Professor Adam Habib
The name Universities South Africa may be new, but it is simply a rebranding of the former Higher Education South Africa (HESA). In many respects the name change is a continuation of a journey of transformation that started during the era of the South African Universities Vice-Chancellors Association and the Committee of Technikon Principals, which merged to create HESA in 2005.
“At one level Universities South Africa is simply a name change, as the fundamental mandate of the organisation doesn’t change. However its emphasis is likely to change,” says Chairperson Professor Adam Habib. “We always had the mandate to be the lobbying entity of the sector, but really we represented the interests of the vice-chancellors.
“When we speak about Universities South Africa, we are saying that we symbolise the formal authority in the higher education sector. So our advocacy and lobbying capacity is going to play a far more fundamental role.”
Habib was elected Chairperson of the organisation in July 2014, a term which runs to the end of December 2015. At Universities South Africa’s Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday this week, he was re-elected by the full Board of Directors to sit for another term ending 31 December 2017.
This continuity is vital for the organisation to pursue its advocacy and transformation agenda.
“In previous epochs I think we tended to play to the lowest common denominator. I think there is a desire to understand what is required by the sector, and then to provide and marshall leadership for all the individual institutions so that we can collectively focus on our agendas,” he says.
“There is going to be a much more active effort to engage other stakeholders — whether corporates or government — to say this is the kind of relationship we want to structure with you to maximise the output so you benefit from it.”
Habib foresees Universities South Africa playing a far more active lobbying role, which has always been part of its mandate, but lacking in certain respects. Lobbying, advocating and providing collective leadership will be far more significant than previously, to be more authoritative and representative of higher education in the country.
“It is going to play a leadership role of bringing us all as institutions together to achieve collective goals,” he says.
These goals have been set out in HESA’s 2015-2019 strategic framework, which will be pursued under the banner of Universities South Africa.
The goals include advocacy around policies to continue to develop and strengthen universities, including teaching and learning, research and community engagement to support institutions to perform effectively. In addition, the body will provide value-adding services to members aimed at sustainability, best practices and universities’ internationalisation.
These goals all form part of the organisation’s over-arching objective of strengthening collaboration with stakeholders such as government, Parliament, business, the science community and international partners.
“My agenda over the past 18 months has been to move out of crafting consensus around the lowest common denominator to actually playing an advocacy role. [We have needed to] start thinking more imaginatively about our collective challenges and to then imagine the potential or possibility around addressing those challenges,” says Habib.
Some of these solutions involve better engagement with Parliament and the government around transformation, as well as other stakeholders, such as the corporate sector on research. He terms this priority as the need to establish a “social pact” between all these stakeholders to craft a consensual agenda that is ambitious rather than satisfying the lowest common denominator.
Over the years, HESA showed the role it could play in influencing government policy that affected the country’s higher education sector. This was most ably demonstrated when it opposed certain propositions in the Higher Education Laws Amendment Act of 2011 that threatened to reduce the independence of universities.
It has also successfully lobbied for increased government funding, resulting in the injection of massive funding towards infrastructure improvement at historically disadvantaged institutions.
Funding remains a burning issue for the country’s universities. This relates to the direct funding they receive from the government and the allocation to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. Despite funding increasing over the years, it is still considered insufficient to address the higher education sector’s need to drive transformation and provide equal opportunities for access to a proper education.
Transformation is a major issue that Habib and his colleagues continue to grapple with. This relates to improving access for students from poor backgrounds and particularly to the promotion and employment of black teaching staff.
“Transformation is definitely on the cards,” he says. “In transformation there are commonalities, but there are institutional flavours to it. So in Stellenbosch it’s about black students getting access; at Wits its no longer about that, but what it is about is naming, institutional culture, curriculum reform and it’s about the professoriate.
“But there are also commonalities between various institutions. All of us suffer from appropriate appointments at the professoriate level. So transformation is a big item on the agenda.”
While the transformation from HESA to Universities South Africa continues, the organisation is also seeing changes in its leadership structures.
Dr Jeffrey Mabelebele vacated his position as chief executive of HESA in June this year to work at the University of Limpopo. His position has been advertised and an interim structure is in place to tide the organisation over while a replacement is sought. Habib says the ideal candidate would be someone with vice-chancellor experience, so as to be a “first among equals”.
“For a long time, HESA was debilitated by sectoral interests and institutional ambitions, and that is a challenge. This is why we have asked for someone from the leadership layer who is capable of understanding universities and is able to craft a collective consensus.”
He is under no illusion that a simple name change of the organisation will magically overcome the many challenges still facing South Africa’s higher education sector, but has faith that putting the right building blocks in place will achieve the desired results.
The sector clearly has a number of critical issues to deal with, which Universities South Africa’s strategic framework is well equipped to address. However, the continued pursuit of the goals and action points is going to require concerted and collective action.
Habib is comfortable that this can be achieved and that the strategic direction and the renewed vigour evident in Universities South Africa will go a long way to realising its vision of a transformed, representative and equal opportunity higher education sector.