To amend the Higher Education Act, 1997, so as to provide for the regular reporting by the Council on Higher Education on the state of higher education; to provide for consequential changes arising out of the incorporation of public higher education institutions in relation to labour and student matters; to provide for the establishment of a National Institute for Higher Education in Mpumalanga and a National Institute for Higher Education in the Northern Cape to coordinate the regional provision of higher education; and to provide for matters connected therewith.