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Date
: 24/03/2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: K Asmal: Launch of new Faculty of Dentistry, UWC
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, PROFESSOR KADER ASMAL, AT THE
LAUNCH OF THE NEW FACULTY OF DENTISTRY, UNIVERSITY OF THE WESTERN
CAPE, 24 March 2004
Chairperson of Council of UWC, Ms Sheila Tyeku
Chair of Council of University of the University of Stellenbosch,
Mr Desmond Smith
Vice-Chancellor of UWC, Prof Brian O'Connell
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Stellenbosch, Prof Chris
Brink
Staff and students
Distinguished guests
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is a great privilege and pleasure to join you this evening to
celebrate the launch of the new Faculty of Dentistry of the
University of the Western Cape (UWC). Indeed, it is fitting that
this launch takes place on the eve of the tenth anniversary of our
young democracy. Ten years ago we came together as a people to
celebrate the birth of a new nation forged in the spirit of
reconciliation, recognising our common destiny, the richness of our
diversity and committing ourselves to creating a better life for
all our people.
It is this same spirit that brings us together this evening to
celebrate the birth of a new Faculty of Dentistry through the
merger of the former dental faculties of the Universities of the
Western Cape and Stellenbosch.
This is a historic moment. It represents a break with the
fault-lines of the past and is part of the larger journey that we
have embarked on to transform the education and training system in
general and the higher education system in particular. It is a
journey of endless possibilities and with a wealth of
opportunities. And while I may not be there at the end, I am
confident that it would pave the way for a better life for future
generations.
However, as we celebrate the launch and future possibilities, we
should not forget the road we have trodden to get where we are, in
particular, the challenges and anxieties that accompany journeys of
change. It is the goodwill, energy and commitment of all the
institutional constituencies at both UWC and the University of
Stellenbosch that has enabled the successful implementation, within
a short space of time, of the Government's decision to establish a
new dental faculty. In this regard, I want to acknowledge the role
of the two Vice-Chancellors, Brian O' Connell and Chris Brink, for
their leadership and for the sensitive manner in which they
navigated through the minefields - both actual and potential that
lay waiting along the way.
Equally I want pay tribute to the staff and students - both within
and outside the respective dental faculties - for all their hard
work and determination to enable the successful conclusion of the
merger. The merger process has involved a large number of
individuals involved in a wide range of activities within the two
institutions. I want to acknowledge that each one of these hands
has been critical to the success of the process as a whole.
I salute all of you for your commitment and dedication and your
willingness to collaborate and work with one another. This bodes
well for the future of higher education in the context of the
imperative for regional collaboration between institutions, which I
am aware the Western Cape is grappling with, as well as achieving
the broader goal of a single, national, co-ordinated higher
education system.
It is a matter of record that when I announced the implementation
of the National Plan for Higher Education, and more specifically,
the proposals for mergers and incorporations in June 2002, many
pundits read this as a death-knell for higher education in our
country. The prophets of doom conjured up specious arguments as to
why the aims of the National Plan could not be meaningfully
realised, and why therefore the status quo should be left. The
continuation of the status quo could quite clearly not be
countenanced given our fractured history and the socio-economic
imperatives of South Africa, in particular, the national
reconstruction and development agenda.
The launch of the new Faculty of Dentistry, as well as the other
higher education institutions that have been established this year
as part of the restructuring process, is a refutation of the
doomsayers. But more than that, it is living testimony to the
possibilities contained in the vision of a non-racial, non-sexist
and democratic society enshrined in our Constitution.
It is this vision, which informs the government's proposals for the
restructuring and transformation of the higher education system,
and that provides us with the opportunity, as we celebrate our
tenth anniversary of democracy, to bury the last institutional
vestiges of the geo-political constructs of apartheid.
The resilience of historic divisions and cultural differences -
both real and perceived, should not, however, be underestimated as
we take the restructuring process forward. Indeed, transcending
these is the central challenge that we face in the implementation
of the change agenda in higher education. This is illustrated by
the fact that the most common anxiety expressed by all the
institutional constituencies involved in the restructuring process
across the higher education system relates to issues of
institutional culture and identity.
While we acknowledge the historical roots of this anxiety, we must
not shy away from grappling with the practical challenge of
fostering a common institutional identity and culture through the
re-orientation of institutional missions and visions. I do not want
to underestimate the enormity of the challenge that this poses.
Indeed, it is my view that the inability to tackle the whole issue
of institutional identity and culture has been the weak link in the
broader transformation project in the past decade. However
difficult, it is a necessary task and fundamental to the success of
the transformation of the higher education system.
The establishment of the new Dental Faculty must be located in this
broader historical context, as well as in the specific context of
the social and economic needs of South Africa, in particular, in
relation to access, equity, skills development and knowledge
generation.
There is a range of challenges that the new Faculty would have to
address. I want to highlight two of these. First, as I have already
referred to this issue, is the creation of a new institutional
culture within the Faculty that transcends historical and cultural
differences and recognises the rich diversity of our society. In
short, it requires the creation of a microcosm or a prototype of an
evolving society, one that is no longer beholden to its past and
which is still in the process of defining its future.
The creation of a new institutional culture is essential to ensure
that no individual experiences the new Faculty as an alienating
environment in which his or her culture is ignored and/or
marginalized. This, as recent research suggests, has been the
experience of the majority of black staff and students who have
entered the historically white institutions.
It is therefore imperative that the new Faculty embraces the notion
of cultural justice, which requires the inclusion of our different
languages, life-styles and cultural orientations so that all the
staff and students that pass through its doors feel welcome and
affirmed within the new Faculty.
Second, defining and locating the new Faculty in the context of the
challenges and demands facing the health sector, in particular, the
availability of suitably qualified dental practitioners at all
levels of the dental profession. The starting point for this must
be the development of an education and training programme that,
while meeting the highest standards of international best practice,
is firmly rooted in and does not neglect the material realities of
the very communities amongst whom we are embedded.
The pursuit of excellence and quality, including standards, cannot
be undertaken in a cultural and social void. It must be premised
precisely on our ability to respond to and ameliorate the daily
conditions of life of the communities we serve.
In this regard, the health sciences curriculum in general and the
dental sciences curriculum in particular, needs to create a balance
between preventative and curative care, and between primary,
secondary and tertiary services. It must also develop the social,
ethical, communication and managerial skills necessary for health
workers to function effectively in the South African context, in
particular, taking into account different contexts such as urban
and rural, suburb and township, and language and cultural
differences.
It is in dealing with these realities rather than some abstract
notion of standards, that would ensure that we develop an education
and training programme in dentistry that is of the highest standard
and can hold its own with the best in the world.
The development of a curriculum that is focused on the challenges
and realities that confront South African society would also go a
long way to addressing a key problem that we face in the
development of our skills and human resource base in the health
sector, that is, the phenomenon of the emigration of our
professionals, who are lured by the greener pastures of the
developed world. I am not suggesting that the problem of the
emigration of professionals can be simply reduced to the problem of
an inappropriate curriculum. However, the fact that we have a
tendency to equate excellence and quality with the developed world,
plays no small part in contributing to the brain drain.
Furthermore, to realise its full potential and to accomplish its
mission, the new Faculty will need more than just an enabling
internal institutional environment and resources. And, for that
matter, it will need more than just the guiding and supporting hand
of the university administration itself. I say this, as it is a
truism today, that partnerships have become the hallmark of
successful enterprises. And this maxim holds just as true in
education and training.
The point of departure for such partnerships in the case of the new
Dental Faculty must surely be the University of Stellenbosch
itself. This will facilitate the transition to the new Faculty and
ease any lingering tensions, especially as I am certain much
remains to be done, including dealing with the issue of pipeline
students.
But more importantly, the partnership and bonds that have been
forged through the merger process should enable UWC and
Stellenbosch to extend and facilitate collaboration in other key
areas as well, in line with the broader policy imperative for
regional collaboration in programme development, common teaching
and research platforms, and sharing equipment and other
infrastructural resources. In this regard, I am pleased to note the
progress that the Western Cape region has made in developing a
framework for collaboration in general and nursing in
particular.
In addition, a key partnership that must be developed and
strengthened is that with the national and provincial departments
of health. Apart from the fact, that the health departments play a
critical role in resourcing health education and training, they
have a central role to play in determining and defining our need
for health professionals, including ensuring that education and
training programmes are responding to the country's health needs
more generally. I would therefore like to acknowledge the critical
role that will continue to be played by the Department of Health at
both national and provincial levels in helping us shape the
provision of health professionals for the country and in
contributing to the successful development of the new Dental
Faculty.
I have no doubt that the University of the Western Cape is
well-placed to meet the challenges thrown up by the merger, in
particular, in establishing a Dental Faculty that is responsive to
the social and health needs of the country in general and the
Western Cape community in particular.
The University of the Western Cape is well-placed to do because of
the critical role that it has played in the social and political
life of the community. It embodies in its history some of the most
cherished memories of our struggle against apartheid. Thus, in
calling on the new Faculty and the University to stay close to the
community, I am informed most of all by this very legacy that the
university already enjoys. I am part cajoling, part complimenting,
mindful of the rich tradition of community involvement that is
characteristic of UWC. We can now share this inestimable experience
with the broader Western Cape community.
I urge all of you as you enter the new Faculty of Dentistry, to
recall the spirit of 1994 and of the excitement that attends the
making of history. I urge you commit yourselves, as I am sure you
will, to a sense of shared destiny and professional mission in the
service of the community and the nation in general. For, in the
end, irrespective of where we have started and where we have come
from, the fate of this country belongs to all its people. Our
future is therefore inseparable.
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