The state of transformation in South African universities
The Transformation Oversight Committee (TOC) under the Department of Higher Education and Training commissioned the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in 2020/21 to investigate the state of transformation in South Africa’s public universities. In keeping with the mandate of the TOC, the HSRC research team focused its work on an analysis of the complete set of 2018 and 2019 annual reports of the 26 universities (the pre-pandemic reports). Following approval by the Minister for the report to be made public, this HELM Engage Seminar presents the report’s findings for the first time to the sector. The report represents the most up-to-date assessment of transformation in the sector with new insights and analyses. It also suggested a suit of innovative recommendations for transformation praxes, monitoring and reporting The report views transformation as a process of substantive democratisation within higher education to contribute to the broader transformation of society.
The report shows how the universities have developed different approaches and, in many cases, good practices to respond to contextual transformation challenges on all five dimensions: (1) Governance, leadership, and management, (2) Higher education experience, (3) Teaching and learning, (4) Research and knowledge production, and (5) Societal relevance and community engagement.
Overall, the report also shows that all public universities faced significant transformation challenges; none had been able to transcend the legacy of their particular histories; and no particular transformation challenge is the exclusive realm of one distinct group of universities or a particular type of institution.
Exploring these issues will be Prof Andre Keet, Nelson Mandela University, Prof Thierry Luescher, Dr Bongiwe Mncwango, and Ms Zama Mthombeni, HSRC. This ENGAGE will take place on 5 June 2023 (14:00-15:30).
Once you have registered you can immediately add the event to your calendar (with all the Zoom details) or you will receive an email with the Zoom details for the engagement. Please feel free to pass this invitation on to other colleagues who may be interested in attending.