The National Working Group believes that the implementation of its recommendations will result in the fundamental restructuring of the higher education system. It will transform the apartheid edifice of the higher education system and lay the basis for a higher education system that is consistent with the vision, values and principles of our young and vibrant democratic order. More importantly, it will ensure the improved quality, increased efficiency, greater equity and enhanced sustainability and responsiveness of the higher education system to meet the challenges of reconstruction and development.
The NWG is firmly of the view that the successful implementation of its recommendations requires two preconditions. First, the commitment of the government to make available the necessary financial resources to facilitate merger processes in particular, and to enable the higher education system to discharge its mandate in general. This requires the leveraging of additional resources, including from the private sector, to ensure that the higher education system is adequately funded. The NWG would like to emphasise that the restructuring proposals, bold and far-reaching as they may be, are in and of themselves not sufficient to address the systemic and structural crisis of higher education. In this regard, it is imperative to note that merging two or more institutions, especially, institutions that are currently weak, will not result in the emergence of a new and strong institution unless additional resources are provided to rectify the existing shortcomings, whether academic, administrative or management. This applies similarly to the merger of strong with weak institutions. There is a real danger that in such cases resource constraints would lead to the weakening of the strong institutions, with disastrous consequences for the higher education system as a whole. In this regard, the NWG believes that it is essential that existing debt burdens of institutions should not be transferred to the new merged institution.
It is also essential to ensure that funds are available to cover the administrative and other costs of the merger process itself. While the initial costs of the merger process will be high, caution must be exercised in ensuring that the funds are directed at covering the core activities required to successfully conclude the merger process and not directed to funding grandiose capital projects such as new administrative and other buildings.
Additional resources are also needed to finance the building of capacity. The success of the restructuring process, as well as that of the restructured system, depends to a large extent on the availability of administrative and management abilities and skills. These skills are currently in short supply. Concerted efforts should be made to develop sufficient of the competencies needed to reconfigure the present fragmented system and ensure well-functioning higher education institutions for the future.
The NWG is aware of the constraints and pressures on the fiscus, especially given contending and equally pressing priorities in other social sectors. However, it is equally conscious of the fact that unless the necessary resources are made available to strengthen the higher education system, our capacity as a nation to address the challenges of reconstruction and development, let alone the challenges posed by globalisation, are likely to come to nought. The case for investment in the higher education system is well captured in the CHE’s Report, “Towards a New Higher Education Landscape: Meeting the Equity, Quality and Social Development Imperatives of South Africa in the 21st Century:
“Higher education, and public higher education especially, has immense potential to contribute to the consolidation of democracy and social justice, and the growth and development of the economy despite the problems and challenges it faces. These contributions are complementary. The enhancement of democracy lays the basis for greater participation in economic and social life more generally. Higher levels of employment and work contribute to political and social stability and the capacity of citizens to exercise and enforce democratic rights and participate effectively in decision-making. The overall well-being of nations is vitally dependent on the contribution of higher education to the social, cultural, political and economic development of its citizens” (CHE: 25-26).
The second precondition for successful implementation is the commitment and political will of the Government to restructuring. It requires the Ministry to act decisively in clarifying its response to the recommendations and in initiating the formal legal processes that are necessary to give effect to the merger proposals. In this regard, the NWG believes that the establishment of interim councils in terms of the Higher Education Amendment Act (Act No 23 of 2001) provides the legal framework and the governance mechanism for facilitating the merger process.
The interim councils will have the authority and power to drive the merger process to successful resolution. The quality, commitment and expertise of the members of the interim councils will be critical in successfully overseeing and managing the implementation of the merger proposals. It is therefore imperative that the persons appointed should have considerable experience of the structures, operations and culture of higher education institutions in particular, and of large-scale organisations in general, they should be persons of impeccable integrity and they should be highly respected both within and outside of the higher education sector.
The NWG is also of the view that the commitment of the institutions and institutional constituencies to the merger process is critical to the success of the merger process. However, commitment in itself would not be sufficient. Given the complexity of the issues involved and the time-consuming nature of mergers, it is critical that the interim councils have access to the necessary technical expertise to facilitate and support the merger process. The NWG recommends that the interim councils consider appointing full-time merger managers to help co-ordinate and facilitate the merger process. In addition, clear targets and time-frames must be set for the different processes and phases of the merger process, both formal in terms of the establishment of the interim councils, as well as substantive in terms of the range of issues that have to be addressed. This is necessary to avoid any unnecessary procrastination and attempts by different institutional constituencies to derail the merger process. The issues that require addressing include, inter-alia:
The NWG is of the view that the development of a social plan, as proposed in the Council on Higher Education’s report, provides a framework for addressing the human resource implications, which are critical to the success of the merger process. These include developing measures to minimise job losses through identifying new opportunities for staff, building capacity and enhancing staff qualifications through training programmes and developing a process for ensuring compliance with the obligations of the Labour Relations Act.
The NWG has also identified a number of further issues, which are critical for the successful restructuring of the higher education system, but which fall outside its Terms of Reference. These issues, which are outlined in Appendix 5, are referred to the Minister for his consideration and further investigation.
In conclusion, the NWG would like to state emphatically that the reconfiguration of the higher education system is beyond debate. It is a precondition to enable the higher education system to contribute to the national reconstruction and development agenda, and thus to contribute to creating a better life for all our people.