| Sehoole, C (July 1999) 'Reflections on changes in higher education: The
CIES Conference' in SAIDE Open
Learning Through Distance Education, Vol. 5, No. 2, SAIDE: Johannesburg
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| South Africa | Contents | ||
In April 1999, Chika Sehoole attended the Comparative International Education Society (CIES) Conference held at the University of Toronto, Canada, where he presented a paper entitled, "Who is an expert and What counts as knowledge in policy development". In this article, he reflects on the experience and outlines some of the trends in higher education that emerged from the conference.
My participation in this conference was an eye-opener for me in terms of exposure to current debates in academia and, above all, trends in higher education. As I was listening to a range of speakers outlining challenges facing higher education in their respective countries, it was as if I was listening to a report on challenges facing higher education in South Africa. Issues discussed ranged from the excess of teachers and reduction in teacher training numbers in Korea to increases in enrolments in higher education in China and the introduction of user fees in Taiwan and Mongolia.
OECD Case Study and South African Parallels
Of particular interest to me was a paper presented by M. Campell, which highlighted the re-definition of tertiary education in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member nations, with special reference to its emphasis on alternatives to the university sector. The paper argues that the OECD’s re-definition of tertiary education resulted from several concerns. These were
- scale and diversity of demand;
- problems of access;
- quality and relevance of educational provision; and
- challenges of governance, management, and leadership and ways of meeting the inevitably increasing costs as participation in tertiary education shifts inexorably from ‘minority’ to ‘majority’.1
The OECD report, ‘Redefining Tertiary Education’, asserts that
‘the new approach of tertiary education acknowledges both part-time and full-time modes, irrespective of the duration of study, it includes students of all ages, it covers a wide spectrum of interests and aptitudes, it can incorporate different interpretations of countries of what constitutes "the first years" and it acknowledges a wide range of institutional types – from research universities to two-year vocational colleges – together with diversity of functions and status of awards and qualifications’.2
The OECD bases its argument for the continued expansion of postmodern tertiary education provision in member nations on the following basic assumptions:
- individuals are increasingly seeing the value of continued education and training of a high standard;
- advanced, industrial democracies require highly-competent, reasonable citizens for both economic and social reasons;
- there is an increased risk to social structure and cohesion and a threat to equity and social justice if a significant proportion of the population is excluded or discouraged from participation in a stage of education which clearly confers benefits;
- growth and diversity of demand has generated enormous pressures and not all groups in society in practice have opportunity for access as inequalities and distortions continue to exist.3
The factors that had led to and influenced the re-definition of higher education in OECD member nations are also part of the discourse around the restructuring of higher education in South Africa. The National Commission on Higher Education (NCHE) argued that, if South Africa were to compete economically on the world stage, it would need increasing numbers of higher-education level professionals and knowledge workers with world class skills to strengthen its enterprise. These skills include: the higher level technological and management capacities required for value-added world-class manufacturing; the capability to generate innovative solutions to the problem confronting basic services and infrastructure provision; and the competencies required for effective management of the economy.4
In response to demands of increased access to higher education, the Ministry of Education outlined its plan for expanding the system. It was envisaged that, through this plan, the twin goals of equity and development could be achieved. These entail, amongst others, the following:
- ensuring that the composition of the student body progressively reflects the demographic realities of the broader society;
- expanding career-oriented programmes at all levels, but in particular in shorter cycle (one and two year) programmes at the certificate and diploma levels, and in science, engineering, and technology programmes;
- expanding enrolments in postgraduate programmes at masters and doctoral levels, to address the high-level skills necessary for social and economic development and to provide for the needs of the academic labour market;
- expanding the range of programmes and increasing enrolments based on open learning and distance education, especially for young and older adults, with particular emphasis on women.
In line with the OECD’s new paradigm of tertiary education - which endorses increased access to tertiary education leading to massification - the NCHE proposed a multi-pronged strategy that would enable South Africa to increase higher education participation to approximately 30% (as a percentage of the 20-24 year-old cohort) over the next decade. This will see an increase from about 800 000 students in 1995 to about 1 500 000 in 2005 in higher education.5 It remains to be seen whether or not this is realistic.
Worldwide trends in education policy that advocate for expansion of higher educationhave brought two new policy directions,6 namely an increase in the transfer of the costs of higher education from public to private providers and a transfer of higher education costs to families with the introduction of user-fees.
The principal argument for increased privatization of higher education, as put forward by World Bank analysts, is that many countries will not be able to finance the expansion of secondary and higher education with public funds, given future increases in demand. Thus for education to expand at those levels, developing nations will have to rely on families to finance a higher fraction of school costs themselves.7
This can be done in two ways: (a) by allowing the creation of accredited private secondary and universities in much larger numbers; and (b) by limiting the public assistance given to schools, including public institutions, and requiring increased fees to cover the gap, between the cost per student and public assistance per student. Carnoy asserts that the Bank has explicitly argued that, for ‘efficiency’ and ‘equity’ reasons, user fees should constitute a much greater proportion of total financing the higher levels of schooling.8 The retention of user fees to augment state subsidies has been part of South Africa’s higher education system, and the principle has been retained in the new higher education policy.
The Game of ‘Deregulation’
In his paper, H. Weiller drew the attention of the audience to a new game being played in European higher education.9 As he puts it, ‘some call the game "deregulation", some call it a combination of greater autonomy and greater accountability, some call it a shift from input controls to output controls’. Whereas, in the past, this game involved two players, namely the state and the university, Weiller observed that it now involved three players: the state, the university, and something called ‘the market’.10 He pointed out that this construct of the market was an interesting new element in the discourse of higher education in Western Europe, and that it was rapidly spreading with the ‘tender’ care of the World Bank and the Soros Foundation, to Central and Eastern Europe.11
As I was listening to this input, I could not help but note that it was not only in Eastern and Central Europe that the construct of ‘the market’ was spreading, but in South Africa too. Its manifestation in Europe is not only serious talk, but also, in some cases, action in the direction of: deregulating higher education; performance-based models of resource allocation; inter-institutional competition; efficient management structures; the development of specialized ‘products’ of higher education; and even ‘privatization’.
Though in South Africa we have not yet experienced moves towards deregulation, some facets of this new game are already being played out. Institutions of higher education in South Africa have also responded positively to the challenges of the market. This is demonstrated in: diversification of programme offerings and introduction of new programmes to attract new students; competition that is taking place to attract new students; and introduction of distance education programmes and technology-enhanced learning in traditionally face-to-face higher education institutions.
In 1995, for example, the University of Pretoria introduced distance education programmes and presently enrols in excess of 26,000 distance students. This is over and above its residential component, which also incorporates approximately 26,000 students.12 The philosophy underlying this approach is that ‘the university should go out and find out students for the programmes’.13 This approach by universities is well captured in the slogan of UP’s Telematic Education Department which reads as follows: ‘in the past millennium you came to us to shape your future. In the next, we’ll come to you through Telematic Education.’14
There are, of course, also other features of ‘the market’ which are not discussed here. Whereas institutions such as the University of Pretoria have succeeded in responding to the market needs, the kind of questions that need to be asked relate to the quality assurance mechanisms that are in place.
One of the purposes of this reflection and review was to illustrate how winds of change in higher education in the global context impact on developments of nation states. As the world becomes networked, it also becomes smaller. It is interesting to note how developments in South African higher education are similar to those elsewhere in the world. Since some of these developments are new to us, we need to draw lessons from countries that have experimented with some of these policies.
I shall be reporting on issues relating to this in forthcoming editions of Open Learning Through Distance Education.
NOTES
1
Campell, M, (1999) Tertiary Education Policy and the Requisites of a Postmodern Paradigm: An OECD Perspective on Nn University Sectors, Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of Comparative and International Education Society, Totonto, Canada, p.3.2
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1998), Redefining Tertiary Education, Paris, OECD, p.14.3
Campell, M, (1999), op. cit. p.4.4
The National Commission on Higher Education Report (1996), A Framework for Transformation, Pretoria, p54.5
Ibid. p. 4.6
See. Tai Hsiou-Hsia, (1999) Recent Development in Taiwanese Higher Education, Paper Presented at the CIES Conference, Toronto, Canada, p.2, Weiller, H (1999), States and Markets: Competing Paradigms in the Reform of Higher Education in Europe, Paper Presented at the CIES Conference, Toronto Canada, p. 7.7
See Carnoy, M, (1998) Globalization and Educational Reform, mimeo, pp.9-10.8
Ibid. p. 10.9
Weiller, H (1999) op. cit. p.2.10
ibid, p. 2.11
ibid, p. 2.12
See Du Plessis , G,I (1999) A Quantum Leap into the Future through Telematic Education, University of Pretoria, p.1.13
Interview with Salome Meyer, Lecturer in the Department of Nursing, University of Pretoria, 25/04/1999.14
Du Plessis , G,I (1999), op.cit. p.1.| South Africa | Contents | ||
Southern African Global Distance Education Network |
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