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South Africa

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Partners situated in South Africa

None. On the International Advisory Committee we have Herman J. van der Merwe.

South Africa in a nutshell

Map of South Africa

The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. South Africa's coast borders both the Atlantic and Indian oceans. To the north of South Africa lie Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Swaziland, while the Kingdom of Lesotho is an independent enclave surrounded by South African territory.

South Africa is known for its diversity, and eleven official languages are recognised in its constitution.[6] English is the most commonly spoken language in official and commercial public life, however it is only the fifth most spoken home language.

South Africa is ethnically diverse, with the largest Caucasian, Indian, and racially mixed communities in Africa. Although 79.6% of South Africa's population is Black, this category is neither culturally nor linguistically homogenous, as they speak a number of different Bantu languages, nine of which have official status.

Midyear 2007, South Africa's population was estimated at 47.9 million. This makes it quite large compared with the typical European country.

(Above section adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa)


Apartheid

It is important to mention the historical battle of South Africa regarding Apartheid, a government-enforced system of racial segregation, which had an immense limiting impact on the everyday life, living areas, job opportunities and education of blacks in South Africa. The Apartheid lasted from 1948 to 1994, after which the educational system was revised to improve racial diversity in education.

Document of relevance: Wikipedia entry on Apartheid


South Africa education policy

  • The Bill of Rights, contained in the Constitution, 1996, stipulates that everyone has the right to a basic education, including adult basic education and further education, which the State, through reasonable measures, must progressively make available and accessible.
  • Formal education in South Africa is categorised according to three levels – General Education and Training (GET), Further Education and Training (FET) and Higher Education (HE).
  • By mid-2007, the South African public-education system had 12,3 million learners, 387 000 educators, 26 592 schools, 2 278 Abet centres, 50 public FET institutions, 4 800 Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres and 23 HE institutions.

Source: South African Government Information - Education Policy (web page)


The government puts its focus on equity, quality of teaching and learning and literacy. As the Department of Education states on its site: "Our vision is of a South Africa in which all our people have access to lifelong education and training opportunities, which will in turn contribute towards improving the quality of life and building a peaceful, prosperous and democratic society. " and part of its mission is "Creating a vibrant further education and training system to equip youth and adults to meet the social and economic needs of the 21st century."


South Africa education system

The Constitution has vested substantial power in the provincial legislatures and governments to run educational affairs (other than universities and universities of technology), subject to a national policy framework. The national Department of Education is responsible for formulating policy, setting norms and standards, and monitoring and evaluating all levels of education. It also funds HE institutions through subsidies and by providing financial support to students through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

Source: South African Government Information - National and Provincial Departments Formal education in South Africa is categorised according to three levels – General Education and Training (GET), Further Education and Training (FET) and Higher Education (HE).

The GET band consists of the Reception Year (Grade R) and learners up to Grade 9, as well as an equivalent Adult Basic Education and Training (Abet) qualification. The FET band consists of grades 10 to 12 in schools and all education and training from the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) levels 2 to 4 (equivalent to grades 10 to 12 in schools), and the N1 to N6 in FET colleges. The HE band consists of a range of degrees, diplomas and certificates up to and including postdoctoral degrees.

The final exams of high school, are administered by the government and are called "matric exams", so students in the final year of high school (grade 12) are known as "matrics" and if they pass these exams they are called matriculants or it's said that they "matriculated".


Sources:

Higher education

The Wikipedia List of universities in South Africa is informative at a general level as well as for details. It also provides comprehensive listings of the many other providers both domestic and foreign.

In 2004 South Africa started reforming its higher education system, merging and incorporating small universities into larger institutions, and renaming all higher education institutions "university" (previously there had been several types of higher education institution).

More information under the section on Higher education reform

There are also a large number of other educational institutions in South Africa - some are local campuses of foreign universities, some conduct classes for students who write their exams at the distance-education University of South Africa and some offer unaccredited or non-accredited diplomas.

Public universities in South Africa are divided into three types: traditional universities, which offer theoretically-oriented university degrees; universities of technology, which offer practically-oriented diplomas and degrees in technical fields; and comprehensive universities, which offer a combination of both types of qualification.


Universities in South Africa

In this section we discuss the traditional universities and the comprehensive universities only.


Traditional universities

There are 11 of these:

  1. University of Cape Town (UCT), (Cape Town)
  2. University of Fort Hare (UFH), (Alice), (East London)
  3. University of the Free State (UOVS), (Bloemfontein)
  4. University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), (Durban, Pietermaritzburg, Pinetown, Westville)
  5. University of Limpopo, (Polokwane, Ga-Rankuwa)
  6. North-West University (NWU), (Mafikeng, Mankwe, Potchefstroom, Vanderbijlpark)
  7. University of Pretoria (UP), (Pretoria)
  8. Rhodes University (RU), (Grahamstown)
  9. University of Stellenbosch (SUN), (Stellenbosch)
  10. University of the Western Cape (UWC), (Cape Town)
  11. University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), (Johannesburg)


Comprehensive universities

There are 5 of these:

  1. University of Johannesburg (UJ), (Johannesburg)
  2. Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), (Port Elizabeth)
  3. University of South Africa (UNISA), (Pretoria - Distance Education)
  4. University of Venda (Univen), (Thohoyandou)
  5. Walter Sisulu University for Technology and Science (WSU), (Buffalo City, Butterworth, Mthatha, Queenstown)
  6. University of Zululand (Unizulu), (Empangeni)

Polytechnics in South Africa

There are 6 universities of technology (older term was Technikon)

  1. Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), (Bellville, Cape Town)
  2. Central University of Technology (CUT), (Bloemfontein, Welkom)
  3. Durban University of Technology (DUT), (Durban, Pietermaritzburg)
  4. Mangosuthu Technikon (MANTEC), (Durban)
  5. Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) (Pretoria)
  6. Vaal University of Technology (VUT), (Vanderbijlpark)

Other providers

Notable provider: CIDA Foundation UK is a university that enables previously disadvantaged learners from taking up Higher Education. It depends on funding and sponsoring from companies and individuals and demands from its students that they go to their own communities and educate their peers. [..] The students to fully appreciate their education they all contribute financially towards tuition: £31 in total for year one, and £13 per month in years two to four. This is 6% of the cost of attending other universities in South Africa. [..] Students also help to run the campus by dedicating a minimum of five hours of their time each week. At the end of the course, rather than paying back a loan, students are encouraged to "pay it forward" by committing to funding another student from their hometown after they graduate and become employed.

Source: CIDA - About Us - Fees (web page)

Higher education reform / The New Institutional Landscape

History

In 2004 South Africa started reforming its higher education system, merging and incorporating small universities into larger institutions, and renaming all higher education institutions "university" (previously there had been several types of higher education institution). The country's universities and technikons which were incorporated with others and thus no longer exist are listed at the end of the Wikipedia article List of universities in South Africa.


This major change started in 2001, for which the scenarios for each HE institution was stipulated in the following publication from which this quote is taken:

"[..] the apartheid legacy continues to burden the higher education system, which not only remains fragmented on race lines, but has been unable to rise fully to meet the challenges of reconstruction and development. The new institutional landscape proposed in this report, which has been approved by Cabinet, provides the foundation for establishing a higher education system that is consistent with the vision, values and principles of non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society and which is responsive and contributes to the human resource and knowledge needs of South Africa. [...] The new institutional landscape proposed is the culmination of a wide-ranging consultative process on the restructuring of the higher education system that began in the early 1990s."

Source: Transformation and Restructuring: A New Institutional Landscape for Higher Education, Ministry of Education, 2002 (PDF - 40 pages)


Results

The Ministry’s proposals would result in 23 higher education institutions and two National Institutes for Higher Education (outlined in Appendix 1), consisting of 11 Universities, 6 Technikons, 4 Comprehensive Institutions and 2 National Institutes for Higher Education.

Source: Transformation and Restructuring: A New Institutional Landscape for Higher Education, Ministry of Education, 2002 (PDF - 40 pages).


This no doubtingly was a meticulous merge for the affected institutes as the *Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) carefully states on her site about its own merge: “This union of three very different institutions came about as a result of government’s countrywide restructuring of higher education – intended to deliver a more equitable and efficient system to meet the needs of South Africa in the 21st century.”

Source: NMMU's History web page


The Further Education & Training (FET) institutions were affected by this restructuring as well as they were reduced from 152 to 50 institutions.

Source: South African Government - Information about Education:

Documents of relevance:


Administration and finance

Government funding to institutions

"South Africa has one of the highest rates of government investment in education in the world. Education was allocated R105,5 billion in 2007/08."

Source: South African Government Information - “About Education” web page

Government bursaries for students

"In 2007/08, government allocated R1,8 billion to FET colleges. Over 25 000 students registered in newly developed technical and service skills-related programmes. Some R600 million was provided for bursaries to FET college students."

The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is responsible for, among other matters, allocating loans and bursaries to eligible students in public HE.

Source: South African Government Information - “About Education” web page

Quality assurance

The South African Council on Higher Education (CHE) is an independent statutory body responsible for advising the Minister of Education on all matters related to higher education policy issues, and for quality assurance in higher education and training. Its statutory responsibility for the promotion and assurance of quality in higher education is carried out by one permanent sub-committee, the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC).

The Higher Education Act of 1997 (reference: Higher Education Act 101 of 1997) states that the functions of the HEQC are to:

  • promote quality in higher education
  • audit the quality assurance mechanisms of higher education institutions
  • accredit programmes of higher education

The HEQC is responsible for evaluating and reporting on the effectiveness of the quality management systems of higher education institutions in relation to assessment, short courses, certification arrangements, and recognition of prior learning (RPL).


Documents / web pages of relevance:

South African HEIs in the information society

Towards the information society

Documents of relevance:

Information society strategy

South African Virtual Initiatives in Higher Education

Umbrella institutions

SAKAI Project

Several South African Universities or Colleges participate in an international initiative to develop the open source collaboration and learning environment “Sakai”:


Dunia Moja: Mobile Learning

Dunia Moja, or one earth in Swahili, seeks to use “mobile technologies to connect international students and faculty to stimulate learning and debate in environmental sciences”. This innovative project, piloted in 2007, was a collaboration between Stanford University and three African academic institutions—the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, Mweka College of African Wildlife Management in Tanzania, and Makerere University in Uganda. The project used high-end PDAs to allow students to download and watch video lectures from academic staff in each of the partner universities, and contribute to the discussion and debate through mobile blogging to a central website. The course was centred around global environmental issues and their impact on the African continent and the United States, and brought local perspectives and viewpoints to bear on the course topics. Faculty and students from the four participating institutions electronically shared course materials, exchanged information, and contributed their own course content. In m-learning in developing countries, Dunia Moja is a pioneering first. As these three interventions (and there are many more out there) show, much is possible if you have higher-end devices and a fast, reliable data network at your disposal. In the land of plenty the sky really is the limit. In the land of less, however, we have fewer choices. Source: Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines, and Effective Practice from Around the Globe, by BCcampus and Commonwealth of Learning, 2008, (PDF), p.55, ISBN: 978-1-894975-29-2

Documents of relevance

List of eLearning Initiatives / Programmes

This list also includes Virtual Programmes with limited contact hours.



  • The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU): 2 Masters programmes, The Masters programme of the Department for Development Studies and the Masters Degree in Taxation are offered on a mixed mode basis of block contact sessions in combination with distance learning. The web page on the first semi-distance programme states that once per semester, students meet for two to three weeks of intensive tuition after which three months of self-study follow.


  • North-West University (NWU) is the result of a merge between University of North-West and the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education. In 2008, the NWU is the sixth largest university in the country, with approximately 52 000 students enrolled at all three campuses. Some 24 000 of these students are distance learning students.


  • Rhodes University offers a few certificates through semi-distance education (four five-day blocks of contact time per year).



  • University of Cape Town (UCT), South Africa's oldest university, enables e-learning through the online learning environment Vula and LearnOnline Self-training Courses. Vula means Open! and is a local name for SAKAI, an international open-source Learning Management System. Vula offers learning materials, to download these for printing, to participate in asynchronous bulletin board discussions, synchronous chat groups, and to do exercises and online tests from time to time. One of the flexible courses UCT offers is the Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health


  • The University of Fort Hare is a small university (approximately 5000 students) but an innovating University, which even has an SMS system to get your results or fee balance.
Together with the Eastern Cape Department of Education it created The Fort Hare Distance Education Project, a project to educate teachers in rural classrooms.
Resources:


  • The University of the Free State has a Division e-Learning: “At the UFS e-learning includes online courses, learning objects, blended learning, (which combines online resources with face-to-face interactions), performance support, knowledge management, self-assessment, communities of practice (online educational communities) and other online resources that encourage learners to assess, improve, or change their knowledge or clinical performance.” Among these things the site also lists a few resources for the educators and e-learning module makers.



  • The University of Pretoria has its own full-fledged client services centre for its students and lists its distance possibilities in this document: Distance Education 2008. Students can receive an Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE) with specialisation in Education Management or Special Needs Education and a Degree in BEd(Hons) Education Management, Law and Policy.


  • The University of South Africa (UNISA) merged with Technikon Southern Africa and incorporated the distance education component of Vista University (VUDEC) to form the new UNISA. UNISA focuses on adult education and had more than 223 000 students in 2006 and approximately 6 900 different courses. MyUNISA is its portal for student services, and SAKAI is its learning management system. It has got its own wiki page.

References

  1. Wikipedia page on South Africa
  2. South African Government - Information about Education
  3. Department of Education, Republic of South Africa
  4. Transformation and Restructuring: A New Institutional Landscape for Higher Education, Ministry of Education, 2002 (PDF - 40 pages)
  5. Council for Higher Education
  6. SouthAfrica.info - South Africa's universities web page
  7. Higher Education South Africa (HESA)
  8. South Africa & the Organisation for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD)
  9. Thutong is an educational portal, coordinated by the National Department of Education, which offers support materials and learning spaces for learners.
  10. Education in South Africa (wikipedia page)
  11. Reviews of National Policies for Education - South Africa by OECD Publishing. Also see the read-only e-book
  12. Higher Education Monitor - Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and South African Higher Education: Mapping the Landscape Research Report for the Council on Higher Education, July 2006, by Laura Czerniewicz, Neetha Ravjee, Nhlanhla Mlitwa.
  13. The Impact of South Africa’s ICT Infrastructure on Higher Education (p.69-76) (PDF), 2008, by Cheryl Brown (University of Cape Town South Africa), Herbert Thomas (University of the Free State, South Africa), Antoinette van der Merwe and Liezl van Dyk (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa). A paper presented at ICEL 2008, which is included in the Booklet with Abstracts of Papers.
  14. Landscaping Information and Communication Technologies in Higher Education in South Africa (WORD or PDF), by Cheryl Brown, Herbert Thomas, Antoinette van der Merwe, Liezl van Dyk. A paper prepared for TENET Symposium 12-14 November 2007.

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