Culture clashes loom over the forthcoming merger of Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (known as Puk) and the University of the North West (Uniwest) in Mmabatho — two very different institutions. Puk is a bastion of Afrikaner culture and the Potchefstroom campus is 72% white. By contrast, Uniwest is culturally largely Tswana, and its student body is almost entirely black.
Students, academics and administrative staff have expressed concern about the implications of the merger. The difference in cultures between the two institutions is a burning issue, as is the matter of academic standards. Talk of differing ”values” often reveals a concern that the different cultures may not be able to live with one another. Some speak of preserving old values; others of developing new ones.
Theuns Eloff, the vice-chancellor of Puk, and Ngwato Takalo, the vice-chancellor of Uniwest (formerly the University of Bophuthatswana), say there was a great deal of mistrust between the two institutions as the merger process began.
”We at Potch were concerned that the University of North West would load the new university with politics,” said Eloff, ”and they were scared that Potch had a lot of white boere discontented with change.” Eloff is confident, however, that those positions have changed.
Nonetheless, Eloff sees the preservation of Puk’s traditional values as necessary: ”For us it is important that Afrikaans students still consider Potchefstroom to be a campus where they can come and live out their culture, values and religion in a safe environment. We will not compromise on the character of the Puk campus’s unique student life. We do not want to scare off our market.”
Takalo said her university had feared it would be swallowed by Puk and its strongly Afrikaner Christian culture and values. But she is confident ”the new university will become a medley of cultures where there is room for everyone.
”I understand that Potchefstroom University has a rich history and an important value system and that it will reflect that on the Potchefstroom campus. But in the end I believe the new university will have its own value systems that it will develop with time. It will not be a matter of each university forcing its value system on the other.”
Yet, at the same time, she said, ”it will be difficult for each university to continue to maintain its own values at the new university”. What is certain is that the merger will go ahead: ”We are very serious about transformation.”
In 2001 the National Working Group on Higher Education recommended this merger, among several others that are due to transform the country’s higher education landscape forever.
The Cabinet ratified the mergers in December. Also due to take effect in January are the merging of the University of Natal with Durban-Westville; Unisa with Technikon South Africa and Vista’s Distance Education Centre; and the Northern Gauteng, North-West and Pretoria technikons.
Vista University’s Sebokeng campus and the Vaal Triangle campus of Puk will also be part of the new merged institution.
The working group’s report criticised Puk for not having changed its student profile more thoroughly and taken in more black students: ”It is difficult to ascertain whether its underlying culture and ethos are alienating to black students, but clearly this is an area that needs attention.”
The report said fusing the two universities would encourage more diversity at Potch, which now enrols 10 000 students in total, as opposed to North West’s 7 000. Uniwest is characterised as struggling with ”the basic handicap of an unfavourable, apartheid-based location, [and] struggling to cope with declining enrolments and consequent uncertainty and other negative effects”.
While Puk speaks of maintaining its own values within its old precincts, the Mmabatho students and their management say they look forward to establishing a new value system at the combined institution, to be called Northwest University. They also look forward to sharing the resources of a well-endowed university. They say they are committed to transformation and integration.
Mpho Mfolwe, chairperson of the Students Representative Council (SRC) at Uniwest, says students there were concerned when they heard about the merger. ”We were scared we would lose our identity.” They were also concerned that new, higher standards in a combined institution would exclude some from higher education.
”But we have moved from anxiety to excitement,” he said. ”We believe this merger will give us better lecturers and provide a higher academic standard … We want to maintain the situation where a disadvantaged student with no financial backing can make something of his life.”
Students at Puk, however, are less positive about a new value system. The values of Christian higher education have driven the university’s culture since its foundation 134 years ago as a small theological school.
Former students were outraged at the proposed name change and wrote many letters to the Afrikaans newspaper Beeld and to Eloff, accusing the vice-chancellor of betraying Puk’s legacy. Potch students felt hurt that their alma mater would be consigned to history.
Janine Joubert, newly elected SRC chairperson at Puk, said students there were shocked by the announcement of the merger last year, though ”most students have now accepted it”.
She says the name change was particularly painful, especially because 90% of the students voted, a year earlier, for the phrase ”Christian Higher Education” to remain in the university’s name. None thought that a year later they would lose the name altogether.
”Most students at Potchefstroom do not want to change the values that attracted them to Puk in the first place. Last year the students voted for the name to stay the same. Now it has been changed. We have been pulled from our comfort zone.”
Joubert hopes that in the new university there will be room for Puk’s character and traditions, ”in the same way that there should be room for the students at the Mmabatho and Vaal Triangle campuses to realise their character and traditions”.
The new Northwest University will open its doors on January 1 and will feature three campuses, each planned to retain its own current culture and values.
Eloff says each of the four campuses will have its own character and ethos that will cater for different niches. The Potchefstroom campus will still be known as Puk.
The new university’s interim council will begin operating in October and hopes the permanent council will be in operation by January 16. The management of both universities decided it would be better to limit the uncertain period of an interim council to as short as possible.
Though the university will be one in name, the campuses will still operate separately for another five years at least, said Eloff. Because of the different standards at the different campuses, the new institution’s degrees will indicate at which campus the graduate studied for the next five years.
Eloff believes Uniwest will have to catch up to Puk’s academic standards. He said the institutions still differ on admission requirements and examination standards. The working group’s report also noted that Uniwest had a scanty tradition of research.
Takalo, on the other hand, said she does not believe Uniwest’s standards are lower than those of Puk, though she agrees her university’s research is not up to scratch. ”If we are found wanting we will work hard.”
Meanwhile, university staffers have concerns about what the merger will mean for them. Bennie Linde, chairperson of Puk’s main staff union, said staff fear they will not be able to handle the workload if they have to help Uniwest catch up.
At Uniwest, three weeks ago, Takalo had to deal with striking staff. One of their grievances was that they had not been properly informed of the merger and the decisions made in June. There is fear of job losses.
”People are concerned about job security,” said Leveticus Molosankwe, deputy secretary of the Staff Association of Uniwest. ”We realise there will be casualties, but we just want to be informed about what is going on at all times with regular meetings between staff and the VC [vice-chancellor].”
Linde said job losses may also become a concern at Puk because of the transformation process.