Education Minister Kader Asmal in Pretoria today announced the names of new institutions of higher learning in the country as a result of ongoing mergers in higher education.

The minister's announcement followed a wide consultation with stakeholders in education.

Minister Asmal also announced all the names of chairpersons of interim councils for all merged institutions with effect from 1 January 2004.

Asmal said in terms of the Higher Education Act, he requested councils of merging institutions to provide his office with nominations for the interim councils, proposals of the names of the new institutions, preferred dates of implementation and the addresses of the new institutions.

The merged Universities of Potchefstroom, North West and Vista Sebokeng Campus will now be North West University and the Chairperson of the interim Council is Robinson Ramaite.

Tshwane University of Technology is the new name of the merged Technikons of Pretoria, Northern Gauteng as well as North West and the chairperson of the interim Committee is Jairam Reddy.

Chancellor of Technikon South Africa Mattews Phosa will chair the interim council of the merged University of South Africa and Vista University Distance Education Campus, which will retain the name Unisa.

These new names of institutions will be used as from January next year.

At the same time, Mamelodi campus of Vista University (VU) will be incorporated into the University of Pretoria, Welkom campus of VU into Technikon Free State, Port Elizabeth campus of VU into University of Port Elizabeth as well as East Rand and Soweto campuses of the university into Rand Afrikaans University.

The Dental Faculty of the University of Stellenbosch will be incorporated into the University of the Western Cape and East London campus of Rhodes University into the University of Fort Hare.

Minister Asmal said the merger of the University of Natal and the University of Durban Westville (UDW) would also take place on 1 January 2004 as planned.

He said he would only gazette the merger after receiving the report from the Independent Assessor, Bongani Khumalo, who was appointed to probe issues of governance and management at the UDW.

Mergers approved for January 2005 are of the University of Port Elizabeth and Port Elizabeth Technikon (including the Port Elizabetcampus of Vista University) to be called Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University with Judge Fikile Bam as the chairperson of the interim Council.

Cape Technikon and Peninsula Technikon will be called the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and the Chairperson for the interim Council will be Stuart Saunders.

The Rand Afrikaans University and Technikon Witwatersrand (including the Soweto and East Rand campuses of Vista University) will be the University of Johannesburg with an interim council chaired by Ihnron Rensburg.

The University of Transkei, Border Technikon and Eastern Cape Technikon will be called the Eastern Cape University of Technology and the chairperson of the interim Council will be Patrick FitzGerald.

The Medical University of South Africa (Medunsa) and the University of the North will be called the University of Limpopo and the Chairperson of the interim Council will be Job Mokgoro.

Asmal said all mergers and incorporations would be gazetted on November 14 this year.

The minister of announced he had conceded to a request by the Committee of Technikon Principals to allow their institutions to be called Universities of Technology.

He however stated that he would not allow academic drift by these new universities into the academic turf of traditional universities. Minister Asmal said his department would continue to use planning and funding levers to ensure differentiation and diversity in higher education. – BuaNews.