The department of higher education and training’s chief director: academic planning and management support
The department of higher education and training’s (DHET) chief director: academic planning and management support, Dr Engela van Staden, announced that the University of Johannesburg (UJ) will be the facilitator of a forum that will discuss the implementation and facilitation of Entrepreneurship Education and Social Entrepreneurship (SE) in tertiary institutions.
The announcement that was made at the 2015 South African Technology Network Conference held at the VUT Southern Gauteng Science and Technology Park drew fierce criticism from a number of Universities of Technology (UOT) delegates. They questioned why the UJ was chosen as facilitator and not a UOT; they focus on hands-on entrepreneurship education rather than purely theoretical teaching.
Van Staden explained that the department’s planned forum is based on the International Forum on Education and Training on Social Enterprise (FETSE). She added: “The aim of FETSE is to foster the development of high-quality and accessible inter-university educational programmes in the field of social enterprise/social entrepreneurship.” She said the department also aims to create in South Africa an integrated system of support among universities.
Representatives of various UOTs raised their concerns; some said that they have never been asked to present their position on this issue, to which van Staden replied that some UOTs were identified and contacted, but responses had not been forthcoming. “We did inform a number of identified UOTs about the envisioned forum and asked them to state their case and ability to act as facilitator of the forum.” She mentioned the Durban University of Technology (DUT) as being one UOT that was contacted from the start, but till today had not responded.
She said that after careful consideration and research the department opted to appoint UJ as the facilitating institution, and noted that among many other reasons, UJ’s various accolades for SE projects was a reason for the decision. “We concluded that UJ was the best institution to facilitate the platform of SE conversation and the sharing of best practices. The University of Johannesburg showed the drive to take up this challenge and breed a more enterprising culture among tertiary institutions to develop technology transfer, research, education and training as well as innovation.”
According to Van Staden the number of UJ’s projects, in terms of the value chain of taking projects from research to commercialisation, resulting in registered patents, was another deciding factor in UJ’s appointment.
UOT representatives stated that this could not be the only reason for the decision, as it would be wholly unfair. Van Staden replied: “This was not the only motivation for the decision. It was only one of the points taken into consideration.”
She acknowledged that UOTs have entrepreneurship education embedded in their curricula and commended them for this. “However, at present the department is of the opinion that UJ is the best tertiary institution to act as facilitator of the forum.” She reiterated: “This remains a department of higher education and training initiative and project. The University of Johannesburg is merely facilitating the communication and discussion between institutions.”
Van Staden again invited institutions to contact the department to substantiate their abilities to act as facilitators for the forum.