Introduction to Higher Education

Introduction to Higher Education
Presented at Unisa Young Academics Programme 3 August 2009 Professor George Subotzky Executive Director: Information & Strategic Analysis, Unisa

Overview DISA Source material
Higher education as a scholarly field of study What is higher education? Definition Purposes Key issues & terms Post-1990 policy process Contemporary context of higher education The changing high education workplace Gender equity in higher education (time permitting)

Make Unisa intelligible to itself
DISA Mandate External environment UNISA Make Unisa intelligible to itself Business Units Single I&A and IR Ref Pt 33 Business Units/ Convergence Business Units DISA ODL Pol. Ec. Business Units Business Units HE Dev. HE Policy Contextualisation Business Units

plan change act review Strategic Management Framework
Vision, Mission, SP & Business Model (ODL) Integrated Strategic Management Framework DATA TO INFORMATION + ANALYSIS = STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE plan change STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND ANALYTICAL SUPPORT SERVICES Formal & informal BI support STATUTORY REPORTING HEMIS Other External Stakeholder Requirements INFORMATION & ANALYSIS/IR OUTPUTS Calendarised Periodic Ad hoc Requests Strategic Discussion Forum INSTITUTIONAL INFORMATION & ANALYSIS PORTAL Institution-wide Web-based BI Analytic Tool Downloadable I & A outputs Strategic Management Framework 4 types of Outputs/Services BI/IR ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE act review DATA ICT + IR DISA External DATA

Source material Taught modules in UWC Masters/PG diploma in Higher Education Studies: Policy Analysis, Leadership & Management (PALM) Introduction to Higher Education Studies The Contemporary Context of Higher Education Overview of the post-1990 Higher Education Policy Process in South Africa Changes and continuities in the higher education workplace Challenge of adaptation: included slides, recapitulation & detail Previous publications & recent analyses – self-citation

Higher education studies as a field
Relatively new as a field of scholarly study Most developed in the USA: Pre-requisite for appointment in highly professionalised workplace Many qualification & professional development programmes, including Europe & South Africa Numerous academic & professional organisations, journals, conferences & networks SARDHE; AERA; ASHE; SRHE; AIR, EAIR, SAAIR Considerable body of knowledge Multi-disciplinary in nature

Approaches to HE Studies
Theoretical paradigms: Positivist, Interpretive, Critical Modernist, Post-modernist/post-structuralist Sociological Historical Philosophical Political Science Political Economic Economic Comparative/International

Higher education studies: Focus areas
Students Persistence & Retention Student affairs (quality of student experience) Assessment Faculty/staff Teaching & Learning (curriculum, ICTs) Finance Governance/Management & Administration Policy International comparative

What is Higher Education?
Definition What is ‘higher’ about higher education? What distinguishes it from other levels of education? Purposes Multiple Conflicting

Functions/Purposes of HE
Science/knowledge production, dissemination & preservation Intrinsic value: formative education, cultural & intellectual enrichment Instrumental value: Growth/Development/ Transformation – problem solving, innovation Professional/Vocational education & training to serve HRD & labour market needs Public good Community engagement Critical independent space Growth/Development/Transformation Ideological: reproduction & social mobility

What is distinctive about HE?
Epistemology/knowledge dimensions Scholarship & research Systematically elaborated and conceptualised, theoretically informed knowledge construction, pursuit of truth, meaning and objective knowledge, both within and across disciplines and institutional boundaries Knowledge structure: vertical Specialisation (fragmentation?) of knowledge: the disciplines and subdisciplines – in-depth authoritative expertise Higher order theoretically informed and evidence-based thinking Professional/ academic/vocational education & training Outcomes/ontological dimensions: graduateness Preparedness for labour market & citizenship commensurate with high-level knowledge framework

Higher education as socially situated activity
HE has had a long history – among the most enduring institutions in society HE is a socially situated and contested activity, and therefore inevitably serves particular ideological interests It takes on different features according to historical, political economic and geographical specificities. Different emphasis on its multiple purposes and a variety of shifting institutional forms are the result of changing relations with society, namely: State Global institutions Corporate sector Civil society Technology

Proliferation of forms of HEIs
Carnegie (re)classification: 2-year colleges, 4-year UG (liberal arts colleges), comprehensives, research intensive, etc Traditional research model: still dominant? Graduate schools (major US contribution) Differentiation and articulation: wide variety of binary & trinary systems (comprehensives, specialists) Specialised professional institutions: eg graduate business schools Residential, commuter, distance education/ODL (6 generations) Virtual universities (‘click’) Hybrids (‘brick & click’) Corporate universities

Contested vs shared concept
Many institutions claim university status. Therefore, the key questions are: Can we derive a general, universal definition despite contestations, historical, geographic and ideological differences (Modernist view – Barnett, Holiday)? Does the proliferation of forms and purposes preclude this (postmodern view – Scott, Castells)?

Barnett Weakness of the field: paradox
No educational theory of higher education No theoretical framework Intrinsic vs instrumental/functionalist value Attempts to construct an educational and epistemological theory of HE, based on the assumption that there is something universally common about HE despite its historical and geographic variations, and defines this in terms of a reconstructed version of liberal HE Argues for defining the value and nature of HE as a unique and special critical process

Holiday: The Idea of an African University
Relevance of Newman’s The Idea of a University for African Educationalists “Africans in their quest for a form of university education which will harmonise with their Africanness are driven by an innate conviction … that such education will have to be inseparable from their own spirituality and religious commitments” (p 1) This is under threat in the dominant climate of scientism and secularism

Holiday The idea of the university is not reducible to a list of typically observable features: there are varying cases outside of observed categories: this is so much more the case in contemporary times, given the variety of new forms: eg the corporate university, the virtual university (‘click’ institutions) and hybrid (‘brick and click’) Main claim: The idea of a university denotes something universal. Therefore, something must be a university (in generic terms) before it can be properly called an African university (in particular terms).

Holiday (cont) Problem of retro-defining the university in terms of an interpretation of Africanness: eg in RDP or African Rennaissance terms: any institution which purports to address these goals is therefore automatically a university. “The truth is no matter how noble are motives for wishing it otherwise, there are real constraints on what may be allowed to count as a university” New Zealand contemporary example: rejection of notion of universities of technology Suggestion: Africanness as a common identity can be interpreted as “identification with and commitment to challenges of context” and therefore to development priorities, rather than in cultural, spiritual, nationalist, genetic or metaphysical terms

Universities as dynamic systems of contradictory functions (Castells)
General theoretical claim: In all societies, universities perform basic functions implicit in the role assigned to them by society through political power or economic influence These functions are specific to historical, cultural ideological and scientific context 4 Main (general) functions (at the theoretical level) whose specific weight in each historical and geographic context defines the predominant role of the system and the specific task of institutions: Ideological apparatuses Selection of dominant elites Generation of new knowledge: science function Professional training

4 Functions of HE Generation and transmission of ideology
Not just reproductive of dominant ideology but reflecting within them external ideological struggles “The formation and diffusion of ideology has been, and still is, a fundamental role of universities, in spite of the ideology of their ideology-free role” (Castells, 2001: 206) Selection of dominant elites (adapting this to the historical & cultural characteristics of each society) Selection Socialisation Formation of networks Codes of distinction

4 Functions of HE (cont.) Production and application of knowledge: science function (research) Late development: 19thC Germany Exception rather than rule: 200/3500 in USA Research diffused in society, especially in Europe (central research labs) and Japan (government-funded corporate R&D) Grew out of professional university as research needs grew (US graduate school model) Land Grant Institutions: prototype of HE-industry links in regional development (foundation for expansion in S&T and humanities) Boosted by military needs Professional training of skilled labour force (development-related teaching) Training of the bureaucracy Successive waves: Church, Medicine, Law, Engineering, Business, Social Services/Health/Education, IT Professional university gave rise to the science university

Source of the contradictory reality
In addition to performing their role assigned to them by society (ie the particular balance of the 4 main functions): “Universities as organisations are also submitted to the pressures of society, beyond the specific roles they have been asked to assume, and the overall process results in a complex and contradictory reality”

Contradictory functions
In contemporary times, a new function: Social Demand for HE “Massification” Implicit role: surplus labour absorption: where can youth be? “Warehouse function” SA potential of this? Contradiction: equity and development (p 30) Universities “combine and make compatible the seemingly contradictory functions simultaneously although within different emphasis” Castells, 2001: 211; Singh p 81) “It is not possible to have a pure … model of the university” – key point for policy-makers to understand. Contemporary pressure is for them to function as a “productive force in the new informational economy” (as technology institutes, research universities, university-industry partnerships) – instrumental aspect But they remain “conflictual spaces” (Is this so in UoTs?)

Challenge for developing countries
“The ability to manage such contradictions, while emphasising the role of universities in the generation of knowledge and the training of labour in the context of the new requirements of the development process, will condition to a large extent the capacity of new countries and regions to become part of the dynamic system of the new world economy” (Castells, 2001: 212)

Functions of Developing Country Universities
Universities in the 3rd world are “historically rooted in colonial past”: they perform an ideological function in post-colonial period “The recruitment of social elites, first for the colonial administration, later on for the new political elites created with independence, became the fundamental function of universities in the 3rd World” (Castells, 2001: 213) Educational and economic functions backgrounded because of the initial dominance of the political function – led to considerable braindrain Need for skilled labour as part of development tasks gave impetus to educational function Professional function: colonial and “homeland” administration (HBUs) Massification, but in traditional fields: law, humanities and social sciences (HBUs) Attempts to develop S&T fields difficult Structural and institutional impediments to expansion of science function (see page 215) Castells recognises the need for autonomy from political pressure: “The necessary distance and independence of academic research vis-à-vis the immediate pressures of political conflicts …”

Challenges for Dev C. universities
Rise of technological institutions, but science function lags behind training function Inability to manage contradictory functions and interaction between ideological/political/cultural, science, technology, economy and society Technical universities not able to fulfil scientific needs – without cross-fertilisation and self-determination (detachment): no discovery (Castells, 2001: 216). Need “complete systems”. “Only possible to apply science that exists” – cf Mode1/2 Castells argues for: a) undifferentiated comprehensive university as key to development; b) for inter-disciplinary flexible programmes and c) selected research centres Suggestions for rejuvenating HE in dev. countries

Challenge for Dev Country HE
If 3rd World countries are also to enter the Information Age and reject an increasingly marginal role in the world system, development policies must include the impulse and transformation of HE systems as a key element of the new historical project Bridging the divide between 1st and 3rd worlds

Interdependence … Interdependence argument for multilateral Marshall Plan Moral Functional Political Economic: “The development of the 3rd World is in the (rational) economic self-interest of the OECD countries and their corporations” “It will not be possible to integrate 3rd World countries in a dynamic world economy without creating the necessary infrastructure in higher education” Prospects and challenges?? What do you think?

Towards a definition/statement of purpose
HE is concerned with the legitimation, production, dissemination, reproduction and perservation of high-order academic & vocational knowledge in order to: Prepare graduates for the labour market and citizenship Provide formative education and to enrich cultural and intellectual life Enhance socio-economic growth, development & transformation, in particular by solving problems and creating opportunities for social mobility Contribute to the public good through community engagement and by providing a critical, independent space

Key Issues & Terms: Epistemology
Knowledge: Tacit, Practical, Political, Intuitive, Pre-theoretical, Rational, Indigenous, Technical/Academic Truth, evidence & validity (Philosophy of Science) Theory & Practice Science & Technology Research Basic (Mode 1), Applied, Strategic (Mode 2) Discipline & Department Multi-disciplinarity, Inter-disciplinarity & Trans-disciplinarity

Key Issues & Terms: Governance
Academic Freedom Autonomy Accountability Governance Systemic and institutional Style & method: spectrum from steerage to control Transformation Quality Quality assurance & promotion Certification, accreditation

Key Issues & Terms: Policy
Formulation Adoption Planning Implementation Monitoring Evaluation Review Research Analysis Advocacy

Key Issues & Terms: Ideology & Power Relations
Discourse Interests Power Power relations Reproduction Micro-politics

Key Issues & Terms: Equity
Access & admissions Equality Equity Inclusivity Success & throughput/residents Massification Social demand Assimilation vs transformation Policy tensions (real & imagined): Equity & Excellence Equity & Development Shifting equity discourse in South Africa

Key Issues & Terms: Value & Purpose
Intrinsic: Knowledge for its own sake Instrumental: Knowledge in service of an ideological or socio-economic purpose Liberal/formative education Emancipatory education (critical theory) Science function Professionalisation Vocationalisation

Key Issues & Terms: Institutional & Academic Identity
Vision, Mission, Niche (strategic identity), Business Model Institutional differentiation (universities, UOTs, comprehensives – the ‘size and shape’ processes & debates, contact & distance) Africanness Status and reputation Academic identity Teaching/Research/Community Engagement balance Profile: Professoriate, Tenure Teaching and learning Programme and course: PQM Curriculum and pedagogy Admissions, assessment policies Delivery Model Graduateness Research Basic, Applied & Strategic Service/outreach/Community Engagement Service learning

Key Issues & Terms: Institutional Organisation/Governance/Management
Leadership Management: strategic & operational, academic Collegialism vs managerialism Administration Student ‘Affairs’: Support/Development Academic: Teaching and Learning Research Human Resources Finance Other support/enabling mechanisms: business architecture

change plan act review Strategic Management Framework
STRATEGY FORMULATION Mission, Vision, Business Model (ODL) Strategic Plan Strategic Outcomes, Objectives & Performance Measures (all shaped by Social Mandate) CHANGE MANAGEMENT Strategic Change Initiatives Continuous Improvement Initiatives These are identified through ongoing review process, and then find expression, as the case may be, in: New or revised Strategy or Strategic Projects Objectives and Actions in the IOP Changes to Operations, the Business and Enterprise Architectures and Enabling Conditions IOP & STRATEGIC PROJECTS Strategically-aligned Outcomes, Objectives, Outputs & Performance Measures plan change FUNCTIONAL PLANS eg Academic, Research, HR, Estates, ICT etc Projects Functional Outcomes, Objectives, Outputs & Performance Measures, Integrated Scheduling Strategic Management Framework RESOURCE ALLOCATION (SRAM) Budget ACHRAM & PADRAM OPERATIONS Functional/Operational Units Inputs, Processes, Outputs, Outcomes & Performance Measures Strategic Projects INSTITUTIONAL PERFORMANCE & STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT Monitoring and Evaluation (BI/Institutional Research) Quality Assurance/Service IPMS Risk Management Ongoing: Strategic Reflection/Review Environmental Scanning act review Business & Enterprise Architectures Shaped by strategy - the optimal configurations of: People/capacity Processes/Systems Resources/Infrastructure Technology Enabling Conditions (in addition to appropriate Business & Enterprise Architectures) Effective Leadership & Management Conducive Climate & Culture

Key Issues & Terms: Current Impacts
Marketisation or market-like behaviour Academic capitalism Entrepreneurialisation Managerialism Globalisation Internationalisation ICTs Responsiveness/engagement New public accountability; new instrumentality (North: competitive position in new economy; South: the development University) Changing relations between state, society & the Academy Counter trend: public good, community development, service learning

HE Studies Policy Analysis Leadership and Management
Sub-Module 1B: The Contemporary Context of Higher Education March 2004 Associate Prof George Subotzky

Key Issues & Concepts The multi-faceted nature of globalisation
The nature of the ‘network’ society and the role of knowledge, information and technology The emergence of new modes of economic production and new organisational modes of knowledge production The various impacts and implications of globalisation on higher education

Key Issues & Concepts (cont.)
In particular, the marketisation of HE and the rise of managerialism, and the corresponding constriction of the civic role of the academy and its contribution to the public good Alternatives to the dominant patterns of globalisation and marketisation of HE (to the entrepreneurial university) The role and responsive of HE not only towards the competitive global knowledge-driven economy but also towards democracy, equity and basic reconstruction and development

Assumptions: Key Aspects of HE (see Intro.)
HE is a ‘socially situated’ activity Social relations are contested, unequal and ideologically contested HE shaped by, and responds to external environment: global forces/ institutions, the nation state and society (private/market corporate sphere and public/civil society) Reproduces and/or transforms unequal social relations Key aspects and levels of external environment: Global level: globalisation Changing economic production patterns and social relations Role and modes of knowledge and information Changing function, role and forms of HE New relations between HE and state, private sector and community New ICTs: cross-border provision International level: Internationalisation of HE (Scott, 1998)

Key aspects of HE (cont)
National level: Public & macro-economic policy, political economy HE policy formulation & implementation: government and other agencies Regional level: Contribution towards regional development Regional collaboration & competition Institutional level: Complex, loosely coupled organisations Contested sites: Multiple centres of authority and interests Disciplinary organisation vs departments (feudal fiefdoms) vs inter-disciplinary cross-cutting organisation Managerial vs collegial tensions ‘Local’ vs ‘Cosmopolitan’ Allegiances: Academics and Managers engaged in multiple networks Academic vs non-academic staff interests

What is globalisation? Your understanding and definition?
Key feature of contemporary society, impacting - directly or indirectly - on all aspects of life in every society (eg HIV/AIDs), including HE Generalisability of trends and patterns? Problem of extrapolation of part to the whole eg Internet economy, flexible labour, new modes of knowledge production Different perspectives from ideological positions Supporters: assume inevitability: ‘There is no alternative’ (TINA) Opponents: question this & assume alternatives Therefore different definitions & interpretations – ie good and bad dimensions: threats & opportunities

Globalisation Globalisation is the intensification of trans-national relations/exchanges/integration in the sphere of economics (services and production), culture and media, knowledge, science and technology, through the advancement of ITCs and the process of progressive deregulation which primarily serves the interests of global capital, transnational corporations and the advanced industrial nations Networking and partnerships in development leading to interdependence and connected results Unified space and time of various exchanges Unavoidable and feared (conspiracy??), supported by the wealthy: inevitable and sustainable in its current form?? Positive potential – reasons for participation: global competitiveness avoid marginalisation Cultural imperialism

Dimensions of Globalisation
Ideological: Castells (2001): Globalisation is both a code word for the new emerging world system and “the banner to rally both the determined march of global corporate capitalism and the worldwide sources of resistance to it” Economic (focus of Castells, 2001) Technological, Space/time compression (Urry, 1998) Regional, National and Local responses: homogenisation and heterogenisation - Conceptualising mediating levels and processes Cultural and Media/IT: implications for identity (“transnational imaginaries” and local responses - solidarity (Stromquist & Monkman, 2000, see also McGrew, 1992), power, gender, knowledge (technological vs social)

Economic Globalisation
Castells (2001, 2-3): The New Economy Key sociologist of globalisation – SA contestations of his views in CHET book Worldwide and Capitalist Not the Internet economy: “It is the economy of all kinds of businesses and all kinds of activities whose organisational form and source of value and competition are increasingly based on information technologies, of which the Internet is the epitome and organising form” (Castells, 2001: 2) But: Labour is still the basis of the economy Can be defined as the combination of 3 inter-related characteristics (see Castells, 2001: 2) Various dimensions of economic globalisation

The New Economy 3 inter-related characteristics (Castells, 2001, 2-3):
“It is an economy in which productivity and competitiveness are based on knowledge and information … powered by IT” This new economy is a global economy “The global economy … has the capacity [in relation to its core activities] to work as a unit in real time, on a planetory scale” “This capacity [comprises of] 3 aspects: Technological capacity: its ability to structure the entire planet through telecommunications and informational systems Organisational capacity: firms and networks working in this economy organise themselves to be active globally … [in relation to both] supplies and markets Institutional capacity: governments create the institutions on the new economy through deregulation and liberalisation “which opens up the possibility for this new economy to operate globally”

Financial Globalisation
“The heart of the global economy is the global financial market” Globalisation refers to core activities: “Global financial markets, the integration of capital markets and money markets in a system which works as a unit in real time” Indicators: eg currency market trading in 1999 = $2-trillion = 20% more than UK GDP per day! (Castells, 2001: 4); current crisis Global interdependence and speed, size and complexity of financial markets are the result of 6 developments: Deregulation/liberalisation Technological infrastructure (speed, size & complexity): trading through electronic networks which allow rapid movement of capital in real time Interdependent nature of financial products Speculative movement of financial flows: systemic volatility: vast gains from small fluctuations Market valuation firms: sentiment and perceptions, not performance – open to manipulation? (SA bemused: fundamentals are there, but Foreign Direct Investment isn’t following) International financial institutions: conditionality

Summary “What we have is a new kind of system in which global financial markets are integrated, interdependent and at the same time, highly unstable in their processes. If capital markets and currencies are interdependent, so are monetary policies and interest rates, and therefore, so are economies everywhere. Capital flows become global and increasingly autonomous, at the same time vis-à-vis the actual performance of the economies. What is the relationship between the performance of an economy and what happens with its financial system? It is a very undetermined equation.” (Castells, 1999: 6)

Transformation of International Trade
Transformation of composition of international trade a) from commodities and raw materials to advanced services b) within manufacturing from low value-added/low tech to high value-added/high tech WTO want to include HE in GATS. What are the implications? HE and FTAs (Mallea, et al 2002, SA Minister of Education, 2003, CHE) OECD: 19% pop and 74% trade, but developing countries’ share of international trade increased substantially Africa – most internationalised region – why? Trading blocs and regional integrated economies: neither integrated regions nor single global economy: instead: networks of trade.

Internationalisation of Production
Core of the matter: “What really has happened in the world in the last 20 years is that the core of production of goods and services in every sector has been internationalised through transnational networks of production, distribution and management” (Castells, 2001: 8). Internationalisation of the production process through a layered network Transnational Corporations (TNCs): decentralised networked units formed through FDI in the form of mergers and acquisitions Much wider than usually assumed: TNCs 30% of global GDP (15% within same TNC), 66% of global trade, but employ fraction of global labour market Subsidiary networks: SMMEs and informal sector

(Selective) Globalisation of S&T
Science & Technology (S&T) is globally integrated through connections to developing countries But with tremendous asymmetry: S&T very highly concentrated in ‘core’/ leading economies Networks are (somewhat) interactive, with diffusion to developing countries (eg India) is possible

Summary “A key characteristic of the new economy is that it is organised in networks … a set of interconnected nodes. These … are in the large corporations [and are] decentralised. Small and medium businesses connect to each other, forming networks [which] connect to these decentralised networks of the corporation, forming networks of networks [increasingly using] e-commerce. The new technological basis for the new economy is the Internet . The Internet is not simply one more technology. The Internet is the equivalent of electricity and of the electrical engine of industrialisation. It induces the networking form, just as the fusion of the electrical engine allowed the formation of the industrial factory, at the heart of the development of the large capitalist corporation (Castells, 2001: 10). “If knowledge is the electricity of the new network society, then HE is the power station”

Networks and global reach
Networks: a set of interconnected nodes: key characteristic of the new economy New economy and survival activities are the two key sectors in the world Relation between old & new economy (p 10-11) “Double logic” of network society: clear patterns of inclusion and exclusion: does not integrate everyone but affects all (p 11 - see below) “It is a very lean efficient system of including and excluding” Integrated global networks and excluded local societies: Cuts across North and South divide, which no longer prevails. East Palo Alto and Bangalore examples – do you agree? “Globalisation does not integrate everybody. In fact, it currently excludes most people on the planet but at the same time , affects everybody”

Transformation of Labour Markets
New technologies and unemployment – jobs are lost “under some conditions”: therefore we must “create dynamism in other sectors” (unclear and fuzzy regarding interventionist role of the state??) Flexible labour and individualisation of labour-capital relationships have become the norm “Self-programmable” vs “generic” labour – key issue for education (Castells, 2001: 10) “Self-programmable labour [has] the built-in capacity to generate value through innovation and information, and has the ability to reconstruct itself throughout the occupational career on the basis of this education and this information. Therefore it is always at the source of the creation of [added] value” (Castells, 2001: 13) 2 key issues: global search for talent and pressure for access to developed world – migrations including women (Stromquist and Monkman) Capital is global, labour is local: Majority of labour not globalised

Globalisation and developing countries
Leap-frogging technology – possible? New production modes: Manufacturing not disappearing but changing: “Post-Fordism” (Kraak, 2001: 38): manufacturing plus automation, innovation, flexible responsive output, high-tech, connected to information and global markets 2 phenomena: a) Devaluation of low-skilled generic labour, leading to b) expansion of informal, survival and criminal sectors, which are linked to new economy

Globalisation, inequality and poverty
Impact on LDCs: dual society (p 15; Smythe in Subotzky, 1999) 4th world – marginalised discarded societies: (p 15) What is Castells suggesting about alternatives here? New economy: “simultaneously highly productive and extraordinarily exclusionary through the process of networking and segmentation” (p15) Well documented indicators of asymmetries in distribution of benefits and wealth: 4 axes - inequality, poverty, polarisation and social exclusion – see examples (p 16) What is responsible? Correlation and causation Problem of personifying globalisation! Key issue: relationship between this new mode of development – info development – and the overall process of intergration

6 Factors re: exclusion Nature of networks [and the interests underlying them] allow for exclusion Extreme under-development of technological infrastructure in most of the world Likewise, education, technological literacy and R&D extremely unevenly distributed: not just massification “warehousing” but also quality [resources & capacity!] Impact of integrated market volatility Bypassing and restraint of national states by international finance institutions [World Bank and IMF] Parallel criminal economy, and social crises: migration, urbanisation without conditions to integrate, corruption strife, ecological crisis, impacting most on women and children – all “the contradictions of development are sharper than ever”

Sustainability? Alternatives?
Proponents: TINA and the trickle-down approach: “redistribution through growth” Opponents: Inherent contradictions make it unsustainable: Underlying tensions: (Subotzky p 58/9) Crisis of Interdependency: unregulatable systemic volatility of markets, ecology, social cohesion Crisis of overcapacity Crisis of supply of talent Left: Castells, Chomsky, NSMs as well as Orthodoxy: Sachs, Fisher, Stiglitz – socially and politically unsustainable as well

Alternatives? Global turning point: realisation of rational self-interest in avoiding negative global impacts – idealistic optimism or real hope? Role of state: minimal state vs regulatory/interventionist (Stromquist & Monkman, 2000: 22-23) diminished role or not? Position of SA Explaining current political economy (Subotzky, 1999: 60-61): Dual development path and current privileging of global Complementary development path? Settlement? TINA or not?

Subotzky (1999) Situates the impacts of globalisation within political economy Tensions underlying globalisation SA political economy Seeks complementary alternatives to the HE-industry partnership and market-oriented knowledge production – model of CSL: an instance of serving the public good and RDP Tracks impacts of globalisation: tensions and the SA case; SA HE; impacts on HE

Additional issues Impacts of Globalisation on HE
Reinserting the public good (Singh) Changing modes of knowledge production (Kraak, Subotzky) Changing functions of HE: shift from elite to mass HE (Kraak, Scott) Massification, internationalisation and globalisation (Scott) Approach issues through close reading of cross-cutting debates in various sources: analysts’ critique each others’ accounts

Forces of Change acting on HE
Multiple impacts of globalisation: New global economy & ICT-driven knowledge society Shifting purposes and role of HE in innovation and competitiveness driving economic development : the new instrumentalism – the call for ‘responsiveness’ New public accountability to national government & society mainly in terms of contribution to economic development: quality assurance New relations between HE and state, private sector and community Neo-liberalism and the emphasis on fiscal constraint and efficiency Marketisation, Vocationalisation, Managerialism and Privatisation New knowledge production (Kraak, Subotzky) Impact on faculty life (Stromquist & Monkman, Subotzky - June) Internationalisation (exchange, curriculum, collaboration, Scott) Social Demand: increased access: “Massification” (Scott, Kraak) ICTs – the rise of new Distance Education, Multimedia instruction, virtual universities, corporate universities (Scott) Counters: Reinserting the public good (Singh, Subotzky)

Reinserting the Public Good
Responsiveness primarily interpreted in economic terms (Singh, Subotzky) Impacts of Globalisation: Social Purposes of HE losing ground Hold multiple purposes in balance (also Castells) Strategies to operationalise public good: Analytic clarity: public good and market Interrogating relevant knowledge and skills Identifying strategic possibilities: TINA issue Operational opportunities (eg Community Service Learning - Subotzky) Implications for leadership and management Good practices Role of State and donor communities

New Modes of Knowledge Production
Kraak paper: outline of debate and centrality of Mode 2 debate in HE policy Key factors in the emergence of Mode 2: Globalisation + democratisation – simultaneous impact led to a ‘major shift in the institutional organisation and delivery of HE programmes since the late 1980s (too simple?) Globalisation: post-Fordism (new modes of economic production): flexible specialisation IT & the facilitation of internationalisation of capital The networked firm New educational demands: highly skilled labour force – specialised skills + generic competencies – ‘portable’ skills, self-programmable Democratisation/massification Egalitarian pressure for wider access Diffussion of skilled professionals, knowledge workers and research organisations outside HE institutions

Impacts of Changes (Kraak)
Impact 1: The shift from a closed to an open HET system: New programme offerings – beyond discipline-based degree qualifications, based on open-learning methods (see Scott in Kraak, 2000: 8) Economic (new skills needs) and educational responses (accommodating non-traditional students) Eroding of the dominance of elite academic cultures [FE or HE slippage?] Shift from closed to open intellectual systems (dynamically interactive with outside social interests and knowledge structures) incorporating the values of non-elite communities [optimism about knowledge equivalences, interfaces and seamless mobility?] 4 key changes (Scott) [dichotomous from-to pattern?]: From courses to credits From departments to programmes From subject-based teaching to student-based learning From knowledge to competence Unified system and institutional differentiation

Impact 2: From Mode 1 to Mode 2
Mode 1: Disciplinary knowledge production: ‘basic/blue sky/curiosity-driven + ‘applied’ formulated within disciplinary boundaries Mode 2: Transdisciplinary knowledge production Applications driven: generated in the context of application Organisational diverse (transient teams) and heterogeneous New forms of quality control Socially reflective

Interpretations & Critique of Mode 2
Kraak: optimist Subotzky (1999) argument: cautiously exploratory The Gibbons Thesis: promise or peril for LDCs? (Subotzky; Muller and Subotzky: critically cautious – the debate moves on) Alternative interpretations (Rip, Etzkowitz, Subotzky et al, 2003) Key issue: Uncritical uptake and interpretation of policy

Massification, Internationalisation & Globalisation
Scott: Tension between massification and internationalisation? International mission vs responsiveness to local circumstances? Myth of: universities as international institutions – they are national institutions created to fulfil national purposes International community of scholars believing in universal values – contemporary world is much more complex, diverse and pluralistic Characteristics of mass systems (shift from elite to mass): Inclusive Diversified institutions: including ‘local’ institutions New managerial approach Quality assurance and regulation International dimensions of mass HE Student flows (across boundaries and market-driven) Staff flows Research and teaching collaboration Flow of ideas (postmodernist pluralism – globalisation not just about real time IT-driven markets)

Globalisation and Internationalisation
World-order dominated by [certain] nation states involving increased cross-national flows Globalisation: “National boundaries rendered obsolete [weaker? – danger of totalising tendencies] by the transgressive tendencies of high technology and world culture”

Recap: The multifaceted nature of globalisation
Various dimensions: Ideological Economic Cultural (identity) Technological, space/time compression Mediating responses – national, regional and local The nature of the network society: inclusion and exclusion

Recap (cont.) Globalisation and Developing Countries
Inequality, Poverty, Polarisation and Social Exclusion Sustainability and alternatives Interdependence and Internal Contradictions: Possible turning points? Political-economic position of SA: choices? Role of state and transnational civil society formations in relation to globalisation and fostering alternatives TINA or not? Conditions for developing alternatives

HE Studies Policy Analysis Leadership and Management
Sub-Module 2B: Overview of the Post-1990 Policy Process in South Africa March 2004 Associate Prof George Subotzky

Context for HE transformation in SA
Opportunity and imperative for this: 1990 political changes – offered opportunity for fundamental reconstruction Legacy of apartheid: unequal, ineffective, inefficient, distorted and dysfunctional Scale of fundamental transformation unprecedented Policy framework characterised by two key factors: Globalization Dual social structure Dual national development priority: Engagement in the competitive global economy Address the basic needs of the majority poor Ongoing challenges of impacts on HE of: Globalisation Internationalisation

Historical overview SA history: characterised by intense political conflicts and socio-cultural divisions HE system therefore shaped by prevailing balance of forces in successive historical periods Colonialism and underlying conflict between British and Afrikaner nationalism Phases of economic development (agriculture, mining, industrialisation) Apartheid Multiple institutional system: result of intense rivalry between 2 dominant politico-cultural linguistic groups: British colonialists and Boer Afrikaners

Post-1990 Policy Process Period of negotiation and re-entry into international community Engagement with multilateral & development assistance agencies: international and local studies Progressive policy formulation through key processes and documents: National Education Policy Initiative ANC manifesto and IPET National Commission on HE Green Paper, White Papers HE Act Size and Shape reports National Plan National Working Group – Mergers Implementation of 3 regulatory levers: funding framework, QA, enrolment planning

Periodisation Pre-1990 Apartheid planning, control, repression Opposition, activism, analysis Negotiations and realisation that post-apartheid policy framework would be required Multilateral and bilateral agencies: 1st studies and quantification of apartheid inequalities National Education Policy Initiative (NEPI) Policy options by progressive educationists Equity and development issues ANC Education and Training Policy Framework: election manifesto Implementation Plan for Education and Training (IPET): plan of action for new minister

Consultative Process of Formulation of Macro-policy Framework National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) (1996) Comprehensive framework for single, unified but institutionally differentiated programmes-based system Wide consultation, general consensus White Paper on Higher Education Transformation: 1, 2 and 3 (initial contestations, wide consensus on final version) (1997) 3 imperatives: Redress RDP needs Global competitiveness 8 policy goals (p. 550)

3 Overarching HE Goals Equity: access and success
redress: social and institutional democratic, “co-operative” governance Effectiveness: relevance (responsiveness to societal needs: contributing to global and basic development) quality quantity: graduate and research outputs Efficiency: delivery (within fiscal constraint) removing inefficiencies of apartheid

Post-1997 Immediate DOE Priorities
Implementation diverted: Creating/strengthening required structures and bureaucracy: HE Branch and Council for HE Incorporation of colleges Regulation of private HE Institutional management/finance crises Norms and standards for teacher education HEMIS NSFAS

1997 – 2001: “Implementation vacuum”
Between White Paper and National Plan Symbolic vs substantive policy Conditions not ready: policy naivety to policy maturity; capacity, other preoccupations Role of state: (structural intervention and market regulation to achieve equity, effectiveness, efficiency) vs minimal state Tension between regulatory national planning and autonomy (without denying accountability) New Minister (1999)

Partial Regulation and Market Conditions
Partial regulation  2 conditions a) market conditions - various institutional responses: Entrepreneurialism: Local and transnational DE and telematics, satellite campuses (HWAUs) Academic restructuring towards programmes and inter-disciplinarity (HWEUs) - ‘Disciplinary’ vs the ‘credit accumulation and transfer’ positions Private Sector needs (HWUs and some Techs) b) greater inequalities and dysfunctionality of some HDIs – no substantial redress policy

Size and Shape Debate Preoccupation with restructuring: Rationale?
CHE 1st Discussion Document (May 2000) 2nd Discussion Document (July 2000) Huge controversy

National Plan Operationalises WP goals: objectives, targets and strategies, timeframe. Indicative targets: participation rate 15% to 20%; graduation rate benchmarks; shifting enrolments between the humanities, business and commerce, engineering and technology from the current ratio of 49:26:26 to 40:30:30 respectively; and student and staff equity targets. Regulatory steps to ensure diversity of institutional mission and programme differentiation (PQM). Institutional programme mixes to be determined on basis of current profiles, relevance to national priorities, and demonstrated capacity for proposed new programs.

National Plan Restructuring of institutional landscape through the reduction in number of institutions but not delivery sites Various immediate institutional mergers are recommended while further potential ones and regional collaboration will be guided by a National Working Group, heavily laden with economists – signaling a strong efficiency intention Principle of differentiation and restructuring accepted (as far back as NCHE): detaching differentiation from disadvantage

3 Regulatory Levers National/Institutional goal and results oriented Planning framework: 3-year Rolling Plans; Strategic Plans; PQM; Enrolment Planning Funding framework: new doc Goal oriented, earmarked and block grants Separate research funding Teaching inputs/outputs Minimalist government: ‘funding in the last resort – lever for market solution Institutional factors: ‘redress’: size and African/Col enr. Quality Assurance: HE Quality Committee Accreditation of programmes Institutional site visits

Current Policy Processes
Restructuring (post-Zuma ANC review?) Annual Fiscal ‘fight’ Programme & Qualifications Mix (PQM) New academic policy – HEQF (CHE) NQF review New school leaving certificate & FETC framework Distance Education & Satellite Campuses Redress Policy Language Policy National Higher Education Information and Applications Service Ministerial Teacher Education Committee Enrolment & output targets: tensions between participation & efficiency (post-Zuma ANC review?) Autonomy debate: governance style

Restructuring Reduce 36 to 22 institutions but retain 48 sites:
11 Universities; 6 Comprehensives; 5 Technikons 10 mergers from 23: U of Natal and UDW = UKZN MEDUNSA & North = U of North RAU and Wits Tech (Comprehensive) = U of Johannesburg Port Elizabeth Tech and UPE (Comprehensive) = Nelson Mandela UoT Potchefstroom & N West Univ.(Comprehensive) = U of Northwest UNISA, Tech SA and Vista Distance (Comprehensive) = (new) UNISA Cape and Pen Techs = Cape Peninsula U of T Natal, ML Sultan and Mangosuthu Techs = DIT North West, N Gauteng and Pretoria Techs = Tswane U of T Unitra, E Cape and Border Techs = Walter Sisulu U of S&T, EC (compr) 12 Untouched: Wits, UCT, Stellenbosch, Pretoria, Free State U, Rhodes, UWC, Fort Hare, Venda (UoT), Zululand (C), Free State Tech, Vaal Triangle Tech

Descriptive Overview of Current System
36 Institutions, reducing to 22 Ambiguous Binary System Historical Categories: HAIs and HDIs (still valid??) Unexplained fluctuations in enrolments

The “Skewed Revolution” (Cooper & Subotzky, 2001)
Some important aggregate changes, but apartheid imprint intact in many ways Disaggregations reveal race and gender groups concentrated by institutional type, field and level (new public-private partnerships) Staff: Largely unchanged 14% professors are women Institutional capacity still highly uneven

Key HE Challenges Planning & Implementation Capacity
HE Policy shaped by political-economic choices: Reconciling conflicting policy imperatives: equity and development Integrated Policy-making: avoiding ‘immediatism’ (demonstrable change which may not meet goals of equity, efficiency and effectiveness) and ‘big bang’ policy (change the world) HIV/AIDS: major humanitarian and HRD challenge for planning and management

Higher Education Challenges
Equity Social and individual redress: need for political settlements and alternative funding sources HE and the Public Good, service, and contributing towards basic Reconstruction and Development, critical function of HE Access and success: assimilation vs transformation: RPL, NQF Greater representivity/diversity: staff, students & outputs

Efficiency Institutional landscape Management and leadership crises Throughput and success rates Tensions between managerialism and marketisation of HE and collegiate culture

Effectiveness: HRD, Labour market needs and dual development path in the context of globalisation ‘Graduateness’/quality ‘Responsiveness’: Curriculum, disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity new knowledge issues, partnerships Peril or promise for developing countries: Uncritical policy uptake?

The Nature of Policy “Policy is the authoritative allocation of values” Policy is a complex process, which involves far more than the documented texts to which the term usually refers. It involves several formal and non-formal non-sequential elements, a variety of agents in different settings, and consists of various types. Without fully grasping these aspects, policy-making, implementation and analysis will remain inadequate.

Components of the Policy Process
Research and the identification and privileging of areas and options Formulation Interpretation, Adoption and Adaptation (necessary prioritisation and emphases) Planning Implementation Monitoring (tracks change) and evaluation (formative and summative – explains change) These are not linear steps which can be rationally determined, but inter-relate in complex ways, are subject to multiple determinants

Policy Agents Government (including the ministry, other ministries and cabinet); Parliament (including Portfolio Committee and ANC study group on education); The civil service (which involves the bureaucratic function of policy); The organised business sector; Civil society (organised labour, teacher and student organisations, academics, researchers and other stakeholder bodies); and Foreign advisors, multilateral and bilateral development agencies and philanthropic foundations.

Policy Models Rational Model Complexity Model
Conceived as a cycle comprising linear steps Assumes outcomes Complexity Model Policy process as unwieldy, complex, contradictory, indeterminate subject to unequal power relations, interests and contestations These have methodological implications

Types of Policy Adapted from Dudley & Vidovich, 1995:14-15 and Taylor et al. 1997:33-35 Distributive: favour all groups in allocation of resources and benefits Redistributive: distribute additional resources to one set of beneficiaries for equity reasons. Regulatory: limit or direct behaviours of particular groups through conditional resource allocation

Types of Policy Symbolic: signifies general values, principles and normative ideals with very little or no indication of implementation procedures or resource allocations. Provides benchmark for evaluation and its political function is to achieve consensus Substantive: concrete actions governments want to take: the content of decisions Procedural: indicate how decisions are to be implemented, eg guidelines Material: show commitment to implementation through the allocation of resources. These are not discreet elements but part of overall policies.

Types of Policy (cont.) Rational: Outlines a set of guidelines for new policy development independently of practice Incremental: dependent upon previous or existing policies and practices. Top-down: Developed by an authoritative structure and distributed downwards through the system in a top linear, hierarchical process. Linked to the notion of ‘forward mapping’ (Elmor, 1980). Assumes those closest to the source of policy have greatest authority and influence, and that responding to problems in complex systems depends on clear lines of authority and control

Types of Policy (cont) Bottom-up: Builds on existing practices, analysing the conditions at the coalface of implementation Seek to create conducive behaviours (compliance, knowledge, skills, capacities and resources) among practitioners which will support successful implementation Relates to Elmore’s concept of ‘backward mapping’ Assumes that those closest to the source of the problem have the greatest ability to influence it and that problem-solving in complex systems on maximizing discretion at the point where the problem is most immediate (Elmore 1980:605).

Types of Policy (Cont.) It is important to note that not all policies fall neatly into one or other of these distinctive categories. In practice, they are typically a combination of the categories and/or their components (Taylor et al., 1997).

Consequences for Implementation
Successful implementation rests on a number of necessary conditions: Adequate human, financial and other material resources necessary Clear planning strategies Understanding, capacity and political opportunity to turn symbolic policy into substantive, material and procedural policy Understanding the dynamics various components of the policy process in the specific context

Consequences for Implementation
Among the various agents involved – their differentiated ‘behaviours’ which might facilitate or obstruct implementation (Elmor) Understanding the various roles, interests, motives, possible recalcitrance, priorities, capacities, technical skills, knowledge and the required discretionary ability and opportunities to deal with contingencies Successful implementation thus involves attaining supportive compliance, which in turn depends on sufficient ideological consensus and trusting belief in the symbolic value, substance and planning strategies of policy As this always varies, successful implementation also depends on monitoring, evaluation, review, accountability, and, where necessary, sanctions.

Policy Tensions Policy is necessarily a contested and indeterminate process, inevitably subject to competing interests, ideologies and values Shaped by unavoidable resource constraints which lead to competing priorities How do these abstract considerations find concrete expression? In South Africa, given its sharply polarised history, these tensions take on a particular character, which can be seen to be the outcome of both structural and conjunctural conditions

Introduction to Higher Education

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