Rhodes>Vice-Chancellor> Books and Publications>Other Publications>National Policy and a Regional Response in South African Higher Education

National Policy and a Regional Response in South African Higher Education

A radical reform of South African higher education started after the first democratic elections of 1994; higher education was confronted with social, political and economic demands of a kind not encountered during the apartheid era.

Change in higher education institutions followed a variety of routes, accentuating certain apartheid disparities as well as creating new differences on the institutional landscape.

This study looks at measures taken in the Eastern Cape to provide the higher educational institutions in a region of high poverty and high unemployment with strategic co-operation scenarios for post-school education (Fort Hare College & Rhodes University, two of South Africa's historic institutions of higher education, are both in the Eastern Cape).

The Partnership for Higher Education in Africa, commissioned case studies of higher education provision in Tanzania, Uganda, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa, as part of its effort to stimulate enlightened, equitable, and knowledge-based national development, and to provide guides to understanding.

The studies address the environment for higher education in each country; the institutional framework (governance, finance, curricula, staffing, equity, students, etc); and ongoing efforts to turn challenges into transformation.

The first three studies, on the University of Dar es Salaam, Makerere University, and a national study of higher education in Mozambique have been published. Further studies are in preparation on Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya. There will be an additional study on the subject of gender in higher education in Nigeria. The Kenyan study will include the fast-growing private universities. An overall volume of lessons learned will complete the project.

Source: http://chet.org.za

Last Modified: Mon, 10 Dec 2012 12:42:29 SAST