Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to describe the context, magnitude and effects of organisational change that took place at the University of Botswana (UB) from 1990 to present. The study should provide useful insights for those who may wish to conduct studies of institutional change, and is made from the vantage point of an observer who had the opportunity to participate in university teaching and management as well as working in tertiary education broadly. Restructuring of the institution was part of a proactive, forward planning process to help the University prepare for effective management and control of anticipated expansion.  Instead, as a result of policies of exclusion that came with restructuring, the stature and relative importance of professors of the university and heads of academic departments were diminished.  This meant that professors and heads of department lost a strategic statutory forum to make effective contributions. The new managerial ethic, which places administrators before academics, has denied the institution creativity and vitality.  The author asserts that there is noticeable deterioration of the academic environment, as well as a disturbing decline in the quality of the core activities of teaching, learning and research.  

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Fako, Thabo (2004). Reflections on organisational restructuring and change in a Southern African university: The case of the University of Botswana Department of Sociology, University of Botswana