and the re-establishment of new types of institutions with special emphasis on the development for new engineering universities, both poly-technical and specialised, and teacher colleges. The primary concern was to restructure the whole higher education system in ways which would immediately serve the economic and politic objectives set by the first five-year plan.

The higher education system of China had two obvious characteristics. From the perspective of the administrative structure, professional ministries owned and administered relevant specialised institutions. This led to compartmetalisation, insularity, and self-protection in each sector and an almost closed system of higher education. All programmes were set according to the sector's needs; all students were recruited on the basis of the basis of the sector's needs. In other words, all resources