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

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

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 500 000

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)

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

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

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

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

QUESTION & ANSWER Thank you