TRANSFORMATION MODEL IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Differentiation The ART of Developing Achievers Build lasting relationships to reduce dropout rates and increase students’ performance.
For more than 13 years, Argo has published multi-media solutions to build lasting relationships, improve achievement and support achievers to reach their full potential. Our range offers leading institutions the opportunity to attract and retain the right students, and also transform their behaviour to perform at their best.
ATTRACT
Attract the right students to the right courses by providing teachers and bright learners with the right support and advice when they need it most.
SASTUDY.CO.ZA
The sastudy website is for students that want to make the most of their student life. It is South Africa’s most comprehensive database of all undergraduate qualifications and guides them in making the right decisions about what to study, who to contact, where to stay and what’s needed for a successful student life.
RETAIN Issue 2 2011 LINK UP
Learn how to apply online for varsity and college.
Get up close and personal – help them make the right career and lifestyle choices and promote effective time management.
ACE MATRIC GUIDE THE ART OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP
7 Business success tips to help your company grow.
HOW AM I GOING
TO PAY? Find out about available student loans and bursaries.
SA’S COOLEST CAREER GUIDE From Doctors to Dentists - we cover them all!
> BE NICE AND SHARE! PLEASE LEAVE THIS COPY IN YOUR CLASSROOM
The ACE Matric guide aims to become the all-in-one source of information for topics matrics can relate to. These include all the information they need to know about Universities, Universities of Technologies and FET Colleges. It also offers information on bursaries, student loans, and learnership options. Suitable careers and Gap Year opportunities are also be featured.
TRANSFORM
Build and sustain relationships with your students by helping them to manage their time effectively.
Q-ONE STUDENT DIARY
The diary is distributed to over 145 000 students in South Africa. The diary provides students and young working adults with a simple and effective system to develop practical habits for achievement. Some of the biggest tertiary institutions in South Africa have been using the diary religiously for almost 12 years.
For more information about Argo and our range of multi-media solutions, please visit our website or contact us directly. +27 (0)21 865 2813 |
info@argo.org.za |
www.argo.org.za
The differentiation debate in the univer- sity sub-system has not been concluded. Universities are currently differentiated by an uneasy resolution of institutional type, but a more profound differentiation is the ongoing legacy of differential resource al- locations under apartheid. This legacy re- mains a differentiation by effectiveness, by geographical location, by research output, by the number of academic staff with doc- torates, by student success, by leadership capacity of institutions and by differentiated market capacity to select more high-per- forming students.
Knowledge production and relevance
Universities are the primary loci of knowledge production and the reproduction of knowl- edge for the country. If we are to build aca- demic capacity for the future, the system must focus on high-quality graduate training and deepen post-graduate studies and research.
Access
Whatever the model’s size and shape that determines access to universities, it is clear that we will need additional capacity over the next 20 to 30 years. If we are to achieve a 50% participation rate in universities and colleges with a growing number of young people in the 18–to-25 year age group, and achieve the goals of broader geographic ac- cess, the capacity of the system will have to increase. No new universities have been es- tablished since the advent of our democrat- ic South Africa. Looking to the future, the questions do need to be asked: How do our HRDSA projections, on the basis of long- term development planning, guide the pro- gramme and qualification mix needs across the sector relative to current capacity?
FET COLLEGE SPECIFIC CHALLENGES
The FET colleges’ sub-system is poised to be a significant locus of delivery of vocational and continuing education and training with strong links to industry, in order to meet crit- ical skill shortages. It is also the sub-system that is the most fragile in the complex and
incomplete transitions it has experienced in recent years, and in its new location in the post-school education and training system.
The multiple roles and challenges will have to be carefully developed with active stake- holder engagement and with strong sup- port mechanisms to assist the subsystem to meet these multiple roles in the context of current challenges, which include:
Identity of the sector
FET colleges went through major changes over the past two decades, and their shift- ing identity has left them opaque in the understanding and, therefore, in the aspira- tions of many families. Their names were changed through processes of amalgama- tion and their qualification structures were changed. These identity changes present a ‘branding’ challenge, as government seeks to promote the vocational colleges as ‘in- stitutions of choice’.
Governance transitions
The governance transition in FET colleges has happened at two levels, and the transi- tion is not complete as yet. At institutional level, in order to create greater institutional responsiveness and flexibility, college coun- cils were made employers of teaching staff. At system level, it is the intention that col- leges should become part of the national post-school education and training system and be governed and funded nationally.
Funding framework transitions
The National Plan for FET Colleges was fol- lowed by the introduction of programme- based funding, geared for the NCV. The policy goal of a mix of programme offerings requires complementary funding, but the mechanisms by which this diversity of offer- ings is to be achieved is not well developed.
Poor coordination and management infor- mation
A national efficient and effective adminis- trative and planning system must be put in place to support colleges as part of an integrated higher education and training
system. A national FETMIS system is in the process of being developed and will be ex- tended to the sector by 2011/12.
Relevance, responsiveness and quality of curricula
The National Certificate (Vocational) at Levels 2, 3 and 4 of the NQF, was put into place to solve the problems of poor qual- ity programmes, the lack of relevance to the economy, as well as the low technical and cognitive skills of FET graduates. This programme does not meet all the needs of the vocational programmes, and does not enjoy universal support in the industry.
Content and pedagogical knowledge of FET lecturers
Curriculum reforms must be grounded in the expertise of teaching staff. Both the content and pedagogical knowledge of FET lecturers have, in general, not kept pace with curriculum changes and developments in industry.
Poor success and completion rates
Success and completion rates are inad- equately understood, but are generally accepted as poor. An urgent project to analyse these and to establish baselines, differentiated across subject areas and lo- calities, as well as the development of in- tervention mechanisms will be undertaken.
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT SPECIFIC CHALLENGES
The overall goal of the skills development system is to contribute to the development of ‘decent work’, as articulated by the In- ternational Labour Organisation (ILO), by effectively connecting education to tech- nical training, to labour market entry, to the workplace, and to lifelong learning. It is these linkages that sustain productivity. It is these linkages that we believe will be facilitated by the location of skills legislation at the DHET. Before 2020, our integrated skills development must have made demon- strable and significant progress towards:
www.ed.org.za
CHAPTER 10 | HIGHER EDUCATION
183
BE THE BEST THAT
YOU CAN BE AND ACE YOUR SCHOOL CAREER!
SPECIAL FOCUS
ACHIEVERS
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