Nico Cloete - Böcker

The book presents the most comprehensive and most thorough study of the developments in South African higher education and research after the first democratic elections of 1994, that is of post-Apartheid South African higher education. The benefits to the reader are that he/she will get a detailed insight into the new (i.e. post-1994) South African higher education system. The large number of experienced authors and editors involved in the book guarantees that the reader will be introduced in the new SA higher education system from a large number of perspectives that are presented in a consistent and coherent way.

The book presents the most comprehensive and most thorough study of the developments in South African higher education and research after the first democratic elections of 1994, that is of post-Apartheid South African higher education. The benefits to the reader are that he/she will get a detailed insight into the new (i.e. post-1994) South African higher education system. The large number of experienced authors and editors involved in the book guarantees that the reader will be introduced in the new SA higher education system from a large number of perspectives that are presented in a consistent and coherent way.

A previous edition of Universities and Economic Development in Africa studied eight African countries and their flagship universities. In addition to minor updates, this edition includes a new section on the key findings in each of the eight countries and universities. In each case, this new section provides more detailed data and analysis which will prove invaluable for researchers and policy-makers on higher education in Africa. The eight countries included in the study are Uganda, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, South Africa, Mozambique and Tanzania.

Universities and economic development in Africa: Pact, academic core and coordination draws together evidence and synthesises the findings from eight African case studies. The three key findings presented in this report are as follows: 1. There is a lack of clarity and agreement (pact) about a development model and the role of higher education in development, at both national and institutional levels. There is, however, an increasing awareness, particularly at government level, of the importance of universities in the global context of the knowledge economy. 2. Research production at the eight African universities is not strong enough to enable them to build on their traditional undergraduate teaching roles and make a sustained contribution to development via new knowledge production. A number of universities have manageable student-staff ratios and adequately qualifi ed staff, but inadequate funds for staff to engage in research. In addition, the incentive regimes do not support knowledge production. 3.In none of the countries in the sample is there a coordinated effort between government, external stakeholders and the university to systematically strengthen the contribution that the university can make to development. While at each of the universities there are exemplary development projects that connect strongly to external stakeholders and strengthen the academic core, the challenge is how to increase the number of these projects. The project on which this report is based forms part of a larger study on Higher Education and Economic Development in Africa, undertaken by the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network in Africa (HERANA). HERANA is coordinated by the Centre for Higher Education Transformation in South Africa.

South Africa has made huge gains in ensuring universal enrolment for children at school, and in restructuring and recapitalising the FET college sector. However, some three million young people are not in education, employment or training and the country faces serious challenges in providing its youth with the pathways and support they need to transition successfully into a differentiated system of post-school education and training. Across nine evidence-based chapters, 17 authors offer a succinct overview of the different facets of post-school provision in South Africa. These include an analysis of the impact of the national qualifications system on occupational training, the impact of youth unemployment, the capacity of the post-school system to absorb larger numbers of young people, the relationship between universities and FET colleges, the need for more strategic public and private investment in skills development, and a youth perspective on education and training policy. The authors have a number of recommendations for improving the alignment between schooling, further education and training, and university education - interventions that could shape the future of our youth.

Worldwide, in Africa and in South Africa, the importance of the doctorate has increased disproportionately in relation to its share of the overall graduate output over the past decade. This heightened attention has not only been concerned with the traditional role of the PhD, namely the provision of future academics; rather, it has focused on the increasingly important role that higher education - and, particularly, high-level skills - is perceived to play in national development and the knowledge economy. This book is unique in the area of research into doctoral studies because it draws on a large number of studies conducted by the Centre of Higher Education Trust (CHET) and the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST), as well as on studies from the rest of Africa and the world. In addition to the historical studies, new quantitative and qualitative research was undertaken to produce the evidence base for the analyses presented in the book.The findings presented in Doctoral Education in South Africa pose anew at least six tough policy questions that the country has struggled with since 1994, and continues to struggle with, if it wishes to gear up the system to meet the target of 5 000 new doctorates a year by 2030. Discourses framed around the single imperatives of growth, efficiency, transformation or quality will not, however, generate the kind of policy discourses required to resolve these tough policy questions effectively. What is needed is a change in approach that accommodates multiple imperatives and allows for these to be addressed simultaneously.