MINISTER OF EDUCATION, PROFESSOR KADER ASMAL, AT THE LAUNCH OF THE NATIONAL PLAN FOR HIGHER EDUCATION

Sol Plaatje House, Pretoria, Monday, 5 March 2001

Today’s launch of government’s National Plan for Higher Education is a landmark in the history of higher education in this country. It is the Plan that will shape the transformation of the system for decades to come.

The Plan is a living document.  It provides the strategy for realising our policy goals for a new South Africa higher education system.  Its implementation will begin immediately.  I will relentlessly and inextricably drive the implementation process.  It is a product of engagement and consultation that has taken place over the past decade.  The National Education Policy Investigation (NEPI) of the early 1990s kick started the debate by placing policy options on the table.  The report of the National Commission on Higher Education (1996) laid the basis for the subsequent Green Paper, Draft White Paper and Education White Paper 3 – A Programme for the Transformation of the Higher Education System (1997).  Last June, I received the Council on Higher Education’s (CHE) report “Towards a New Higher Education Landscape: Meeting the Equity, Quality and Social Development Imperatives of South Africa in the 21st Century”.

The Plan brings these processes to a close.  The Plan is, therefore, not up for further consultation and certainly not for negotiation.  It marks the beginning of a new phase of delivery of a quality higher education system that will truly contribute to the social, economic and political challenges that face our country.

The time is long overdue.  The reform of higher education cannot be further delayed.  Nor can it be left to chance.  I can offer you many reasons to motivate the need for change.  But the most compelling is that the reform of our higher education system is the surest way to abolish the dual nationhood that apartheid has left us with.  The Economist magazine’s recent survey confirms what our President has long said: that South Africa is two nations, poor and rich.  After apartheid, when this two nation status is no longer kept in place by violence but by the workings of inertia and of continuing privilege, the higher education system, in large measure, continues to reproduce the inequities of the past.  This must end.

That is why we are here today.  To make one higher education system – ultimately one country – where there are now two, and more.

We are seven years into our new democracy, yet a single higher education system, with shared goals, values and principles has not been realised. But, it must be achieved if the higher education system is to become a key engine driving and contributing to the reconstruction and development of South African society. 

The Cabinet has recently adopted a Human Resource Development Strategy for the country.  There are expectations that the public higher education system will make a major contribution to the delivery of highly skilled and socially committed professionals and intellectuals. 

President Mbeki, in his State of the Nation address at the opening of the 2001 Parliamentary session, indicated government’s prioritisation of the telecommunications sector.  Our universities and technikons are expected to play a leading role in contributing to the development of an information society in South Africa and the region, both in terms of skills development and research. 

Higher education is expected to contribute to the creation of a learning society that draws on people of all ages and from all walks of life and gives them the opportunity to advance and develop themselves, both intellectually and materially.  Importantly, all our universities and technikons must be the powerhouses for the development of a critical mass of black intellectuals and researchers.

The National Plan provides the implementation framework for turning around the system to meet goals for the system, which were clearly articulated in Education White Paper 3.  The plan establishes indicative targets for the size and shape of the higher education system, including overall growth and participation rates, institutional and programme mixes and equity and efficiency goals.  It provides a framework and outlines the process for the restructuring of the institutional landscape of the system.  It also provides the signposts for the development of institutional plans.

The key proposals of the Plan are listed in the executive summary of the document.  I shall only attempt to highlight some of the main proposals.

• The participation rate in higher education will be increased from 15% to 20% in the long-term, i.e. ten to fifteen years.
• There will be a shift in the balance of enrolments over the next five to ten years between the humanities, business and commerce and science, engineering and technology from the current ratio of 49%: 26%: 25% to 40%: 30%: 30% respectively.
• Institutions will be expected to establish student equity targets with the emphasis on the programmes in which black and women students are under-represented and to develop strategies to ensure equity of outcomes.
• Institutions will be expected to develop employment equity plans with clear targets for rectifying race and gender inequities.
• Institutional diversity will be achieved through the approval of a distinct mission and academic programme profile for each university and technikon.  
• The academic programme mix at each institution will be determined on the basis of its current programme profile, as well as the demonstrated capacity to add new programmes to the profile.
• The existing mission and programme differentiation between technikons and universities will be loosely maintained for at least the next five years.
• Redress for historically black institutions will be linked to agreed missions and programme profiles, including developmental strategies to build capacity.
• A single dedicated distance education institution will be established through the merger of the University of South Africa and Technikon South Africa and the incorporation the distance education centre of Vista University into the merged institution.
• Research will be funded through a separate formula based on research outputs, including, at a minimum, masters and doctoral graduates and research publications.
• Earmarked funds will be allocated to build research capacity, including scholarships to promote postgraduate enrolments.
• The institutional landscape will be restructured to create new institutional and organisational forms.  This will be achieved through collaboration at the regional level in programme development, delivery and rationalisation, in particular, of small anostly programmes.  A National Working Group will be established to investigate the feasibility of consolidating higher education provision through reducing the number of institutions but not the number of delivery sites on a regional basis.
• The Merger of Natal Technikon and ML Sultan Technikon, which has been agreed to in-principle by the Councils of Natal Technikon and ML Sultan Technikon.
• The incorporation of the Qwa-Qwa branch of the University of the North into the University of the Free State.
• The unbundling of Vista University and the incorporation of its constituent parts into the appropriate institutions within each region. 
• The establishment of National Institutes for Higher Education in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape, on the basis of collaboration between the different institutions that currently offer higher education programmes in the two provinces.

As you can see, this is a wide-ranging and ambitious change agenda.  A detailed reading of the Plan will reveal other important areas for investigation, such as an examination of the feasibility of establishing a National Higher Education Information and Applications Service, and a review of the criteria for the allocation of bursaries and loans through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

The planning process, in conjunction with funding and an appropriate regulatory framework will be the main levers through which the Ministry will ensure that the targets and goals of this National Plan are realised.  My Ministry will be releasing a consultative document on the new funding framework by the end of this month – the first implementation target of the Plan - which I assure you we shall meet.

The deliberate focus of this Plan is on the public higher education system.  However, the Plan does identify our concerns regarding the private higher education sector as well as public-private partnerships in higher education. 

The successful implementation of the Plan will require the full weight of the human and financial resources at our disposal.  It will demand the unstinting commitment and hard work from all constituencies – from the councils, managements, academic and support staff, students and workers of all universities and technikons.  I will also be making a wider call for assistance to implement this Plan.  I hope that, amongst others, the international donor community, local private sector, and non-governmental organisations will support our efforts.

However, success will be limited if the strife and division, which scar some of our universities and technikons, is allowed to continue.  Sectional and individual agendas can simply no longer be allowed to plague institutions.  Those institutions, which are unable to extricate themselves from internal strife that has absolutely nothing to do with the core mission of higher education - teaching, research and community service, will fast be left behind. Nor can we tolerate the perpetuation of race or gender privilege through discriminatory practices designed to protect vested interests.  Those that continue to act outside of the national interest will be judged harshly by our society, which is rapidly losing patience with publicly funded institutions that are not able to deliver on their mandates.

This National Plan for Higher Education carries unprecedented political support. The Plan has been extensively discussed by my Cabinet colleagues and has their full support and endorsement.  It is a Plan of the Government, the implementation of which will be guided and driven by my Ministry.  I am also very confident that the public, and particularly parents who are supporting students in the system, will welcome our reform agenda. 

The timetable for implementation is clearly set out in the Plan.  It is a very tight time-framework, again reinforcing the need for cooperation between all constituencies if we are to successfully meet the deadlines.  Later today, I will be presenting the Plan to the vice-chancellors of universities and technikons.  I also intend meeting with other key constituencies in the coming weeks, including national student and labour organisations.

Earlier today, I met with the Council on Higher Education whose advice has helped to shape the Plan.  I am pleased to report that the majority of the recommendations contained in the CHE’s report ("Towards a New Higher Education Landscape") have been accepted.  Where I have not accepted the Council’s advice, this has been indicated in the Plan.  I wish to acknowledge and thank the Council members, and particularly the Chairperson, Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, for their engagement and their ongoing contribution to the development of higher education. I will be drawing on the CHE for advice in the course of implementing various aspects of the Plan.

I am not asking for the uncritical support of the constituencies in higher education.  However, I do expect that they will act in the national interest.  I expect them to set aside their self-interest, individual institutional interests, and regional interests for the sake of the system as a whole, and ultimately the country and its future in Africa and the global community.  The process of re-integration, of finding one another, of building one system and one nation will not be easy.  But it must be done.  And it must be done now.

I end with an appeal to you, the members of the media.  Yes, you will be looking for tomorrow’s headlines.  But, also look beyond the headlines and in the coming days and months interrogate the Plan and closely follow its implementation.  Please do so in an intellectually lively and rigorous manner.  The national interest requires your commitment to real change.

The Plan only went onto the Department’s website at 2pm this afternoon.  So, if you are calling people for comments, please give them the opportunity to first read the Plan!  However, I dare say that the lack of familiarity with the Plan will not detract some people from commenting.

I thank you.