The Council on Higher Education, the independent, statutory body that advises the minister of education on matters relating to higher education policy issues, has been struggling to find a chief executive for more than a year. This body has executive responsibility for quality assurance within higher education and training through its sub-committee.
Some universities have expressed concern about the loss of teaching time in the recent public servants’ strike in which teachers participated. They believe that if a catch-up plan is not implemented effectively, it might affect this year’s matric pass rate. There is concern that weaker matric learners who are borderline university candidates might fail the exam, resulting in a low university intake.
Some of South Africa’s universities are still struggling to fill senior management positions that have become vacant. The universities of Cape Town, Fort Hare and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University are searching for new vice-chancellors, while a few others are looking for deputy vice-chancellors.
Investigations by Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) into how a bogus diploma in traumatology was offered without it being registered with the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) are continuing. The course was cancelled after administrators discovered that it was not registered.
Eight years ago academic Dr Derrick Swartz was pondering a change in workplace scenery. The University of Fort Hare was on the verge of economic collapse: it had a R90-million student debt, while cash flow problems meant late staff salary payments. The 1999 Saunders Commission of Inquiry disclosed that management was not strong enough to steer the university on to a sustainable path.
Only four South African higher education institutions are led by whites. They are Professor Calie Pistorius (University of Pretoria), Professor Frederick Fourie (University of the Free State), Dr Theuns Eloff (North-West University) and Dr Rolf Stumpf (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University).
Professor Adam Habib, the newly appointed deputy vice-chancellor: research, innovation and advancement at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), wants the institution to join the ranks of Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town as a top research producer. He concedes that while UJ has been ”very successful and profitable at teaching” it needs to up its research output.
The best way to teach a language to children is to make it as lively and fun as possible, says Veronique Tadjo, an award-winning writer and newly appointed head of French studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Tadjo, who was born in the Ivory Coast, was awarded the Grand Prize for African Literature — 2005 for her book, Reine Pokou.
University of Fort Hare viceÂchancellor Professor Derrick Swartz has announced that he will step down from his position at the end of this year. The university council accepted his resignation a few days ago. Swartz was appointed acting vice-chancellor in 1999 and has turned the university around from the brink of financial ruin to one that has been making a surplus in the past four years.
The education department’s R5,9billion recapitalisation of the higher education sector comes in the wake of a realisation that "you cannot expect to produce students of the 21st century with 20th-century equipment," according to Dr Molapo Qhobela, deputy director general of higher education.