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Date
: 26/08/2004
Source: Ministry of Education
Title: N Pandor: Launch of University of KwaZulu-Natal's Research
Report
ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, NALEDI PANDOR, MP, AT THE
LAUNCH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU-NATAL'S RESEARCH REPORT (2003),
Durban, 26 August 2004
Professor William Makgoba, Interim Vice-Chancellor, University of
KZN
Professor Abdool Karim, Interim Deputy Vice-Chancellor, University
of KZN
Staff and students
Distinguished guests
Let me first of all say what a pleasure it is to be here this
evening and what a particular pleasure it is to be sharing the
stage with such distinguished academics, award winners and others.
I would like to pay a particular tribute to Professor Makgoba for
the innovative way in which he has pioneered the merger of the two
universities.
I do not plan to detain you long. I want to say a few words about
mergers and research.
Mergers
The last ten years have seen remarkable changes in higher
education. Although these changes are most evident in the
transformed institutional landscape, I can quite confidently say
that the key components of the "single coordinated higher education
system" envisaged in Education White Paper 3 (A Programme for the
Transformation of Higher Education) have been put into place.
In a country like South Africa, and especially at this important
point in our history, the transformation of higher education has to
be seen in the context of the broader reconstruction and
development of the country. In particular, it has to respond to the
dual challenges of equity and development, that is, to overcome the
fragmentation, inequality of the past and to meet current and
future development challenges.
Like other developing countries, we need to increase graduate
outputs in areas such as science, engineering and technology. In
our National Plan for Higher Education (February 2001), we proposed
over the next five years to shift the balance in enrolments between
the humanities, business and commerce and science, engineering and
technology to a ratio of 40%: 30%: 30% respectively.
It is not our intention to adjust the share of the humanities below
the planned 40% since we believe that the humanities play an
important role in developing a critical civil society through
enhancing our understanding of social and human development. The
National Plan in particular highlights the role that fields of
study such as African languages; literature and culture can play in
the development of a common sense of nationhood.
This approach is supported by an emphasis on the social sciences
and humanities in the school curriculum. A major initiative is
underway to transform the teaching of history in the primary and
secondary phases of schooling. These developments are a part of our
Values in Education Initiative that seeks to infuse the notions of
human values, such as dignity, integrity and social honour into the
school curriculum.
A new policy framework for language in higher education, which
reflects the values and obligations of our constitution, especially
the need to promote multilingualism, was also adopted last year.
While the current position of English and Afrikaans as languages of
instruction in higher education is acknowledged, the policy strives
to promote in the medium to long-term the development of other
South African languages for use as academic/scientific languages.
The policy framework promotes the study of South African languages
and literature through planning and funding incentives. The study
of foreign languages is similarly supported. Multilingualism is
also enhanced by way of appropriate institutional policies and
practices.
An important element of our agenda in higher education is to focus
on quality. Only through due attention to quality, including the
building of inclusive institutional cultures, can there be
meaningful access to higher education especially for those who were
denied opportunities in the past. Only through combining access,
quality and success will we be able to erode the domination of
high-level occupations and knowledge production by privileged
social groups.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal is now a five-campus university
with over 40,000 students and an impressive equity profile. It has
to be the largest post-apartheid higher education
institution.
No merger is a simple matter. Matters are more difficult when one
party brings all the material benefits of apartheid provisioning to
the merger, while the other has the uphill battle of claiming
equity and redress.
I do not like the battle metaphors that creep into any discussion
of mergers because then we start talking about the victors and the
vanquished. I know loyalties are fierce, but the transformation of
the higher education institutional landscape has to be made to work
for the benefit of all. I would particularly ask that all parties
have representivity and inclusivity at the front of their minds at
all the time.
The broader issue is one of social justice. Higher education is a
powerful instrument of social justice, since it serves not only as
a driver of wealth creation but also as a critical determinant of a
student's life chances. As we expand access, so the higher
education system will increasingly underpin social justice within
the community. Rather than reinforcing social exclusion, as it did
for most of the 20th century, a modern, transformed higher
education sector can take its place within a diverse framework of
lifelong learning provision as a force for social justice.
I intend to host a conference early next year to open up debate on
this key area, and in particular to explore the issue of the
responsiveness of higher education to South African
realities.
Research
I now turn to say a few words about research.
There can be little argument that knowledge is the wellspring of
the economic and social development. It is a commonplace these days
to talk about the knowledge economy. It is imperative that our
higher education institutions become innovative, high quality
powerhouses of knowledge production and dissemination. To succeed
in this endeavour, our transformation agenda has to take full
cognisance of the need for efficiency, effectiveness and
responsiveness.
However, it is possible, and indeed necessary, to do so without
sacrificing social accountability and without subservience to the
"market".
There can also be little argument that the knowledge economy is a
global economy. Globalisation has transformed the economic and
social conditions in which we live through the increased
internationalisation of production and trade, the real time
integration of global financial markets, enhanced mobility of
capital and labour, intensified environmental and political
inter-dependency, and socio-cultural transformations consequent
upon new information and communication flows.
These are profound changes, and within each of them, we can see at
work the seismic impact of technological advance, particularly the
development of information and communication technologies.
Higher education is at the centre of these developments. It ensures
that countries can grow and sustain high-skill businesses, and
attract and retain the most highly-skilled people. It endows people
with creative and moral capacities, thinking skills and depth
knowledge that underpin our economic competitiveness and our wider
quality of life. It is, therefore, at the heart of the productive
capacity of the new economy and the prosperity of our
democracy.
Globalisation has also led to significant changes in the patterns
of university research.
Individual scientists no longer burrow away in silos. The growth
and development of the Internet has meant that the results of basic
research are disseminated throughout the world rapidly, as new
findings enter public debate, and new users and developers pick up
on the consequences.
The leading edge of scientific research has become a breaking
wave.
The growth of mass higher education has also meant that research
activity and scholarship have spread throughout the university
sector, as institutions previously confined to teaching develop
niche specialisms, applied research, and scholarship activities. In
these conditions, a single department in a university can become a
world-beater.
But at the same time leading-edge basic research is increasingly
concentrated in a relatively few universities. This is partly a
matter of cost or size. Much basic research, particularly in
certain branches of physics, is simply so capital intensive that
only a few universities, either alone or in combination, are able
to engage in it.
But there is also a broader phenomenon at work: university research
mirrors the concentration of industrial basic research and
development in major corporations. And we have to think about a new
relationship between business and universities, one perhaps best
expressed by Anthony Giddens, the Director of the London School of
Economics, in explaining his college's relationship with Deutsche
Bank. In the past business would fund universities to conduct
research projects and then after a number of years the funding
would come to an end and the project wrapped up. But business no
longer works best with universities like this. Knowledge is no
longer the sole preserve of universities in a world undergoing
massive technological change. Instead, what is needed now is a
dialogic relationship between two knowledge-based concerns, each
one learning from the other. What is needed is a continuous
relationship. What is needed is a new sort of relationship, a new
form of partnership between research in higher education and
corporations.
This does not spell the end of the publicly funded higher education
institution. Far from it.
In order to expand competitive universities, government support for
research must be selective. Selectivity must be carefully managed,
however. Assessment and funding mechanisms must be responsive to
the requirements of the evolution and development in the sector,
since otherwise we will simply freeze the national research effort
at any point in time and innovation will be curtailed.
We must enable research excellence and diversity to flourish in
different parts of the sector.
And that is what the National Research Foundation has undertaken to
ensure, through focusing on promoting maths and science based
knowledge and ensuring that blacks and women are given the
opportunities to contribute to learning and knowledge.
I am particularly pleased to see the P, Y, L and categories among
the award-winners this evening, and I hope that as the university
goes from strength to strength these categories will be filled to
overflowing.
I should add, lest you think otherwise, that research is not just
about science and technology. Research in the social sciences, the
arts and humanities, is also vital to our national prosperity. Good
government, for example, depends on solid research evidence and a
constant, if critical, engagement between politicians, civil
servants and the research community. Research in social science,
the arts and the humanities preserves and enriches the economic,
social and cultural fabric of the nation.
Close
In closing, let me say that I am told an update to the World
Bank/UNESCO report Higher Education in Developing Countries. Peril
or Promise that was chaired by Mamphele Ramphele, former Vice
Chancellor of UCT, is about to appear. The report was published in
2000.
As you may remember, the World Bank had previously made the case
that developing countries should be concerned only about primary
and secondary education and that higher education could take care
of itself, that is, developing countries could not afford such a
luxury. Peril or Promise changed all that. The precise benefits of
higher education as a public good is still open to debate, but the
report was sure that every developing country should have
one.
We are committed to developing our research capacity in publicly
funded higher education institutions. Research capacity allows us
not only to generate new knowledge but also to engage in scholarly
and scientific commerce with other nations. We need non-proprietary
research that is concerned with the public good, social justice and
eroding the legacy of poverty.
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