Contenido del libro

According to Luescher and Symes (2003), the post-1994 government inherited a higher education system that was segregated by race, ethnicity, class and geography, inequitable in terms of gender and language, divided by the disparate functions performed between universities and technikons, administratively fragmented, largely intellectually isolated from the state, from society (and the economic, developmental and cultural needs of the country), and from the international intellectual community and characterised by highly uneven quality between and within different historical institutional types. It was clear that a mere reform of certain aspects of the higher education system would not suffice to serve the challenges of a democratic South Africa aiming to take its place in the world. Thus the purpose of policy development in higher education had been, and continues to be, a

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radical transformation of higher education without losing its valuable aspects. In terms of policy, this required a fundamental departure from the ethical foundations of the previous regime (Badat, 2003).

Ishengoma (2002) in a document entitled "A New Institutional Landscape for higher education in South Africa” indicates that the new institutional landscape for higher education is composed of 21 higher education institutions and two national Institutes for higher education. According to this document, South Africa will consist of: 11 universities, 2 of which would offer vocational-type career-oriented programmes to address regional manpower needs; 6 technikons; 4 comprehensive universities and 2 national institutes for higher education.

Universities and technikons in post-apartheid South Africa can be broadly categorised or labelled as follows: historically disadvantaged institutions (HDI) and historically advantaged institutions (HAI) depending on which race predominantly attended these institutions and how many financial and material resources were allocated to them during the apartheid era.

Further labelling along racial lines also gives us the following categories of universities and technikons: historically white universities and technikons (HWU and HWT), and historically black universities and technikons (HBU and HBT). HWUs can further be sub-categorised into:

historically white (Afrikaans) universities and historically white (English) universities (NPHE, 2001).

The racial fragmentation of the higher education system in South Africa was also observed by Adea:

Gross distortions and equities existed in the system as manifested by

Comment [Hester11]: Spellin g in list of references?

Comment [Hester12]: List of references?

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inequitable distribution of resources to institutions; enormous disparities between historically black and historically white institutions, and a skewed distribution of student population in the disciplines with only a handful of non-white students’ fields such as sciences, engineering, technology and business and commerce. (2001:1).

1.10.1 Problems and challenges in the higher education system in post-apartheid South Africa

Ishengoma (2002) points out that the South African higher education system, although very advanced by European/American standards, faced a multitude of problems and challenges mainly resulting from its apartheid legacy. These problems jeopardised the achievement of the higher education transformation goals set by government. CHE (2001) identified the following structural and conjectural problems:

1. The geographic location of institutions that was based on ideological and political considerations rather than rational and coherent planning resulted in the fragmentation of the system.

2. The South African higher education system did not function in a co-ordinated and harmonised manner as recommended by several commissions and councils on higher education and the white paper. Many of the features of apartheid fragmentation continued unabated within the system and between institutions.

3. There were major inefficiencies in the system related to graduation rates, student dropouts, repetition and retention of students across the system.

4. There were skewed patterns of distribution of students in various

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fields along race and gender lines. Black students, as has been pointed out earlier, were under-represented in the critical fields of science and technology, business and commerce, and engineering.

Skewed patterns along gender and race lines were also evident among academic and administrative staff in universities and technikons.

1.10.2 Key changes in higher education

Mergers and incorporation are the most important changes in education, most frequently cited in higher education. This is viewed as a critical development in South African higher education because it altered the entire environment within which public higher education was delivered.

A study by Luescher and Symes (2003) indicates that some people felt the Department of Education had failed on the issue of mergers.

Restructuring through mergers and incorporations was also associated with a number of specific problems and drawbacks. Institutions were concerned that decisions had been made without due regard as to whether the system had sufficient capacity and the resources for implementation or the potential impacts on individual institutions and on the system of sustained uncertainty in the complex merger processes.

Some lamented the likely differential institutional impact as those institutions who were only peripherally affected could surge ahead towards achieving the National Plan and other institutionally-defined goals, while those embroiled with the merger would fall behind.

1.10.3 Teaching and learning: Equity and quality

The rate of participation especially by black students in higher education is of grave concern. Academic development and support programmes,

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comprehensive financial aid and other measures have been suggested as requiring urgent review by government to improve on the rate of black learners’ participation in higher education. In addition, references have always been made to the need to review the system and language policy by certain institutions to achieve their equity objectives. The importance of curriculum review and the Africanisation of the curriculum are among the most important items.