APPENDIX 2: WORKING PAPER ON GUIDING PRINCIPLES 

The National Working Group formulated a number of guiding principles to frame its work and shape its recommendations. These guiding principles were gleaned from the visions, values, goals, requirements and expectations for higher education in South Africa as these are reflected in the policy documents referred to earlier, as well as in the Terms of Reference of the NWG itself. 

The NWG is required to recommend realistic and practicable measures of institutional reconfiguration or combination, which could help to reduce the number of institutions and strengthen the quality of the higher education system in South Africa. It understands “quality” in this context to mean “fitness for purpose”, i.e. the extent to which the elements constituting the structures and operations of the system are suited and well equipped to fulfill effectively those functions which are its raison d’être. The White Paper on Higher Education (1997) gives the following outline of the raison d’être (or purpose or defining function) of higher education: 

1. To meet the learning needs and aspirations of individuals through the development of their intellectual abilities and aptitudes throughout their lives;  
2. To address the development needs of society and provide the labour market with the ever-changing high-level competencies and expertise for the growth and prosperity of a modern economy; 
3. To contribute to the socialisation of enlightened, responsible and constructively critical citizens; 
4. To contribute to the creation, sharing and evaluation of knowledge, through the pursuit of academic scholarship and intellectual inquiry in all fields of human understanding and through teaching and learning.  

The NWG is of the opinion that this outline is in keeping with the two main historical purposes of higher education which it would like to summarise as: 

1. to advance scientific and scholarly knowledge by engaging in fundamental discovery and in criticising and extending the traditional view of the world (the service of the intellect function); and 
2. to educate and train persons who would enter the “learned” professions or fulfil other social functions and leadership roles and responsibilities to deal, in an intellectually justified and disciplined way, with social, political and economic problems (the service of society function).

 The NWG sees its task accordingly as an effort to recommend ways and means for strengthening the fitness of the higher education system in South Africa so that it can serve this cluster of purposes effectively and in the interest of all the people of the country. In the light of the circumscription given by the relevant policy documents of the criteria and ideals of a well-functioning South African higher education system, one could say that the fitness of the system and its component institutions to fulfill the purpose of higher education in the South African context boils down to three main properties. These properties are those of equity, sustainability and productivity. A restructured higher education system should be socially just and equitable in its distribution of resources and opportunities, it should meet the requirements of longer-term viability and it should fulfill the higher education teaching and research needs of the nation effectively and efficiently. Strengthening the fitness of the system therefore means-

1. promoting the equity of the system, 
2. ensuring the sustainability of the system, and 
3. enhancing the productivity of the system. 

Promoting the equity of the system implies:  

• that the ideology-driven fragmentation, in terms of racially differentiated identities and cultures, of the institutional landscape should be overcome by transcending the divide between historically black and white institutions through mergers or, where such a merger is not indicated, through a process of internal transformation with a view to reflecting, as far as possible, the demographic profile and the constitutionally embedded values of the South African society in each institution, thus creating the new South African higher education configuration;  · that the system should meet the future educational needs of all sections of the South African population, and that public funds cannot be used to promote the educational advancement of only select groups;  
• that the imbalances in the racial composition of both student bodies and staff components should be rectified through a refocusing and reshaping of institutional cultures and missions, through access and appointment policies which are in accordance with such a refocusing and reshaping, and through transparent mechanisms, processes and measurable goals at institutional as well as systemic levels;  
• hat redress should be made to institutions and to individuals of population groups previously discriminated against, by ensuring that institutions are able to increase opportunities of access and success, and that individuals are able to make use of such opportunities wherever they are available;  
• that the culture of human rights and high ethical standards and practices should be entrenched and promoted as core values within the institutional framework of teaching and research.  Ensuring the sustainability of the system implies:  
• that a long term view should be taken and that restructuring should lay a solid foundation for future generations to build on;  
• that reconfiguration should strengthen the weak elements in the system and not weaken the strong;  
• that every possible measure should be taken to secure the financial viability and stability of institutions;  
• that student enrolment numbers which fluctuate at individual institutions, because of recruitment competition in a limited catchment area, or because of other reasons, should be stabilised, and that these numbers be increased in order to help ensure the sustainability of the institution.  
• that each institution in the system should have a critical mass of academic, administrative and management capacity at its disposal, and that steps should be taken to build such capacity where it is lacking or inadequate;  
• that institutions should be assisted to cultivate and uphold sound leadership as well as good governance structures and practices;  
• that the number of higher education institutions should be reduced wherever possible, so that the human and financial resources available in the system can be concentrated, managed and utilised more effectively; 
• that waste and unnecessary overlap and duplication should be eliminated and economies of scale and scope be promoted, through forms of intra- and inter-institutional rationalisation, co-ordination and co-operation, in order to bring down unit costs and make the system more efficient;  
• that higher education in South Africa should become globally competitive by upholding rigorous academic standards and by enabling institutions to take full advantage of the opportunities provided by global transformation in innovation and knowledge production, dissemination and management.  Enhancing the productivity of the system implies: 
• that institutions should recognise in their visions and missions the critical role of higher education in improving the quality of life of individual citizens, and that this recognition should be reflected in their teaching and research programmes;  
• that institutions should have a clear view of the higher education needs of society and the labour market, and that they should be organisationally and operationally geared towards the most effective response to and fulfillment of these needs;  
• that the system should offer a diversity of institutional missions and qualification mixes in order to increase student choice and meet the variety of human resource and technological demands presented by a developing country;  
• that the difference between university and technikon programmes be recognised and maintained, even though it may be necessary in some cases to allow for both university- and technikon-type academic offerings in the same, educationally comprehensive institution;  
• that graduates should be equipped with the knowledge, the skills and the expertise to facilitate economic as well as social and cultural development - regionally, nationally and with regard to the continent as a whole;  
• that measures should be taken to increase the participation rate as well as the success rates (throughput rate, retention rate, graduation rate) of institutions;  
• that high level research capacity should be secured and advanced in order to ensure both the continuation of self-initiated, open-ended intellectual inquiry and scholarship, and the sustained application of research activities to technological improvement and social development;  
• that the output of postgraduate students should be increased and special attention should be given to the promotion of postgraduate training and studies;  
• that the sharing of teaching and research capacity through institutional collaboration, partnerships and contractual agreements should be encouraged and facilitated in order to ensure optimal results, in terms of both quantity and quality;
• that the educational culture, identity and character of institutions should be creatively and constructively explored in measures of combination, so that they may play their rightful role in the successful fulfillment of the reconfigured institution’s functions, not only by inspiring loyalty, support and a sense of ownership but also by expediting fruitful relationships with other higher education institutions, both nationally and internationally, as well as with other sectors and organisations of civil society.