Governance in South African Higher Education. Research Report.

Overview & Synopsis

This report provides a description and analysis of the present state of governance of higher education in South Africa, discusses the concept of cooperative governance, and develops some proposals for the improvement of efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability in higher education governance. The first chapter, "Framing the Inquiry," outlines the terms of reference for the study and outlines its goals. The second chapter, "Governance and Public Higher Education in South Africa," reviews policy and legislation for South African higher education over the last 5 years. Chapter 3, "Governance in Practice," discusses governance as it has been experienced on a day-by-day basis on the 12 institutions that make up the study sample. Chapter 4, "Institutional Governance: Senate, Council and the Institutional Forum," continues the detailed analysis of higher education with a study of three major agencies of governance: the Senate and concept of academic freedom; the Council on Higher Education and the role of trusteeship; and the Institutional Forum, in the context of governance. Chapter 5, "Conditional Autonomy: The State and the Governance of Higher Education Institutions," focuses on the balance between state steering of largely autonomous institutions and a regime in which the state exercises direct control of higher education. It also considers the ways in which higher education institutions should report to the Department of Education, and it presents a generic model for governance failure. The "Conclusion," chapter 6, summarizes the discussion. Chapter 7 is a bibliography. Three appendixes contain extracts from policy and legislation documents, some pertinent legislation, and discussions of institutional governance structures. (Contains 2 figures, 3 tables, and 102 references.) (SLD)