The Council on Higher Education (CHE) plays an important role as an adviser to the education minister. Established in 1998, it has produced pertinent sets of research on, for example, institutional redress, throughputs and student success, cross-border education, disability in higher education, the funding of higher education and the use of ICTs in education.
It has advised the minister, on request, on the governance of higher education institutions, the national qualifications framework (NQF) and the higher education qualifications framework (HEQF) and the regulation of private higher education.
Clear disparities existed in the apartheid government’s education system and the council has, through it’s subcommittee, the higher education quality committee (HEQC), implemented a quality assurance system, to try to promote and safeguard quality in higher education.
However, the CHE and the HEQC have their flaws — they have been known to be under-resourced and this affects the delivery of some of their projects. The CHE concedes that it has struggled to fill positions within the organisation.
The HEQC is known to take a while to present draft audit reports to universities that it audited months earlier. This affects the council’s credibility, implying that it battles to get its own job done. Delays in delivery negate the important work that it does.
The council has been without a chief executive for more than a year and the public sector salary level on offer for this position could be part of the reason for not attracting good calibre candidates to the job.
The CHE is expected to find a visionary, who understands the education system, has the respect of academics and an impeccable track record at the salary of a deputy director general. This is not a junior position, but one that will help the minister chart the direction of higher education. Why is it taking the government such a long time to address the salary issue? Is it not common sense to tackle the root of the problem? Too much time has been lost and it implies that the government is inadvertently disempowering its own statutory body.
The higher education system has talented people who could do the job, but talent is expensive.