The state of higher education in South Africa: from massification to mergers
Jansen, JonathanAbstract:
The policy ambitions of the South African government for higher education can be distinguished by two landmarks: the optimism of massification in the mid-1990s, and the reality of mergers almost ten years later. Whereas massification signalled a possible expansion of higher education opportunities, mergers mean a contraction of higher education institutions. While massification assumed greater student demand on the 36 public institutions of higher education, mergers represent (in part) a response to the unexpected and rapid decline in qualifying students from the school sector. And while massification left institutional identities relatively unscathed, mergers were deployed as a direct intervention to recast institutional landscapes. To understand the state of higher education in 2003, it is important to trace briefly the origins of massification and then to discuss in more detail the evolution of merger thinking in South Africa.
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| Chapter Title: | The state of higher education in South Africa: from massification to mergers |
| Book Title: | State of the nation |
| Edited by: | John Daniel, Adam Habib & Roger Southall |
| City: | Cape Town, South Africa |
| Publisher: | HSRC Press |
| No. of Pages: | 290-311 |
| Date: | 2003 |
| Document Type: | Chapter in Book (Peer Reviewed) |
| Subject Area: | National Systems and Comparative Studies |
| Country: | South Africa |
| Keywords: | South Africa, Massification of Higher Education, Mergers, Higher Education Policy, Higher Education Transformation, Higher Education Institutions HEI s, Historically Black Institutions HBI s, Higher Education Restructuring |
| File Size: | 128 KB |
| Rights: | Permission to reproduce the chapter was granted by HSRC Press.http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/full_title_info.asp?id=2055 |
| Date Added: | 22 February 2007 |