A small, low-profile university campus is set to become a test case for one of the country’s most complex tertiary education mergers.
The East London campus of Rhodes University is the price Rhodes — an institution that for nearly a century has enshrined English liberal values — will pay to retain its name and base in Grahamstown. In January, the University of Fort Hare will absorb the East London campus.
Established in 1916, Fort Hare is the oldest African university in South Africa and alma mater to some of the continent’s most prominent intellectuals and freedom fighters.
Over time, Fort Hare turned its officially designated status as a site of academic inferiority — a position apartheid attempted to consolidate — into powerful resistance, building up a formidable reputation as a site of struggle. Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and ZK Matthews are among the university’s distinguished alumni.
On the other hand, Cecil John Rhodes, enthusiastic proponent of British imperialism, gave his name to a university that, many argue, remains an isolated outpost.
While of undoubted academic distinction, the university’s privileged status under apartheid — like that of all historically white institutions — has bestowed upon it a legacy that the current pressures of transformation render problematic. The extent to which it is shedding that legacy is a frequent talking point in tertiary circles.
Officials at Fort Hare and Rhodes institutions are enthusiastic in the run-up to their nuptials. But students at both institutions express urgent — although very different — fears.
”The incorporation is wrong. People on the ground have been left behind while these politicians have dictated everything,” says one Rhodes student, echoing widely held views at that university. ”No one has ever been given a real reason for why the merger is taking place and no one can understand how it actually benefits Rhodes East London and its students.”
Mergers and incorporations are part of massive national tertiary restructuring intended to repair decades of apartheid wreckage. Redress, equity, greater efficiency and enhanced quality of graduates and research are among the primary aims of this restructuring.
Fort Hare students have their own anxieties. ”The merger has been met with great concern from the students because of fears that they will have to move to East London where the cost of living is too high,” said Vuyani Somyo, president of the Fort Hare Students Representative Council. ”We have not been properly informed about the nuts and the bolts of the merger or the effects it will have on the students.”
Technically this is an ”incorporation” — one institution swallowing a division of another. Full-scale mergers such as the University of the North West and Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education involve a name change and the implementation of new governance structures.
The incorporation will bring together three campuses and about 9 000 students. The East London campus has 2 000 students and Fort Hare’s Bisho and Alice campuses together have 7 000 students.
But this prospect is mild compared with what the institutions faced in 2000.
The Council on Higher Education recommended that Rhodes, Fort Hare and the University of Transkei in Umtata merge. Outcries from all three institutions immediately followed — and intensified when this recommendation was endorsed by the government’s National Working Group on Higher Education in 2001. A year of political intrigue, petitioning and vociferous opposition from the three institutions followed.
”Any type of merger that compromised the autonomy of Fort Hare was rejected. This was a battle fought by both the alumni and government officials. It was more a national concern than simply a Fort Hare concern,” said Luthando Bara, the director of marketing and communication at Fort Hare.
But in December last year the Cabinet backtracked when it ratified its final plan for the restructuring of higher education. Rhodes Grahams-town survived as a separate institution at the expense of sacrificing its East London campus. Fort Hare retained its identity.
The University of Transkei, an institution with far less political clout than either Fort Hare or Rhodes, will merge with Border Technikon and Eastern Cape Technikon in 2005.
David Woods, vice-chancellor of Rhodes Grahamstown, said: ”Our approach to the decision is that we regret it and are sad about losing our East London campus, but we understand it and regard it as our contribution to the transformation of higher education in the Eastern Cape … Rhodes [Grahamstown] on its own has been viable for 99 years and it will be viable for another 99 years.”
Rhodes celebrates its centenary next year. ”The lives of students at Rhodes have not changed … The good qualities of Rhodes as an institution have not changed … We are small and we regard this as an advantage.” The university produces ”well-rounded students who are regarded by industry as excellent team players”.
Rod Bally, the university planner at Fort Hare, and Terry Marsh, the director of Rhodes East London, said there was a certain amount of caution between the two institutions when the incorporation was announced, but that they have now accepted it.
”Both institutions had their own worries. On the Alice campus there was a fear that Alice would be abandoned in favour of East London. In East London there was a fear of dropping standards and a loss of international profile,” said Bally.
But the incorporation ”presents a whole new opportunity to expand Fort Hare into an urban environment”, Bally said. However, ”to grow we need space and space comes at a cost, and so in terms of fulfilling the mandate [from the government to expand] we are going to need a lot more space in East London, which is bursting at the seams at the moment”.
”I had colleagues who were concerned about job security, loss of identity and a drop in academic standards,” said Marsh. ”Right now the Fort Hare brand name is not well-regarded in the marketplace, one has to acknowledge that, and the vice-chancellor of Fort Hare is conscious of that.”
”What we are determined to do is hold on to our values as the Rhodes University East London campus. [We will] change our name to Fort Hare but change nothing else. This means graduates will come out as good as ever before and begin to influence the market so as to reverse negative perceptions about Fort Hare.”
The incorporation will have different implications for students depending on their year of enrolment. Students who enrolled at Rhodes before 2003 will graduate with a Rhodes degree. Students who enrolled this year will graduate with a joint Rhodes and Fort Hare degree. And students who enrol next year and thereafter will graduate with a Fort Hare degree.
”The initial reaction among students was fairly negative, but once they were assured that they would leave with a Rhodes qualification they were fine about it,” said Jurgen Kietzmann, the chairperson of the Rhodes East London Students Representative Council. ”There is a sense of loss but Fort Hare is actively promoting its brand in East London.”
The incorporation is also logistically thorny. Bisho is 60km from East London and Alice is 60km from Bisho.
This raises serious concerns among students, particularly those from rural Transkei areas who say they cannot afford to commute. Compounding the problem is that the law faculty, currently based in Alice, will relocate to East London.
Bally said that the campuses are within a two-hour commute ”so logistically it is not impossible, but only as far as moving staff is concerned … Moving students is a different matter because of greater numbers … But we are looking at establishing teleconference and video conferencing facilities so that we can at least function electronically as a campus.”
Each campus will specialise in niche courses. Alice will focus on agriculture and ”social development courses”, said Bara. Bisho will focus on public service and monitoring ”because it is located in the seat of the provincial government”, he said. And East London will focus on commerce, science, law and education. According to Marsh, ”there are unlikely to be any staff retrenchments with the incorporation because the plans for the future are for expansion rather than contraction”.
Meanwhile, Fort Hare is currently in the red with a R45-million debt. ”Negotiations are under way, which are part of the merger process, to determine where there is undercapitalisation and we will attempt some compensation,” said Allan Taylor, special adviser to Minister of Education Kader Asmal.