1. South African HE SYSTEM
Meeting with Belgian French Speaking Universities,
Hyatt Regency, Johannesburg
Wednesday, 23 October 2013

2. Presentation Outline Overview of the SA HE system
Opportunities for further cooperation
Conclusion

3. Overview of SA HE
Complex, multi-layered, pyramidal system, with a variety of institutions.
23 public institutions
Traditional universities: 11
Comprehensive universities: 6
Universities of Technology: 6
Additional public universities to be introduced in 2014: 2
A university in 2015: 1
Student enrolment: close to 1 million
Other Institutions
Further Education and Training Colleges: 50
Single-purpose colleges (nursing, agriculture, teacher education): few
Private universities: few
Student enrolment: close to

4. Regulating Authorities
Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) (funding and planning)
Council on Higher Education (CHE) (quality assurance: monitoring, advisory and programme accreditation)
South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA) (registering, monitoring and review of SA qualifications)
Other Quality Councils (UMALUSI & Quality Council for Trades and Occupation)

5. Challenges
Improving the effectiveness of curricula for contemporary conditions
breadth of subject matter
multilingualism
the literacies: academic, quantitative, information/ICT
education for responsible citizenship
experiential and service learning ……
Towards equity of access and outcomes
in the interests of national developmental needs

6. Challenges cont...
‘Modernisation’: adjusting to changing world and regional conditions
international moves for ‘transformation’
‘Graduates for the 21st century’
Ranking and its politics
Equity
international moves to widen participation for economic and social reasons
Standardisation, mobility and management
e.g. Bologna, credit recognition systems
in SA, the ‘Hons’ problem

7. Market Size and Challenges
Demand for HE/post-school education is huge
Why can’t this demand be met within the country?
How to expand capacities?
Quality vs. demand: reservations, privatization; policy dilemmas and challenges
A third of our students are on open-distance learning (UNISA)
3rd of post-graduate students - foreign

8. Cooperation opportunities
SA HE system is largely an undergraduate system – opportunity for cooperation in the production of Masters and Doctoral graduates
Take advantage of existing EU internationalization instruments – Erasmus Mundus , etc.
Create more funding instruments for mobility of students and academics between the two countries
4. Explore the joint degree model, subject to policy certainty in South Africa

9. QUESTION & ANSWER
Thank you