What lies ahead for HE?
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 29 Jan, 2009Bizcommunity.com have been running a series of articles looking at trends in 2009. This one deals with Higher Education, with a link to the international educational trends from UNESCO.
Africa's Science Decline: Challenge of Building Scientific Institutions"
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 22 Dec, 2008Spotted on the Harvard International Review website:
An article by Johan Mouton: Africa's Science Decline: The Challenge of Building Scientific Institutions in Global Education, Vol. 30 (3) - Fall 2008 Issue
"The central role of the modern research university within the knowledge
economy is now generally appreciated. Although it is recognized that
knowledge is also produced outside the university, there is—if
anything—greater appreciation today of the critical role and function
of the university in the production of scientific knowledge. There is
every indication that the central role of the university in modern day
knowledge economies will only increase as the economy and society
become even more reliant on knowledge.
Vice-Chancellors' exorbitant salaries crackdown
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 5 Nov, 2008Story in the Mail & Guardian
Education Minister Naledi Pandor is to crack
down on exorbitant salaries earned by vice-chancellors after they
failed to regulate themselves.
Pandor announced this to the Mail & Guardian
after her department released a shocking breakdown of salaries earned
by vice-chancellors at South Africa's 23 public universities, which
totalled more than R40-million last year.
The data shows that some under-performing
institutions, which rely heavily on state subsidies, pay more than
those that rely on external funding and are top research producers.
Top of the pile is the Mangosuthu University of Technology's (MUT)
suspended vice-chancellor, Aaron Ndlovu, who received a R3,68-million
package last year - making him South Africa's highest-paid civil
servant. Pandor earns R1,6-million.
Runner-up is Ihron Rensburg of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) with
R2,77-million, followed by Unisa's Barney Pityana (R2,63-million), the
University of KwaZulu-Natal's Malegapuru Makgoba (R2,3-million) and
Errol Tyobeka of Tshwane University of Technology (R1,93-million).
Read the rest of the story here
8th Regional Education Students' Research Conference @ UCT
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 23 Sep, 2008The 8th Regional Education Students' Research Conference, co-ordinated by the School of Education at UCT, and arranged by the 2008 Organising Committee. Over 120 B.Ed, Honours, Masters, Doctoral and post-doctoral students from UCT, US, UWC and CPUT will present their current research projects to each other.
When: Friday 3rd October and Saturday 4th October 2008
Where: Graduate School of Humanities, UCT
Registration: R50-00
For more information: email researchevent@gmail.com
Articles on Higher Education in S/Times
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 22 Sep, 2008Two articles related to Higher Education spotted in the Sunday Times (21 September 2008)
The first article, headlined "Universities must earn their funding", written by Adam Habib says the formula for awarding money for research ought to encourage intervarsity competition. Read the rest of the article here.
The second article is an opinion piece by Solani Ngobeni (academic book publisher and 2007 South African finalist in the International Young Publisher of the Year Award) says while some top black academics publish ground-breaking studies, many PhDs can’t even construct a sentence, writes Solani Ngobeni
Trial Access to OECDSource (especially for Education)
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 18 Sep, 2008UCT has trial access to SourceOECD,
the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development's online portal for
their online journals, books, reports and statistical databases, until 16
October 2008. There is a link to the database on the Trials web page at
" SourceOECD is the online portal to
all the OECD’s books, periodicals, statistics and databases. It comprises of
thematic book collections, periodicals, reference titles, OECD statistical
databases and International Energy Agency (IEA) statistical databases – all in
full text. An interesting page to visit is the Hot Topics page to see OECD
documents, key reports, multimedia and articles from the world's media on key
global issues such as Development and Africa and Agriculture and Biofuels. "
Some of the titles which you have access to in terms of this trial, (fulltext, pdfs) include:-
* Reviews of National Policies for Education, South Africa (print copy on order)
* Trends Shaping Education 2008 (print copy on order)
* Education at a glance 2008: OECD Indicators (print copy on order)
as well as various publications on PISA
Please let Caroline Dean have feedback and
recommendations (caroline.dean at uct.ac.za)
Not Enough Lecturers and Resources for Engineering and Architecture
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 11 Aug, 2008Story on IOL: Departments of engineering and architecture at universities and technikons across the country are running into trouble as they face a serious shortage of lecturers and resources. Tight budgets, dwindling lecturers, swelling student numbers, a lack of resources and a struggle to fill posts because of poor salaries are the main problems.
Research Universities unhappy
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 16 Jul, 2008Mail and Guardian carries a story about top research universities' unhappiness with the Education Department's allocation this year of research development grants to several universities which did not meet their research targets in 2006.
The story refers to a paper in the South African Journal of Science, written by Professor Kit Vaughan, deputy dean of research at the University of Cape Town's (UCT) faculty of health sciences.
HESA Presentation to Education Portfolio Committee
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 27 Jun, 2008Higher Education SA (HESA) chair, Theuns Eloff, addressed the Education Portfolio Committee during this week. The story on News24 highlighted the high drop-out rate, the poor preparedness of some students especially the poor reading and writing skills. Here is a link to the presentation itself, and as well as the minutes from the Parliamentary Monitoring Group.
UNESCO Portal for Higher Education Institutions
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 13 Jun, 2008
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization has launched a new Portal for Higher Education Institutions. The portal offers access to on-line information on higher education
institutions recognized or otherwise sanctioned by competent
authorities in participating countries, including Argentina, Australia,
Canada, China, Egypt, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Norway,
United Kingdom, and the United States of America. In the next stage of
the project, the number of countries covered will be expanded.
Do we need a four year degree?
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 19 May, 2008Mail and Guardian reports that the Education minister Naledi Pandor has asked her advisory body, the Council on Higher Education, to look into the viability of a four-year undergraduate degree as a response to South Africa's 50% university drop-out rate.
She is quoted saying "Do we limit a science student to just science courses or do we include literature? Should we have modules on African studies and developmental studies and courses in statistical numeracy? How do we modernise the programme?"
Higher Education students must develop solutions for the poor - Western Cape MEC for Education
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 24 Apr, 2008Last night (23rd April 2008) MEC Cameron Dugmore addressed a Student Assembly convened by the SA Student Congress (SASCO) on our campus.
Quoting from the Media Statement:
Higher Education should not only produce graduates in commerce, science
and technology who are technically skilled, but are also conscious of
their potential to develop solutions, which will ultimately benefit the
poor and marginalized, says Western Cape Education MEC Cameron Dugmore.
He was addressing a Student Assembly convened by the SA Student
Congress (Sasco) on the UCT campus on Wednesday evening (23 April 2008).
The students wanted to hear the MEC’s views on progress on higher
education transformation in the Western Cape, backlogs, and the role of
government in tackling transformational issues, such as racism.
Said MEC Dugmore: “We need students across all disciplines who are
both internationally competitive and committed to contributing to peace
and development of our continent. They also need to be critical young
people, confident to challenge prevailing wisdoms at all levels of our
society.
“We need to locate the debate on higher education transformation
within the context of our commitment to a developmental state and its
ability to ensure that institutions funded and supported by the state,
contribute to our goal of creating a united, democratic, non-racial,
non-sexist South Africa.
“While a developmental state seeks to intervene to ensure accelerated
and shared growth, it is also focused primarily on meeting social needs,
building social cohesion by promoting the values of a caring society and
also ensuring that our people enjoy safety and security in their homes,
communities and places of learning.
“I am not suggesting that higher education simply becomes an
extension of the democratic state but I believe it is critical that our
universities are continually reminded of our national priorities and
challenged to contribute to the resolution of these challenges in our
teaching, our research and the work done in the communities that we
serve.
“I believe that the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the
Western Cape Provincial Government and the Vice-Chancellors of the four
Higher Education institutions in the Western Cape is an example of how
the state and higher education can work together to realize, in this
case, our provincial growth and development strategy, Ikapa Elihlumayo
and the Home for All vision for the province.”
He appealed to the students at higher education to focus on:
- support to students, which will ensure better throughput
- a critical focus on curriculum issues by actively participating in
student councils at faculty boards
- challenging the university in regard to extension work in communities
and the allocations of university budgets for this work
- vocal support of attempts by government to introduce community
service for students
- strengthening student organization and the reproduction of student
leaders who will remain committed to transformation beyond landing their
first corporate or government job
- getting involved in community work and projects such as the bra wam
/ sis wam mentorship projects and also tutoring programmes of
organizations like Shawco and SASCO
For full text of speech, visit www.capegateway.gov.za/education.
Intute Education Gateway access to free resources on the web
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 12 Sep, 2007Intute provides access to quality internet resources for Education.
There are links to the following categories:-
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African Higher Education Research Online: AHERO
Posted by Ingrid Thomson | 11 Jun, 2007African Higher Education Research Online: AHERO
AHERO is an open access archive of texts that focus on the study, practice and governance of higher education in Africa. It is a project of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (Education Faculty, University of the Western Cape, South Africa)
The collection includes research reports, journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, working papers, booklets, and policy documents. All the resources have been submitted by the authors and are reproduced with their permission.
Found on the Internet Resources Newsletter