Higher education institutions cannot be left to undertake mergers among themselves voluntarily, Education Minister Kader Asmal said on Friday.
”The ministry accepts, in principle, the desirability of voluntary mergers,” he said in a Government Gazette, outlining government’s plans for the restructuring of the sector.
”However, it is not convinced that institutional restructuring in the South African context can be left to the voluntary action of institutions…”
Asmal said he had considered the argument made by the higher education sector that mergers were more likely to succeed if the initiative came from the institutions themselves, rather than the government.
But he said evidence to date suggested that there had been little or no collaboration between universities and technikons to achieve policy goals like reducing programme duplication and overlap.
”(Secondly) the international experience suggests that where voluntary action has been successful, its impetus has come from external pressure from government.”
In Australia, the government had established criteria for future funding linked to institutional size, which resulted in voluntary mergers, the minister said.
”This is unlikely to work in the South African context given the fragmentation and deep-seated historical divides along race lines, which continue to bedevil the education system,” he said.
”The commitment of institutions to restructuring, especially mergers, is at best ambiguous.”
The exception was the ML Sultan Technikon and Technikon Natal, which merged voluntarily.
”Although all institutions claim to support restructuring, few institutions support mergers… The commitment of institutions to structured collaboration is itself in doubt.”
Asmal’s proposals, broadly based on the recommendations of a national working group, entail the reduction of South Africa’s 36 universities and technikons to 21, as well as the amalgamation of and collaboration regarding certain academic programmes.
Contrary to the working group’s proposals, though, Cabinet approved Asmal’s proposal that the University of Fort Hare be kept as a separate institution, instead of merging with Rhodes.
The Rand Afrikaans University and Technikon Witwatersrand, which seemed set to remain alone, are now heading for a merger.
The working group proposed that the University of the Western Cape merge with Peninsula Technikon, but Cabinet opted for a merger between Pentech and the Cape Technikon instead.
On Friday Asmal said the substantive integration of different institutions would take between three and five years.
All institutions had to accept that the merger process was one between equals, irrespective of their current strengths and weaknesses, which were inherited from apartheid, he said.
The minister said he would provide additional resources to ensure the direct financial costs of the merger, as well as to ensure that the merged institutions were financially viable.
”However, (the ministry) is concerned that the national working group’s proposal of writing off debt does not address the underlying factors that have given rise to the debt burden in the first place.”
Apartheid was not the sole cause, he said.
”…The main cause of the debt burden is a combination of poor management and inadequate administrative and financial systems and controls. Thus unless these underlying factors are addressed, writing off the debt is not likely to lead to financial stability in the long term.”
All the institutions not directly affected by mergers would have to submit by December this year three-year ”rolling” plans for 2004 to 2006 focused on addressing certain transformation goals.
These included increasing access and redressing imbalances in the success and graduation rates of black, women and disabled students.
Historically Afrikaans-speaking institutions would have to ensure that the language of instruction was not a barrier to access, especially in high-cost courses with limited student places like medicine and engineering.
Asmal earlier said public comment on the plans could be made for three months after they had been gazetted.
He said he intended to complete that process by September this year, and begin the merger process by June next year, unless he was convinced otherwise.
The phasing-in of mergers over a longer time period had been considered, the Government Gazette notice said.
”However, it has been persuaded by international experience, which indicates that delaying the establishment of a new institution once a decision has been made impacts adversely on implementation.”
This led to increased anxiety among institutional constituencies, especially the staff, Asmal said. – Sapa