The politics of mergers in higher education in South Africa

Abstract

How do political forces come together to influence merger forms and outcomes? This question is posed in a context of an analysis of the forms and outcomes of three ''case studies'' of mergers that took place in South Africa in the past decade. The theoretical stance, borne out by the data under review, places political actors at the centre of the explanation for change and continuity in the merger of institutions. While there are clearly broad lessons that could apply in other national contexts, the paper recognises that the fact that most published studies on mergers originate in established economies like those of Norway, Australia, England, the USA. The paper poses the question, therefore: do mergers follow different processes and deliver different outcomes in the social, economic and political contexts of third world institutions?

The fourth and fifth generations of African scholars: A South African case study

“…The post 1994-transformation imperatives forced institutions of higher learning into a long and often problematic process of transformation. The transformation included the breaking down of academic enclaves by merging, in most cases, institutions of divergent historical and ideological backgrounds (Badat 1994(Badat , 2007Jansen 2004;Sehoole 2005). Significantly, the class of 1976, which, in the main, espoused the Black Consciousness Movement philosophy and arguably was responsible for the socalled Soweto Uprising, today represented by, among others, Professors Barney Pityana, Mamphele Ramphela, Njabulo Simakahle Ndebele, Muxe Nkondo and Sathasivian "Saths" Cooper, went on to become the first generation of 'black Vice Chancellors' in the reconfigured South African universities landscape.…”

Academic freedom in international higher education: right or responsibility?

“…The authors make the point that, just because there were no official cases of lesbian and gay academics being denied the right to investigate 'queer' issues in 1950s America, that doesn't mean that rights weren't being institutionally infringed upon through enforced silence. To say that academic freedom was not denied black members of university faculty in apartheid South Africa would be an equally specious argument, given their lack of representation within the academy (Sehoole, 2005). Rule (2006) has also described the "historically white" institutions of pre-1980s South Africa as "monologic" precisely because they did not "recognise the otherness of the students and [imposed] unfamiliar and administrative and academic discourses upon them" (p.84).…”

Restructuring And Mergers Of The South African Post-Apartheid Tertiary System (1994-2011): A Critical Analysis

“…Various challenges are associated with restructuring and include access, diversity, equity and equality (Le Grange, 2011). The origins, forms, and outcomes of restructuring are conditioned by, and contingent on, the specific forms of interaction between institutional micro-politics and governmental macro-politics, especially in turbulent or transitional contexts (Sehoole, 2005). The higher education system inherited by the first democratically elected South African government in 1994 was characterised by multiple divisions.…”

“…In the South African context one of the major stumbling blocks to successful mergers in higher education is the fraught historical-political aspect. Besides being politically motivated, there was also another motivation for the restructuring of institutions and that was the need to incorporate the South African higher education system within fast-changing, technology-driven and information-based economies described under the rubric of globalization (Sehoole, 2005;Jansen, 2001). An amount of R3 billion was therefore budgeted to support the restructuring process and by 2009, all these funds had been used as intended (Qhobela, 2009).…”

“…Whereas the latter focus almost exclusively on enhancing business and financial outcomes, mergers in public higher education happen in the realm of public opinion and necessitate extensive consultation with a myriad of stakeholders and opinion leaders (Tyobeke & Schoeman, 2007). (Sehoole, 2005). This perspective indicates that uniform outcomes are predicted for mergers based on some predetermined list of "ingredients" for merger success (Goedegebuure, 1992).…”