scholarly journals A social contract between the public higher education sector and the people of South Africa

Author(s):  
AC Bawa
2021 ◽  
pp. 097340822110626
Author(s):  
Elena Madeo

This article aims to understand how the public higher education sector is dealing with new challenges, like sustainability in services provision and delivery, which means to fulfil all the functions of a university. In order to fulfil their mission and be sustainable, the public higher education sector should start an innovation process, through which they can improve their resilience to socio-economic changes. Obviously, this involves new conditions in terms of service production, which can turn into co-production, collaboration within and outside the university’s organizational borders, and, eventually, partnerships with other organizations. This research studies in deep all these topics by investigating the case study of an Italian university, which has developed its own crowdfunding platform in order to sustain its functions. The results show some of the changes within the public universities’ fundraising culture. Moreover, though the results relate to the context of analysis, it would be interesting to develop this study by comparing public universities located in different countries.


Author(s):  
Whitfield Green

The study reported in this paper investigated foundation phase teacher provision by the public universities in South Africa, with a view to carefully and accurately determine the extent to which foundation phase teacher provision matched national as well as provincial needs. The study draws on data obtained through a survey of teacher provision at the public higher education institutions (HEIs), conducted by the national Department of Education (DoE) in 2009, as well as from data relating to teacher education qualifications and programmes in the Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS).The study confirmed perceptions that the number of new foundation phase teachers being produced by the public higher education institutions (HEIs) falls short of national and provincial needs, and that the provision of African language foundation phase teachers is particularly problematic, especially in the context of mother-tongue instruction in the early years.


Author(s):  
Eugenia Harja

The public university education in Bacau, represented by “Vasile Alecsandri” University from Bacau has developed over the past two years not only in terms of student numbers, but as human and material resources available to them. After the number of students per teacher, public higher education from Bacau is situated on the second place after Iasi, the number of teachers representing 1% of the country. The structure by scientific degrees of teachers has improved in the last year, reaching over 36% professors and lecturers and 144 PhDs. Over 55% of the teachers are younger than 40 years. The material basis has improved both quantitatively and qualitatively by putting into use a new building, bringing an additional 27 classrooms and 11 seminar rooms and providing the conditions of modern higher education.


Author(s):  
HYUNJU PARK ◽  
Qiong Zhu

Using The Public Higher Education Boards Database designed by Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB) in 2008, this paper reviewed prior studies of governing boards and investigated regional differences of boards' characteristics including board type, selection method, board composition, provision condition, term length, supervision, and meeting frequency. The results show tha: (1) highly centralized state university governance with more political control exist in West and Middle West; (2) governing boards in Northeast are more autonomous with high percentage of alumni and self-perpetuating members and less political affiliations; (3) more faculty participations appear in South and West, and most Middle West boards do not have removal process and longer length of term.


Author(s):  
Marianne Robin Russo ◽  
Kristin Brittain

Reasons for public education are many; however, to crystalize and synthesize this, quite simply, public education is for the public good. The goal, or mission, of public education is to offer truth and enlightenment for students, including adult learners. Public education in the United States has undergone many changes over the course of the last 200 years, and now public education is under scrutiny and is facing a continual lack of funding from the states. It is due to these issues that public higher education is encouraging participatory corporate partnerships, or neo-partnerships, that will fund the university, but may expect a return on investment for private shareholders, or an expectation that curriculum will be contrived and controlled by the neo-partnerships. A theoretical framework of an academic mission and a business mission is explained, the impact of privatization within the K-12 model on public higher education, the comparison of traditional and neo-partnerships, the shift in public higher education towards privatization, a discussion of university boards, and the business model as the new frame for a public university. A public university will inevitably have to choose between a traditional academic mission that has served the nation for quite some time and the new business mission, which may have negative implications for students, academic freedom, tenure, and faculty-developed curriculum.


Author(s):  
Raquel M. Rall ◽  
Demetri L. Morgan ◽  
Felecia Commodore

Given the juxtaposition of student demographic shifts in public higher education with the near stagnancy of postsecondary leadership demographics, this chapter illuminates and critiques scholarship at the intersection of equity and academic governance, specifically focused on boards of higher education. Implications, grounded in a comprehensive literature review, frame a new conceptually focused research agenda concerned with (1) challenging homogeneity and hegemony that slow institutional change efforts, (2) pushing for a board representative of and accountable to the public, and (3) extending the research, knowledge, and conversation centered on higher education boards in general and diversity of boards in particular. The chapter per the authors first highlights the prominence of higher education governing boards then shifts to a critique of how governance has traditionally been researched. Afterward, the authors discuss why a concentrated look at issues of diversity and equity within the governance context is of paramount importance.


Author(s):  
Chika Sehoole

This article makes case of how South Africa has been able to use its laws and policies to achieve its objectives of regulating private higher education. This happened in the context of an ascendancy of neo-liberal policies which favoured deregulation and the rolling back of the state. Through these policies the government was able to protect the public even during the global financial crisis as it had registered credible and financially sound institutions which could weather off the financial crises which affected many private companies worldwide.


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