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THE UWC BREAKTHROUGH AND ASCENT: FACTORS AND TRANSITIONS
Abdulrhman Ahmad Althgafei
A Dissertation
Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the degree of
SELECT ONE:
August 2022
Committee:
Christopher J. Frey, Committee Chair
Alexander Goberman, Graduate Faculty Representative
Kenneth Borland
Patrick Pauken
© 2022
Abdulrhman Ahmad Althgafei
All Rights Reserved
iii
ABSTRACT
Christopher J. Frey, Committee Chair
The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate the critical success factors
employed by the University of Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa to transform from an
apartheid-era institution to one that is globally competitive. This study analyzed the strategies
and processes that helped transform UWC, consolidating the critical success factors that non-
western universities could develop in order to achieve their goals. The study deployed an
exploratory qualitative approach based on five interviews, internal primary source materials, and
a published work in the changes at the university written by administrators and faculty at UWC,
based on a postpositivism paradigm. I interviewed five individuals who were/are a part of UWC
regarding their experiences interacting with UWC.
Five main critical success factors emerged based literature review: (1) Concentration of
Talent, (2) Resource Adequacy, (3) Appropriate Governance, (4) Alignment of Success Factors,
(5) Role of Other Factors (Leadership and Strategic Vision; Strategic Planning and Sequencing;
Pedagogy; Internationalization; and Investing in Technology). The study explained at a greater
length about the critical role of these factors in the rise of UWC.
The findings align with the three research questions that guided this study based on
participants’ experiences and perceptions and internal primary source materials Published by
administrators and faculty at UWC: (i) What are the critical success factors that transformed
UWC to improve its international standing? 1) Role of Management, 2) Changing Vision and
Core Values, 3) Support from Government, 4) Academic Improvement, 5) Research and
Innovation, 6) Community Engagement, 7) Financial resources. (ii) What administrative
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approaches and strategies did UWC implement to improve its educational quality and operational
performance? 1) Leadership and Trust at UWC, 2) Strategic Planning (iii) What resources were
developed and utilized by UWC during its period of development? 1) Training and Upskilling
Employees, 2) Organizational Culture and Values, 3) Role of Vision, 4) Administrative Staff
Expertise and Loyalty, 5) Partnerships, 6) Infrastructure, 7) Financial Resources. The study
concludes with a brief discussion about possibilities for further research.
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I dedicate this dissertation:
- To the one who is credited with every achievement I reached, my mother, May Allah Preserve
and Protect her.
- To the soul of my father, May God Almighty rest his soul in heaven with martyrs.
- To my dear wife and my children Adeeb, Aseel, and Alin, who conferred on me true love and
energized my resolve and galvanized my determination to finish my studies.
- To my brothers and sisters-and their sons and daughters for their support and heartfelt
supplications.
- To my friends everywhere.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The Ph.D. endeavor can’t be undertaken by oneself. I sincerely appreciate Allah for
giving me the ability to finish this project. Praise and Glory Be to Almighty God. God blessings
and peace are upon our Prophet Muhammad.
My advisor, Dr. Christopher J. Frey, deserves my sincere gratitude for his support and
unwavering belief in my ability to accomplish my research. I will remain grateful to you as you
put your faith in my efforts, my expertise, and myself. I will never forget Dr. Frey’s support,
which was a torch that helped me elbow my way through various stumbling blocs.
I sincerely appreciate the time and effort that Drs. Kenneth Borland, Patrick D. Pauken,
Margaret Zoller Booth, Clare Barratt, and Alexander Goberman, who make up my prestigious
doctoral committee, and have invested in this study and me. Our conversations and your remarks
have had a long-lasting influence on me as a lifelong learner and researcher. Your involvement
in this study enhances its academic and scientific value.
I want to express my gratitude to Dr. Matthew Lavery and Dr. Patrick Love for reviewing
and supporting this study, and my gratitude to all Muslim Students Association members who
make my experience in Bowling Green as a student and resident simpler by assisting me
whenever I need help. I, also, appreciate the prayers, suggestions, support and assistance from
my brothers, sisters, and friends in Bowling Green (OH) and Norfolk (VA), I will always be
appreciative of your kindness and support.
My professors and friends in K.S.A. and the U.S. (BGSU “HIED department”, ODU, and
RU) you contributed in my academic endeavor to attain my dreams, and contribute in forming
my characteristics and experiences, without you I would not have reached my current position.
vii
I was honored by assistance and sincere supplications from honest brothers (Mohammad
Mizan-Rahman, Ahmad Mehmood, Md. Rezwan Islam, Dr. Umar Islambekov, Toghrul
Alakbarov, Ehab Elmorsy, Matrf Aldossari, Dr. Shahrea Mahbub, Abdullah Alshahrani, Imad
Alnounou, and Muhammed Abubaker, Mahmud Rashed, and former presidents of MSA) who
didn't spare any efforts to stand by me whenever my efforts waned. I am grateful to Dr. Lauren
White and Zayed Althagafi, whose true love exemplifies true friendship.
Moreover, I would especially like to thank Dr. Ferid Amry, Dr. Ronday J. Uphoff, and
Dr. Umesh Bawa for providing me with the introductions and encouragement to complete this
dissertation, and to express my gratitude to the study participants, Drs. Umesh Bawa,
Abdulrazack (Razack) Karriem, Ndomelele Ludidi, and Khalida Sabi, and Ms. Lois Dippenaar,
whose contributions strengthened my arguments in this research.
Finally, I can't find the words with which to thank all those who, in a way or another,
made my dream come true, to the loving Northern Border University (NBU) staff. All the words
of thanks can't describe my feelings towards all those who strive to make the NBU a success
story. The scholarship I obtained from NBU to pursue my Ph.D. studies does exemplify the
inestimable support given by the NBU to all deserving researchers, which raises it to being a
fountain of honor for all of us.
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS Page
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1
Research Questions ....................................................................................................... 2
Impact of Racialization on Higher Education in South Africa ..................................... 3
Education in South Africa during the Post-apartheid Era ............................................. 3
Historical Background of UWC .................................................................................... 5
The Post-Apartheid Progress of UWC .......................................................................... 6
Strategic Administration after Apartheid ...................................................................... 9
Statement of the Problem ............................................................................................. 12
Significance of the Study .............................................................................................. 15
Summary ....................................................................................................................... 16
CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................. 18
Overview of Problems and Challenges in South African Higher Education ................ 18
Universities as World-Class Institutions ....................................................................... 19
Glossary ........................................................................................................................ 21
Defining/Deconstructing “World-Class” ...................................................................... 22
Critical Success Factors for a University with an International Stature ....................... 24
Concentration of Talent .................................................................................... 24
Resource Adequacy .......................................................................................... 26
Appropriate Governance ................................................................................... 28
Alignment of Success Factors ........................................................................... 31
Role of Other Factors ........................................................................................ 31
The Role of Government ...................................................................... 32
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Role of Institutions: Leadership and Strategic Vision .......................... 36
Strategic Planning and Sequencing ....................................................... 38
Pedagogy ............................................................................................... 39
Internationalization ............................................................................... 41
Investing in Technology ....................................................................... 43
World Rankings .................................................................................... 44
Summary ....................................................................................................................... 46
CHAPTER III. METHODS ...................................................................................................... 47
Research Design and Paradigm .................................................................................... 47
Rationale for a Case Study Research Design ................................................................ 49
Role of the Researcher .................................................................................................. 50
Validity Procedures ....................................................................................................... 50
Personal Interest ............................................................................................................ 54
Participant Selection ..................................................................................................... 55
Participant Recruitment ................................................................................................ 56
Instrumentation ............................................................................................................. 58
Data Collection Method ................................................................................................ 58
Printed and Published Sources ...................................................................................... 59
Data Analysis and Presentation .................................................................................... 60
Ethical Considerations .................................................................................................. 61
CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS ................................................................................................... 63
RQ 1. What Are the Critical Success Factors that Transformed UWC to Improve its
International Standing? ................................................................................................. 63
x
Role of Management ......................................................................................... 64
Changing Vision and Core Values .................................................................... 70
Support from Government ................................................................................ 73
Academic Improvement .................................................................................... 76
Research and Innovation ................................................................................... 82
Community Engagement .................................................................................. 87
Financial Resources ........................................................................................... 92
RQ 2. What Administrative Approaches and Strategies Did UWC Implement to Improve
its Educational Quality and Operational Performance? ................................................ 94
Leadership and Trust at UWC .......................................................................... 94
Strategic Planning ............................................................................................. 98
RQ 3. What Resources were Developed and Utilized by UWC during its Period of
Development? ............................................................................................................... 101
Training and Upskilling Employees ................................................................. 102
Organizational Culture and Values ................................................................... 103
Role of Vision ................................................................................................... 104
Administrative Staff Expertise and Loyalty ..................................................... 107
Partnerships ....................................................................................................... 110
Infrastructure ..................................................................................................... 114
Financial Resources .......................................................................................... 116
CHAPTER V. DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND CONCLUSION ................... 119
Addressing the Research Questions .............................................................................. 119
xi
RQ1: What are the Critical Success Factors that Transformed UWC to Improve its
International Standing? ..................................................................................... 120
RQ 2. What Administrative Approaches and Strategies did UWC Implement to
Improve its Educational Quality and Operational Performance? ..................... 124
RQ3: What Resources were Developed and Utilized by UWC during its Period of
Development? ................................................................................................... 127
Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 129
Limitations of the Study................................................................................................ 136
Recommendations for Future Research ........................................................................ 138
Summary ....................................................................................................................... 139
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................... 141
APPENDIX A. IRB ACKNOWLEDGMENT ......................................................................... 154
APPENDIX B. IRB CONSENT ............................................................................................... 155
APPENDIX C. IRB APPROVAL ............................................................................................ 158
xii
LIST OF TABLES Table Page
1 National Revenue Fund to South African Universities................................................. 13
2 Validity Procedures Within Qualitative Lens and Paradigm Assumptions .................. 51
3 The Critical Success Factors in UWC’s Ascent and Critical Factors in Existing
Literature ....................................................................................................................... 120
4 Administrative Approaches and Strategies at UWC and Critical Factors in Existing
Literature ....................................................................................................................... 124
5 Resources were Developed and Utilized by UWC and Resources were in Existing in
Literature ....................................................................................................................... 127
1
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this study was to identify and evaluate the critical success factors
employed by the University of Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa to transform from an
apartheid-era institution to one that is globally competitive. Critical success factors are high-level
goals imperative for an institution to become competitive (Osei-Kyei & Chan, 2015). They are
administrative and resource areas that must be given special attention to ensure high level
performance.
Universities are core institutions in a knowledge economy because they develop research,
professional credentials, and community service. Evaluating the quality of higher education
institutions has now become a need because of continuously higher education standards.
Therefore, this study focuses on identifying and/or establishing critical success factors that
helped the University of Western Cape to improve its global standing. Understanding the critical
success factors that led to the improvement of the UWC will be beneficial for other South
African universities (this is the primary goal but some of the findings could be beneficial to other
universities) as the UWC model could serve as a guide in improving educational quality and
standards. This study will thus analyze the strategies and processes that helped transform UWC,
consolidating the critical success factors that universities should develop in order to achieve their
goals.
Due to the colonial and apartheid structures that UWC has dealt with, their tactics are
decidedly different from other performing universities. Using UWC as an example of a non-
western model of a university, meaning that it developed in a location outside Europe, and has
historically enrolled African students, the ultimate goal of this research is to determine the
strategies, leadership, and significant factors that make it possible for any university, particularly
2
universities that struggle to achieve and maintain research and teaching quality, to determine the
criteria for success. The research aims at determining the ways in which the objective criteria for
success can be achieved on practice by the universities. In this regard, the semi-structured
interviews serve as a tool that makes it possible to understand the practical factors of university
development.
Research Questions
Based on the currently available literature on UWC and the purpose of the study, this
research was guided by the following questions:
i. What are the critical success factors that transformed UWC to improve its international
standing?
ii. What administrative approaches and strategies did UWC implement to improve its
educational quality and operational performance?
iii. What resources were developed and utilized by UWC during its period of development?
In this research I adopted a case study approach to investigate the critical factors in this
transformation of the UWC. This qualitative technique focused on an in-depth study of key
players within the institution. The researcher chose to utilize a qualitative approach, specifically
a case study, due to its ability to help researchers focus on specific issues within an organization
(Yin, 2017). Using qualitative case study techniques, the researcher conducted an in-depth
exploration of themes, meanings, and statements that are pertinent to the research endeavor. The
following section introduces the historical and institutional environment of the UWC to
contextualize and frame the study.
3
Impact of Racialization on Higher Education in South Africa
South Africa became a British colony in 1902 after the Anglo-Boer war. Long before that
South Africa had many settlements of European white origin dating back to 1652. Although
discrimination and segregation had been existing as a result of British laws earlier as well, the
apartheid era began in 1948 in an Independent South Africa under a minority white government
through various legislations and State regulations. This affected education institutions as well
profoundly, effectively segregating institutions between predominantly black and white. The
Bantu education act of 1953 segregated schools by race and the University Act of 1959 restricted
non-whites from entering open Universities (Kallaway, 2002).
The first truly democratic elections in South Africa were held in 1994 with Mandela
elected as the head of the African National Congress. Before 1994 South Africa was an apartheid
nation where a white minority enjoyed all rights while the Black majority did not have basic
political, economic and educational liberties (Rodrik, 2008). Thus, the year 1994 is very
significant in the history of South Africa and is often used as a historical marker to indicate
major socio-political shift. This had an indispensable impact on education. Although progress
has been made but there is still a long way to go. Recent data on higher education attainment
reflects the grim reality. According to world bank data, 2.183% students have Masters and
0.309% of South Africans have a doctorate.
Education in South Africa during the Post-apartheid Era
Higher education institutions in South Africa faced significant challenges during the
apartheid era due to the institutionalized racialization that perpetrated South Africa, and
continued to cause problems during and after its transition to a free and democratic country.
According to Sehoole and Adeyemo (2016), the post-apartheid government continued to be
4
characterized by unjust and unequal treatment of students along ethnic lines. South Africa’s
white population has had open access to higher education institutions while Black students had
limited opportunities due to a plethora of complicated socio-economic reasons. Historically, the
educational opportunities in South Africa were distributed along ethnic and racial lines. While
the Black majority constituted 80% of the total population, only about 9% participated in higher
education in 1994 (Sehoole & Adeyemo, 2016). Subsequently, the post-apartheid leadership
inherited a system that lacked public confidence and trust. Sehoole and Adeyemo (2016) further
posited that this was a major reason for developing better approaches to enhance democratic
values and build a just society in South Africa. The vision was founded on understanding the role
of higher education as an allocator of opportunity and to enhance achievement among its
citizens. In other words, the enhancement of achievement refers to equity and accessibility:
higher education institutions’ policy implementation was at the/a national level.
Higher education institutions are essential to help improve the quality of life of
communities and societies, and they graduate students who serve as a driving force for economic
and social progress in society. In a knowledge-driven society, schools and universities may be
the most important macro-level institutions preparing youth (and, those beyond youth) to become
dynamic citizens of their country. The pursuit of transforming the South African higher
education system was based on developing policies to rectify past inequalities and challenges
facing the society. Sehoole and Adeyemo (2016) noted that in addition to approaches to redress
discrimination, the government focused on widening access to higher education. Sehoole and
Adeyemo (2016) speculated, in its quest for improving accessibility, the post-apartheid
government introduced the National Plan for Higher Education in 2001 with a funding
framework like National Student Financial Aid Scheme. Despite these noble goals to revamp
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South Africa’s educational system and considerable progress, there is still a lot of ground that
needs to be covered.
In this dissertation, I will focus on the University of the Western Cape (UWC) to
illuminate the transitions and changes undertaken since the end of Apartheid towards becoming a
remarkable institution in its own context. The arguments embedded in the study attend to the
complexity of personal and social transitional factors impacting the performance of institutions
and students. This chapter explores the background of the study, statement of the problem,
purpose statement, and research questions.
Historical Background of UWC
In 1959, Parliament adopted legislation establishing the University College of the
Western Cape as a constituent college of the University of South Africa for people classified as
"people of Color". The first group of 166 students enrolled in 1960. They were offered limited
training for lower to middle-level positions in schools, the civil service, and other institutions
designed to serve a separated community of color. In 1970, the institution gained university
status and was able to award its own degrees and diplomas (University of Western Cape, n.d.).
In 1975, Black students protested in order to get a Black rector, Professor Richard E. van
der Ross, which contributed to the eventual abandonment of the apartheid ideology within the
university in 1982 (University of the Western Cape, 2018). In response to campus activism, and
widespread protests leading up to and following the Soweto Massacre of 1976, UWC formally
rejected the apartheid ideology in its mission statement adopted in 1982, adopting a declaration
of nonracialism and “a firm commitment to the development of the Third World communities in
South Africa”.
6
In 1983, under the National Constitution, the University of the Western Cape Act granted
the university administrative autonomy on the same terms as the established White institutions.
During the late 1970s and 1980s, as global protests against the apartheid system increased, UWC
became a site of resistance and solidarity in the fight to end apartheid, reshaping itself as a
university representing democracy, social transformation, and non-racialism. UWC emphasized
its historic ties to Nelson Mandela, and UWC became a place of resistance for academics and
other activists, and some spaces on campus were devoted to teaching popular, or “people’s”
history, a museum, and housed an international effort to seek Mandela’s release from prison.
Upon Mandela’s release and the end of apartheid, UWC was swept in a wave of change that
included the new South African Constitution, Bill of Rights, and the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission, as well as external connections that supported change to a democratic government
(“UWC and Nelson Mandela”, n.d.) UWC epitomized the challenges for higher education in
South Africa as it was the vanguard of South Africa’s historic change from apartheid to a
democratic country (Badat, 2016).
The Post-Apartheid Progress of UWC
Today, UWC aspires to be a place of educational quality and growth, while remaining
conscious of its African and international context. In addition to quality teaching, learning, and
research, UWC helps to preserve South Africa’s cultural diversity, and to respond to a society in
transition in critical and creative ways. UWC recognizes that it has a unique intellectual role to
play in helping to establish a more egalitarian and dynamic society, based on its proud
experience in the liberation struggle (UWC Mission Statement, n.d.). UWC currently enrolls
more than 23,000 students who engage in undergraduate and postgraduate programs in seven
Faculties: Arts and Humanities, Community Health Sciences, Dentistry, Economic and
7
Management Sciences, Education, Law, and Natural Sciences. There are 2400 academic,
professional, and support staff employed at the university (UWC Mission Statement, n.d.).
Since the end of apartheid in 1994, UWC began to develop important characteristics of
an “engaged” university (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020). Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) state that
in UWC’s five-year Institutional Operating Plan (IOP: 2005-2009), three distinct possibilities are
identified for the future:
1. The Historically Disadvantaged University “that traps UWC anachronistically in its
past”;
2. The Global Market Driven University that is “unconstrained by past inequities, with
an inaccessible fee structure and alienated from surrounding communities”; or
3. The engaged University that “envisions a favourable future that transcends past
glories [and where] the university’s associational engagement puts the individual
student-in-community at the center of its concerns for local and global issues,
particularly issues pertaining to the African continent. (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020,
p. 443)
Along with providing facilities to international students, UWC has developed a Research and
Development Office to expand the university’s capacity for innovative and ground-breaking
research. Promoting creativity and entrepreneurial culture is the objective of this research office.
The choice to analyze UWC in the present study was partly motivated by the complicated
history of the university and how the higher education establishment successfully grappled with
these difficulties. In seeking to bring to light the UWC’s success, I explored the role of research
and intellectual wealth within the academe, the classroom environment, be it physical or related
to the flexibility of curricula and teaching methods applied at the University. Detecting the
8
factors that made UWC a “success story” is the essential aim of my research, with the hope that
UWC can be a model for universities around the world, especially for developing countries.
The existing literature, including the UWC Archive, demonstrates that most students
who enrolled at UWC from the 1960s to the 1980s were significantly socially disadvantaged.
Consequently, they were not prepared for rigorous academic work at the university. The poor
quality of their primary and secondary schooling significantly affected the performance of
students at UWC. For instance, Le Grange (2016) highlighted that most students were not able to
pass courses in natural sciences; therefore, the university’s programs focused on humanities and
education. The White South African government also maintained strict control of the UWC,
similar to other Black higher education institutions within the country (Le Grange, 2016). White
control of educational and academic programs tried to ensure that the institutions did not foment
political consciousness. In effect, the UWC administration lacked the independence necessary to
develop high quality academic programs.
Despite these challenges with the preparation of its incoming students, UWC produced a
generation of educated South Africans who championed the cause of change and freedom. The
University struggled with restrictions from the apartheid regime that maintained second-class
status for Black South Africans (Badat, 2016). The Apartheid regime maintained limited access
to universities for Black South Africans for fear that higher education would create awareness
and increase resistance among these students (Le Grange, 2016). The provision of higher
education under apartheid was bounded by the country’s system of racial segregation (Badat,
2016), and UWC was formed as an institution for the Black underclass. The University was,
therefore, under a grand apartheid effort to divide South Africans based on their race or ethnicity.
It reflected the racialized social organization of South Africa. Under apartheid, higher education
9
funding was directed at the country’s White institutions, leaving UWC to struggle with budget
issues, which limited its ability to attract quality faculty (Badat, 2016). Importantly, it
represented the intentional provision of lower educational standards by the apartheid government
as power structures reinforced the apartheid. Despite this overt oppression, students and
communities championed non-racialism and an end to the apartheid system.
Since the end of the policy of Apartheid, UWC has struggled to become a world-class
university (Kamola, 2016). The university faced several major challenges that affected the
quality of education it provided to students, including the effective administration of resources,
the development of a quality faculty, and lackluster student performance (Leibowitz & Bozalek,
2014). According to Ruben (2018), resource administration, student achievement, and quality
assurance are some of the factors related to the performance of universities. Usman (2016)
defines resources within the public universities as critical assets that incorporate faculty, efficient
facilities, professional development, libraries, and fiscal health; quality assurance issues include
review of programs and services, review of administrative programs, student satisfaction, and
faculty educational attainment. With most universities worldwide leaning towards globalization
rather than regionalization or nationalization, there are already a number of empirically-proven
strategies that could render better educational outcomes and opportunities for key actors in the
educational sector (Ramirez, 2010); however, the strategies highlighted in many studies are
limited by their complex models that are not particularly applicable to all universities worldwide.
Strategic Administration after Apartheid
As its mission changed and expanded after 1994, UWC relied on strategic administration
to foster global competitiveness and a transition to a new democratic constitution. Strategic
administration is an approach that involves the formulation of a strategic vision, identification of
10
objectives, and the formulation of strategies that are meant to mobilize the strategic intent
(Latorre-Medina & Blanco-Encomienda, 2013). Frølich et al. (2019) noted that strengthening the
capacity of public universities involves active and effective internal governance models.
Strategic administration at UWC aimed at improving the reputation of the entire university
through marketization, globalization, and standardization. The demands for better services at
UWC strained the limited institutional resources, thus requiring strategic responses. Since its
inception, the university has been in the process of implementing strategic change ingenuities,
instigated by the senior administration. In this regard, Du Preez et al. (2016) argue that
transformation, which will be the crux of my argument, is a complex and an open-ended concept.
UWC (2018) emphasized that strategic administration acted as a guide and helped the
institution to adapt to changes in the national and global higher education environment. The
principle of strategic administration entails the management’s analysis of the environment,
formulation, implementation, and evaluation of the organizational approaches. The transition
process within the university focuses on remodeling and restructuring of internal and external
procedures. The decision to internationalize has been a critical aspect in transforming the UWC.
The leadership of the university adapted to operating in a complex environment by applying
strategic administration (University of the Western Cape, 2018). The university announced that it
primarily aimed to become a vibrant intellectual space where people engage with matters of
utmost importance; its secondary objective was to become a research-led university (University
of the Western Cape, 2018).
Years of neglect by the apartheid government meant that UWC was not globally
competitive as South Africa transitioned to democracy. Strategic planning provided the
university with a sense of unified direction. The underlying premise of strategic administration is
11
that resources follow strategies (Latorre-Medina & Blanco-Encomienda, 2013); however, for the
UWC, the reality is that it has operated with limited resources since its founding in 1959.
Strategic administration helped the university to identify key areas where resources would have
the greatest impact. The adoption of strategic administration helped the UWC to put in place
effective strategic responses to external pressures (University of the Western Cape, 2018). The
institutional autonomy enjoyed since 1983 provided administrators with managerial flexibility to
set goals and priorities without the limits imposed by the apartheid government. The University’s
autonomy provided the administration with the opportunity to develop strategies that improved
the overall quality of teaching as well as the institution’s academic programs (Le Grange, 2016).
High quality higher education is a significant factor in graduating students who can drive
economic and social development (Seabi et al., 2014). While the University of the Western Cape
was able to become one of the most renowned institutions of higher education in South Africa,
its success came only after a long period of disadvantage. This is demonstrated in its rankings.
According to Webometrics, for instance, in 2021, the university secured the eighth best position
across South Africa as well as it is in the top 1000 universities in the world.
As presented, the university, for more than two decades, had to overcome many
stumbling blocks to achieve its growth. The success criteria for higher education institutions are
difficult to determine; many factors contribute to the overall performance of the university. Some
of the success criteria that could be used in relation to the UWC include a consistent strategy and
how well this strategy is understood by the faculty, staff and the students of the university, the
university’s community involvement and development; and successful cooperation by the
university with external and internal stakeholders. Additional criteria include the availability of
the resources necessary to act on the programs and opportunities available to students after
12
graduation. Some other success criteria might include teaching, research, transfer of knowledge,
and the international outlook measured by the World University Rankings. Times Higher
Education considers performance indicators teaching and research, among other factors, while
making the ranking.
Statement of the Problem
South Africa’s universities have struggled to balance improved quality with the
promotion of equality within society. Given that the majority Black population was denied
access to quality schooling for so long, access to higher education remains an important
challenge. In South Africa, higher education remains in flux as universities realign their practices
to meet the economic, social, and political goals of the society (Leibowitz, & Bozalek, 2014). As
evidence, South African universities routinely score poorly in the global university rankings.
World University Rankings are an important indicator of the success of the university in the new
South Africa. The 2019 World University Rankings from Times Higher Education evaluated
universities based on their core mission, which includes teaching, research, transfer of
knowledge, and international outlook. All these factors are in turn shaped by perceived quality,
effectiveness, and reputation. As other leading South African higher education institutions fall in
the rankings, the UWC has steadily risen because of its administration strategies and policies
(Kamola, 2016).
Government support has been a crucial challenge for UWC to improve its stature. Jonas
(2003) shows the allocations from National Revenue Fund to each of South Africa’s twenty-six
higher educational institutions, which are ranked by the allocation per full-time equivalent
student. The 2017 numbers are used in calculating 2019 allocations. The following Table 1
demonstrates the national revenue fund to different universities of South Africa.
13
Table 1
National Revenue Fund to South African Universities
Institution 2019 Allocation (R’000)
Full-time equivalent students
Allocation per FTE student
University of Mpumalanga R1,049,644 1,623 R646,731
Sol Plaatje University R690,627 1,114 R619,952
Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University R667,816 4,650 R143,616
Rhodes University R523,922 6,604 R79,334
University of Cape Town R1,671,745 21,812 R76,643
Stellenbosch University R1,835,385 24,308 R75,505
University of the Witwatersrand R2,082,936 28,874 R72,139
University of KwaZulu-Natal R2,443, 461 36,660 R66,652
University of Pretoria R2,622,279 39,709 R66,037
Vaal University of Technology R792,703 12,725 R62,295
University of Fort Hare R7771,614 12,510 R61,680
University of the Western Cape R1,054,887 17,246 R61,167
University of Johannesburg R2,346,637 38,801 R60,479
University of Venda R764,903 13,148 R58,176
Nelson Mandela University R1,244,066 21,676 R57,394
University of Limpopo R968,241 17,361 R55,771
Durban University of Technology R1,201,231 21,995 R54,614
Cape Peninsula University of Technology R1,363,691 25,821 R52,813
Tshwane University of Technology R2,361,632 45,990 R51,351
14
Institution 2019 Allocation (R’000)
Full-time equivalent students
Allocation per FTE student
Mangosuthu University of Technology R453,585 8,862 R51,183
Central University of Technology R652,360 13,663 R47,746
University of the Free State R1,371,450 28,898 R47,458
North West University R2,103,081 45,052 R46,681
University of Zululand R601,537 16,063 R37,449
Walter Sisulu University R956,357 25,891 R36,938
University of South Africa R4,124,989 200,546 R20,569
In 2019, US$1=14.43 South African Rand (ZAR). https://www.exchange-
rates.org/Rate/USD/ZAR/12-12-2019
15
The table displays a picture of expenditure in education, which, in other words, explains
the holistic national views and concerns about education. South African higher education
institutions have faced the challenge of providing quality education to sustain the country’s
human resources (Seabi et al., 2014). In South Africa, the quality of higher education has only
been a formal/national concern since the end of Apartheid, owing to the colonial governments’
lack of interest, and the Apartheid governments’ ideological opposition to higher education for
anyone but the White majority. In the post-apartheid era, the UWC became one of the country’s
national development projects, but it was tasked to expand its resources on its own to develop
into an institution that would propel South Africa in the 21st century.
In the case of the UWC, the goal of becoming a globally competitive and research-led
institution is challenged by these global developments that necessitated increased investments to
improve academic competitiveness and excellence. This study explores the strategies that the
UWC deployed to deal with the local and global educational challenges, and how they succeeded
by highlighting the transitions and factors in becoming an effective educational
institution/developing world-class status.
Significance of the Study
While numerous studies highlight models to improve the quality of higher education
(Ramirez, 2010), there still exists a gap in the literature about these strategies’ effectiveness;
thus, fully elaborating on and understanding what universities can do to overcome the challenges
to growth and development remains an understudied phenomenon. There is a dearth of research
focusing on the critical success factors that make universities, particularly those serving
historically marginalized populations, into globally-competitive institutions. As McCaffery
16
(2018) points out, universities need to understand the administrative approaches and critical
strategies needed to transform themselves into globally competitive institutions.
UWC was selected to focus the current research on the understudied phenomena of
global competitiveness among non-western and post-Apartheid institutions. The existing
research analyzes the success factors for western universities that fail to explore the aspects
influencing the transformation of non-western institutions. Therefore, the point of choosing a
non-western university is both to explore the under researched topic and to see if some
distinguishable characteristics can be identified that universally apply to both western and non-
western models. The contribution of this study is to add to the limited literature about global
competitiveness among non-western universities. The study will be of significant value to
universities since it will illustrate the actions necessary to improve educational quality and
performance. This dissertation helps feature critical success factors, particularly for South
African universities to develop strategies in transforming struggling higher education institutions
into high-performing ones.
This chapter has introduced the study by detailing pertinent information regarding UWC,
alongside an overview of the research problem and the study’s significance. The chapter also
presented the purpose of the study to develop critical success factors that universities can avail
themselves of so as to improve their performance. As emphasized, findings from the research
are expected to be critical in helping higher education administrators improve their educational
quality and performance. Summary
The purpose of this dissertation is to accurately identify the primary factors that
contribute to the rise in the quality and performance of higher education institutions especially
17
ones serving marginalized communities. This work focuses on the University of Western Cape’s
journey through a lot of adversities and socio-political challenges in South Africa. The chapter
begins by listing useful terminology to engage with this work and subsequently provides a
background to the reader about the history of higher education in South Africa and the
challenges that were faced especially by institutions serving the historically marginalized black
population. The chapter briefly underscores the significance of 1994 as an inflection point in
South African history and the changes post-apartheid in and around UWC. The chapter goes on
to provide a statement of the problem and consequently the research questions that would help
steer this dissertation.
Finally, the chapter highlights the significance of this study and the role it will play in
adding to the extant literature on critical success factors for institutions of higher education.
Also, the motivation behind choosing a non-western institution is addressed towards the end.
18
CHAPTER II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview of Problems and Challenges in South African Higher Education
The higher education system in South Africa was largely developed during the era of
Apartheid (1948-1994), and the inequities in contemporary universities reflect that history. Since
the official end of apartheid in 1994, higher education continues to be characterized by unjust
and discriminatory practices giving South Africa’s White population preferential access to
education, and limits opportunities for the Black populace (Sehoole & Adeyemo, 2016). Le
Grange (2016) found that there is a continued racial disparity in the student population. While
the vast majority (70%) of people in South Africa are Black, only 14% of Black students are
enrolled in institutions of higher learning as opposed to 57% of White students. This is a slight
improvement since 1994, when only 9% of Black students were enrolled in higher education
institutions (Sehoole & Adeyemo, 2016). This rise in the number of learners enrolling at South
African universities indicates a slight improvement, but remains deeply inadequate.
According to Sehoole and Adeyemo (2016), South Africa’s post-apartheid governments
inherited an education system lacking public trust and confidence. Therefore, there is a need to
develop better plans to build a just educational system and society that enhances democratic
values in post-apartheid South Africa. The South African Constitution of 1996 recognized the
importance of the higher education to both the economy and society at large, and recognized the
role of state and learning institutions in achieving equality and justice, ending racialism and
sexism and protecting human rights (Dubow, 2012). The Higher Education Act (1997) declared
it to be in the government’s interest to remedy past discrimination practices by transforming
learning institutions and supporting them to respond better to economic, human resource, and
development needs. Furthermore, the Higher Education Act recognized the importance of
improving the autonomy and freedom of higher learning institutions in their association with the
19
state on matters of the national—transforming the tertiary education into a democratic and non-
racial system that embraced equity while promoting knowledge development—necessity for
scientific knowledge and advanced skills, as well as public accountability (Badat, 2010).
Another challenge facing universities in South Africa is financing, particularly the cost of
university tuition. While relatively lower than European or US averages, the cost of higher
education in South Africa is far higher than what typical South African households can afford.
According to Durowaiye and Khan (2017), many students leave university after their first year
because of insufficient financial support, and the high cost of accommodation and transport.
Badat (2016) argues that the problems experienced in the South African higher education sector
are linked to the broader challenges facing the country such as poor economic growth, high rate
of youth unemployment, and crises in the country’s political leadership. Student protests in 2015
and 2016 reflected these challenges. In this case, the dissatisfaction posed by the students are not
a force of change but rather a symptom of South Africa’s many ills and failures (Badat, 2016).
Markedly, the South African government has the financial and technical capacity to transform its
higher education system, but its efforts are severely limited by political leadership and
inadequate capacity. Universities as World-Class Institutions
The growing significance of knowledge, research, and innovation are transforming the
role of universities in a globalized world (Välimaa & Hoffman, 2008). Universities are
fundamental institutions, producing and conveying knowledge for contemporary societies
through research, teaching, and community service. Universities include many institutional types
engaging in a wide range of activities and related management practices.
20
The main objectives of higher education institutions (HEIs) are to develop and
disseminate knowledge through research and teaching and to understand and respond to the
needs of the local, national, and global communities (Arbo & Benneworth, 2007). Universities
do not only facilitate learning but also improve socioeconomic development and enhance the
standards of living across society. To realize these goals and objectives, higher learning
institutions set targets, establish strategies, and strive to improve the quality of research, teaching
and public service (Ruben, 2018).
It is a common perception that because of the complex academic nature, academics and
other staff struggle to maintain daily challenges. Members of academic staff have broad
knowledge and experience in specific fields of education, which give them the power to make
decisions within an institution. The university is a hub of key complexities, and the complexities
refer to internal bureaucracy, slow decision-making processes, and nonprofessional management
of an institution by individuals without matching competencies. Similarly, Raby, Sharma, and
Bista (2019) argue that universities are complex organizations due to their limited capacity to
measure the results, complexity of objectives, diffused structure of authority, and limited
autonomy of the professionals who are core to the organization. Collet, Hine, and Du Plessis
(2015) argue that, policy makers, faculty, and employers agree that students should develop
problem-solving and good communication skills. However, the magnitude and complexity of
information they must gather, organize, and manage has increased and can be overwhelming. In
addition, technological developments and globalization of business has brought many
unpredictable changes in higher education. Higher education has entered a new era because of
the changes in the way people and organizations perceive colleges and universities. Ryan and
21
Zuber-Skerritt (2017) outlined features of quality education as the provision of wholesome
learning experience, long-lasting experience, provision of quality educational environment, and
the best outcome in terms of knowledge, research, and innovation. Students expected the quality
of education to exceed what may be possible given the size of the institution’s endowment and
research credentials of top faculties. Students have different expectations of teaching
methodologies, research results, and the competencies they will develop at university. To
maintain a quality education, the key responsibility of universities is to achieve, sustain, and
assure high-quality teaching and research (Ryan & Zuber-Skerritt, 2017).
How higher education institutions like the University of Western Cape navigate
organizational complexities, changing global environments and technologies and increasing
student expectations directed us to look at the critical success factors for a world-class university
in the 21st Century.
Glossary
Flagship: “Flagship” universities are world class universities with a commitment to teaching
top undergraduate students, to providing top-level professional education and to a mission of
civic engagement, outreach and economic development (Usher, 2017). All flagship universities
are world-class universities, but not vice-versa. They are world-class universities with a heart,
essentially (Usher, 2017).
Non-Western University: By referring to UWC as a “non-Western” university, I emphasize the
geographical location; no epistemological or ontological meaning is associated with it.
Post-Apartheid University: Because of its long-standing struggle against colonial hegemonic
forces, I refer to UWC as a “post-Apartheid” university.
22
Private University: A private university is not funded, sponsored, and/or operated by the
government.
Public University: Public universities are funded by the public through the government. In the
USA, it is commonly known as a state university.
World-Class: According to Oxford English Dictionary, the phrase “world-class” is defined in a
competitive context as something “that is of a quality or standard regarded as outstanding
throughout the world; comparable to or able to compete with the best in the world.” Although
there is a lot of backlash against the idea of world-class universities, for example: John Aubrey
Douglass’s “flagship universities,” to explain the rise and success factors of the University of
Western Cape (henceforth, UWC), I use the phrase “world-class.” Illustration of the concept is in
Chapter Two. Defining/Deconstructing “World-Class”
In this section, I attempt to define the characteristics of a world-class university, and its
relevance in 2021. Critic Mats Benner (2020) argues that:
With world class as denominator of a top position within the hierarchy, the notion of a
global hierarchy of universities has taken hold of university policy. The pattern is not
valid everywhere, it should be noted. The two main exceptions are Africa and Latin
America, where pressing concerns—social cleavages and historical legacies chief among
them—have made their structure and work modes less compatible with the definitions of
“world class.” (p. 26)
The term “world class,” although fluid in its definition, and largely exclusive of Latin
America and Africa, has emerged as a yardstick for university policies in many countries
(Benner, 2020). Benner’s (2020) study finds that the concept world class depends on attributes
23
such as the historical role of the university, its missions, resource base, task structure, and
patronage. Since the late 1990s, rankings and notions of “world class” have become globally
dispersed and disseminated, and enmeshed in university practices, and their organizational
structure and internal relations. However, Benner (2020) also assumes that the uptake will vary
depending on the organizational properties of universities.
I argue that the term “world-class,” having flaws including irrelevance to Africa and
promotion of European-American centric culture, carries a sense of activism that pushes
universities to perform better. I do not consider in this thesis UWC to be a “non-western”
university because it was founded by a colonial/Western apartheid government and is still
located in a country framed by Western colonial politics. I suggest UWC might be better
understood as a “post-Apartheid” institution. In this case, it invites comparisons to universities
founded during periods of official political, social, economic and education segregation, and
have emerged after the end of de jure, or legal segregation to compete with institutions
established by and for their political oppressors. This could include historically Black colleges
and universities (HBCUs) in the United States, ethnic colleges in the People’s Republic of China,
Indigenous colleges across the Americas, among many others.
The following section of the literature reviews five critical success factors that the author
has synthesized from research and scholarship on world class universities and hypothesized to be
important factors in UWC’s rise to prominence. These are: (1) concentration of talent; (2)
resource adequacy; (3) appropriate governance; (4) alignment of success factors; and (5) minor
internal and external factors such as, the role of other actors (government, institutions: leadership
and strategic vision, strategic planning and sequencing, pedagogy, internationalization, investing
in technology, and world rankings).
24
Critical Success Factors for a University with an International Stature
The basic concept of Critical Success Factors (CSFs) was originally defined by Rockart
and consists of a limited number of characteristics that have a direct and significant impact on an
organization (Panizzon & Barcellos, 2020). The main success factors were traditionally related to
attributes such as tradition, image, location, infrastructure, marketing, services, faculty
qualification, method, cost/benefit, and library (Panizzon & Barcellos 2020). More recent
scholarship on critical success factors during remote classes during COVID-19 and online
learning in general include emphasis on faculty and tutorial development, technological
infrastructure, environment, and syllabus/curriculum, and fees/tuition/price. These factors can be
considered as the main critical factors for any university’s success; nevertheless, a particular
university may emphasize different aspects of CSFs depending on their aims, such as rapid
growth, managed decline, or academic, administrative, and financial sustainability.
Concentration of Talent
The first critical success factor is concentration of talent. Salmi (2009) works explore
how institutions become tops in their league, and help guide countries and university leaders
seeking to achieve world-class status. Tertiary education encompasses many institutions ranging
from technical institutions to community institutes, local and international universities. Salmi
(2009) also argues that each international institution strives to augment its performance to attract
and retain both local and foreign students. As universities strive to serve international
communities, countries compete to improve the ranking of their local institutions to meet global
standards. UWC has developed in this environment, with support from government, private and
philanthropic stakeholders over its history contributing to its standing as one of the best
performing universities in South Africa.
25
Salmi (2009) considers that knowledge is a crucial contributor to the country’s economic
empowerment. According to his elaboration, a country with improved tertiary education systems
encourages locals to pursue different courses of study, which expands skilled labor. Having
skilled labor contribute to sustainable economies. OECD (2009) and World Bank (2002) reports
demonstrate that, both research and technical educational institutions produce a wide range of
skilled workers as per the demand of the labor market. In South Africa, most universities were
limited to Whites, leaving Colored individuals with few paths to higher education, as most
professional positions were also closed. UWC was the first government funded university open
to Colored individuals during apartheid. Other universities continued to emerge as government
urge to increase skilled people and professionals in the country. On this note, UWC has grown
progressively to gain its international stature it portrays today.
A university of international standing must attract top scholars and professors both
locally and globally (Salmi, 2009). In contrast, higher learning institutions in countries with little
internal mobility of students tend to experience academic inbreeding. In this regard, Horta and
Yudkevich (2016) argue that those institutions that entirely rely on their own undergraduates to
proceed into graduate programs are not likely to be at the leading edge of intellectual
development.
Similarly, this is likely to happen in those institutions that enroll principally their own
graduates to join the teaching staff (Horta & Yudkevich, 2016). Aghio et al. (2008) found that
the European universities with the highest level of endogamy had the least performance in terms
of research results. Similarly, universities with rapidly growing student enrollment and more
open admission policies are unlikely to maintain a high selectivity of students. Many universities
in Africa and Latin America have failed to enter the upper echelon of global universities despite
26
maintaining world class standard, refers to a university which is of a quality or standard regarded
as outstanding across the world recognized by educators and rankings. A high proportion of
carefully selected graduate students demonstrates the strength of an institution in terms of
research results and education quality. Many top universities enroll large numbers of foreign
students and employ foreign scholars and professors in search for the most talented. The new
patterns of knowledge building and sharing discussed by Phelps, Heidl, and Wadhwa (2011)
explain why the international knowledge networks grow in importance. The success of highly
ranked universities to mobilize a broad and diverse national and international academic
employee would maximize their knowledge networking capacity.
Resource Adequacy
Second, resource adequacy is a significant characteristic of universities with an
international stature. Building and maintaining a complex, research-intensive institution requires
a colossal amount of money. Pisár et al. (2019) recognized four ways of funding universities:
public funding, operations expenditure and research, financial returns from endowments, and
tuition and fees paid by students. As a public university, UWC receives its primary funding from
the government of South Africa, whereas the other forms of funding include tuition fees that
students pay, revenues from endowments, and from operational revenues.
When an international university has sustainable financial resources, they maintain and
improve its operations. UWC competes with other South African institutions including the
University of Cape Town, the Stellenbosch University, and Cape Peninsula University of
Technology (CPUT). Since the 1980s, UWC has improved political support from the public and
government and is now a highly resourced institution with a reputable staff and research-rich
27
environment. Most of the university departments have graduate programs, with some having the
country’s largest intakes (University of Western Cape, n.d.).
The main problem for African universities is low levels of public funding; in other words,
the public support for public universities in Africa declines, as it is around the world—less of an
African than a global problem. This is particularly true for non-western institutions and those
serving minoritized populations and has certainly been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a study examining the challenges of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HCBUs) in
the US, a lack of resources, particularly lack of public funding, frustrates efforts to sustain a
culture of excellence. Higher learning institutions, even in industrialized countries, experience
financial problems but research shows these constraints are more prevalent in Africa than any
other part of the world (Oketch, 2016). Higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa are
the most financially challenged in the planet, partly due to the inability of these countries to fund
social services such as education and health (Oketch, 2016), as well as global policies dating to
the 1970s encouraging developing countries to invest in primary, not higher education.
Notwithstanding the inability or unwillingness of governments to fund higher education, Kossey
and Ishengoma (2017) posited that the responsibility for funding public universities in Africa and
specifically, the sub-Saharan Africa remains that of their national governments. In Germany, for
instance, higher education access is limited, but it is available free of charge to qualified
students, with costs borne by the government.
Governments and institutions are finding innovative ways to fund higher education.
Schiller and Leinfer (2006) found that some universities were embracing various forms of third
mission activities and entrepreneurism to generate income. In Thailand, for example, the
government developed a higher education reform to decrease public spending and encourage the
28
cooperation between universities and other sectors as a way of increasing university income
(Schiller & Leinfer, 2006). Likewise, universities in Europe previously fully funded by the state
reviewed their missions to cope with the financial austerity experienced in almost all public
sectors. Generally, higher education institutions in Europe and the US have created explicit
policies for cooperation between universities, businesses, and industries as third-stream income
to protect against state financial austerity (Koryakina, Teixeira, & Sarrico, 2015). While fiscal
problems have affected many universities even in advanced economies, higher education in
developing countries has suffered greatly compared to these more developed economies.
Appropriate Governance
A third factor for a higher education institution aspiring to become a world-class
university relates to the competitive environment in which it is operating, including the
regulatory framework and its academic and managerial governance. According to Wood and
Robertson (2015), the success of the US tertiary education system is attributed to not only its
competitive, entrepreneurial environment, but also its relative independence from the
government, including academic freedom, and to graduate students who are prepared to
contribute to society. The authors reveal that the environment in which the US universities
operate fosters critical thinking, innovation, and competitiveness (Wood & Robertson, 2015). In
this regard, Clarke (2014) noted that those institutions with greater autonomy were more flexible
since they were not bound by externally-imposed rules and regulations, or cumbersome public
bureaucracies. Consequently, such institutions are more responsive to the demands of a rapidly
changing and competitive world and can and must manage their resources more strategically.
Veugelers and van der Ploeg (2008) recognized the significant role that universities play in
facilitating transitions to a knowledge economy and society. Therefore, universities require
29
effective and useful governance restructuring to maintain and improve teaching, research, and
public service. Besides funding, governance is another important determinant of university
rankings.
Many European universities are struggling with poor governance and insufficient
autonomy. Estermann (2015) argued that many national governments, the European Union, and
universities recognize that expanded university autonomy would contribute to an improvement
of their global standing. The association between the university autonomy and global standing of
the institution has been widely discussed (Estermann, 2015). Aghion et al. (2008) analyzed the
correlation between the performance in rankings, level of public funding and the status of
autonomy; simply, these authors argue that a combination of autonomy and competition makes
universities more productive. They established that top learning institutions in developed
economies enjoy more autonomy in relation to management, staffing and remunerations than
institutions in developing countries (Aghion et al., 2008). The authors also found a positive
correlation between the budgetary autonomy and research productivity. The study found that
institutional autonomy helps to improve the quality of standards. Universities are likely to
improve standards when they depend less on the state. Pruvot and Estermann (2017) explained
that there is a positive relationship between institutional autonomy and the university’s capacity
to attract extra funds. In fact, the ability of a university to generate additional funds relates to the
level of autonomy it gets from the regulatory framework in which it operates. The private
universities already prove their credibility whereas the public universities struggle to reach the
peak of success especially in South Africa. UWC is one such university that passed the threshold
of success; hence, it is success factors need to be analyzed.
30
Furthermore, the relationship between the budgetary autonomy and quality of standards
in public institutions indicates that the quality of higher education in developing countries differs
from that in developed countries. In developing countries, the government needs to enroll people
strategically to avoid increasing expenditure beyond the limited resources available. Thus, the
quality standards of institutions are dependent on the preparation of students they enroll in regard
to the financial status of each university (Aghion et al, 2008). While public institutions need to
educate as many members of the public as possible, they enroll with moderation, leaving space
for self-sponsored students to increase the institution’s financial base.
According to Pucciarelli and Kaplan (2016), another important factor that continues to
challenge public universities is lack of competition. Public universities tend to be treated the
same in respect to budget allocation and assignment of personnel. Consequently, this practice
makes it difficult for Higher Education Institutes to mobilize the necessary resources to establish
academic areas of comparative advantage with centers of excellence that attract top researchers.
Salmi (2016) works on France and Germany exemplify this factor. Salmi (2016) associated the
decline of the French and German university systems with fewer budgetary resources and
increased rigidities in their allocations. Furthermore, universities in both countries are public
entities limited by rigid management controls and strict civil service employment regulations. In
this case, universities do not have the autonomy to pay high salaries to high-performing
academics or invest in competitive-edge research facilities. Under these circumstances, it is
almost impossible for these universities to adjust their remuneration plan so as to attract world-
class researchers (Salmi, 2009).
31
Alignment of Success Factors
Fourth, the relationships and alignment between the three factors described above,
concentration of talent, funding, and appropriate governance can be considered a fourth critical
success factor. Salmi (2009) argued that proper alignment of success factors, such as abundant
funding, concentration of talent, and appropriate governance, is necessary for a university to
achieve global prominence. Contemporary universities should realize that investing considerable
amounts of money, or narrowly selective student enrollment and admissions will not be
sufficient to reach world-class status. For example, although the University of Sao Paolo (USP)
is the best-resourced university in Brazil, like its French and German counterparts, USP’s ability
to manage resources is constrained by the rigid regulations in the civil service sector.
Furthermore, Durham (2008) pointed out that a spirit of democracy, often in opposition to
neoliberal reforms, led to the creation of several representative bodies inside the institution
complicating the decision-making process and making changes and reforms difficult to
implement, and over time may deter students from enrolling in the university, and cause
governments to reduce support for the institutions. To avoid this downward spiral, a
transformative vision of excellence can be a key element for institutional success.
Role of Other Factors
There are several other success factors that may be considered less than critical, but
depending on the context, may impact the institution deeply. Some of these factors are out of the
direct control of the institution, such as the relationship to state or federal governments, the
contexts of internationalization, or world rankings; others, may be largely internal to the
institution, but still shaped by global and sector forces, such as strategic planning, or technology
32
investment. The following section outlines several success factors research suggests contribute to
universities attaining world-class status.
The Role of Government
John, Daun-Barnett, and Moronski-Chapman (2018) recognized the paramount value of
the government role in improving university standards. Even as Sadlak and Cai (2009) indicated
that Ivy League Universities in the United States grew in prestige and popularity not because of
deliberate government intervention but due to incremental progress, and similarly, elite English
universities such as Oxford and Cambridge evolved for centuries with considerable autonomy in
terms of their definition of mission and goals as well as leadership and governance (Altbach,
Reisberg & Rumbley, 2019), the role of direct and indirect governmental support for these
institutions, in terms of research dollars, elite support and sponsorship, cannot be ignored. Today,
it is almost impossible for a public or private higher learning institution to become a world-class
university without the public, governmental support and favorable public policies. The high cost
of setting up a higher education institution requires government support. Educators and
researchers estimate that a world-class university can be created today at a cost of USD500
million, though more recent examples suggest the cost to be even higher. In Qatar,
approximately USD700 million were used to set up the school of medicine as a branch of Cornell
University (Mangan, 2008).
While government funding is necessary when it comes to creating world-class
universities, Salmi (2016) argued that countries must balance their investment in world-class
universities with continued support of other vital areas of tertiary education. Adopting a goal of
developing a world-class university does not mean that every university should strive for
international status (Salmi, 2009). Rather, Alaswad and Nadolny (2015) suggested that more
33
appropriate and attainable goal would be to develop an integrated system of teaching, research,
and technology-based institutions and support centers of excellence that focus on value addition
areas that can eventually evolve into world-class institutions.
Scholars have identified several ways governments can support the development of a
world-class university. According to Altbach et al. (2019), governments may expand an existing
institution with the potential for academic excellence. The advantage of this strategy is lower
cost compared to creating a brand-new world-class institution. The approach has proven
effective in countries like China, where Tsinghua and Beijing Universities received considerable
investment from the central government (Altbach et al., 2019). According to Deem, Mok, and
Lucas (2008), Asian and European governments have been eager to develop a higher education
system of international standing. Currently, Chinese universities are spending a vast amount of
capital to recruit globally renowned scholars and enhance their research and technology areas.
However, Salmi (2009) warned that this approach might not be effective in countries whose
governance structures and arrangements hinder the development of world-class universities. In
Malaysia, for example, rigid financial structures and civil service regulations make it difficult to
provide competitive compensation packages necessary for attracting top scholars and professors
from around the world (Mok, 2008).
Governments across the world need to build a supportive policy environment and create
regulatory and financial conditions that encourage their universities to be globally competitive in
the quality of education, number of foreign students and faculties, reputational awards, and
research grants. Felt and Glanz (2002) suggested that governments can support their universities’
call with managerial autonomy and performance-based financing. They further suggest that
34
governments encourage private giving by establishing favorable taxation systems so public
organizations and philanthropists can donate funds to universities without tax burdens.
Salmi (2009) emphasized that national governments are not the only players developing
and supporting the growth of educational institutions to global stature. In large countries such as
the United States and China, regional authorities play a significant role in supporting higher
education improvement initiatives. In the 1960s, for instance, the State of California established
the University of California system, a world-class, integrated system of tertiary education. In
recent years, California has developed an innovation fund aimed at strengthening the linkages
between the research institutions and regional economy (Salmi, 2009). In that regard, Tierney
and Lanford (2016) have the opinion that educational institutions aspiring to become world-class
universities do not have to imitate what other universities at that level do but they should be
innovative.
Similarly, the role of private sector support for the vision and mission of universities to
become world-class institutions should not be overlooked. The private sector makes significant
financial contributions to the endowments of higher education institutions in China (Wang,
Wang, & Liu, 2011). Besides financial support, private sector participation in higher education
governance boards can be important in steering their development toward world-class stature.
Private sector participation in university governance can help with the development of state-of-
the-art curricula and relevant public-private programs, and opportunities for university research
to address and support local, regional and national economic needs.
The existing literature on governance pertain to South African universities exists in
different forms such as good governance, bad governance, corporate governance, and
cooperative governance. A clear and acceptable model of governance in organizations may not
35
be available as organizations operate independently and differently on various occasions.
Therefore, the concept of governance or good governance may differ in context of typical
organizational application based on whether the organization is public or private (Sebola, 2017).
The Higher Education Act (1997) proclaims that the good governance for South African
universities is “desirable for higher education institutions to enjoy freedom and autonomy in
their relationship with the State within the context of public accountability and the national need
for advanced skills and scientific knowledge” (Sebola, 2017, p11). In contrast, Adams (Sebola,
2017) argues that the governance structure of South African universities has a built-in
mechanism that restricts autonomy in the disguise of accountability. Sebola (2017) argued that
the South African universities are governed through the political philosophy of cooperative
governance, which to a particular extent may include a governing council, academic senate,
institutional forum and student representative council (Sebola, 2017). South African universities
are managed by councils and university managements, though council member and university
rectorates differ (Sebola, 2017, p3) in terms of responsibility and operational activities. Sebola
(2017) summarizes that being a front-line stakeholder, university management should share the
mandate with other stakeholders. That would lessen the conflict and improve effective
governance.
At UWC, the Council governs a wide range of administrative and policy duties. In 2018,
these governance documents were updated to explain the responsibilities of the Council:
The Council of the University of the Western Cape (UWC) is the highest governing
structure of the university and is responsible for overall governance, in terms of the Higher
Education Act and the Statute of the institution. The Council is therefore responsible for
oversight of UWC’s financial affairs, affairs relating to quality instruction and proper evaluation
36
of students, its general reputation and standing within South Africa and the rest of the world, and
for the maintenance of good order in the affairs of the institution. As the highest governing body
of the institution, Council must ensure that the institution sustains the confidence of the public
and of the State. Its responsibilities include the appointment of the senior management, which is
made up of the Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Vice-Rectors (or Deputy Vice-Chancellors), the
Registrar, Executive Directors and academic Deans; approving all policies; and oversight of
compliance within the higher education regulatory framework. The Rector and Vice-Chancellor
and his management team are responsible for the management and general operations of the
university and are accountable to the Council. (Governance: UWC Statute (GG41887) 2018)
According to Salmi (2016), two factors explain the theory of change in the higher
education sector. Internal, institutional-level factors such as leadership, strategic vision,
internationalization plans shape and direct the performance of higher education institutions.
External inputs also support the development of world-class research and innovation, and
opportunities for graduates of the university. Both of these factors focus on the development of a
world-class academic environment, the key to developing a globally ranked university.
Role of Institutions: Leadership and Strategic Vision
The transformation to a world-class university requires a strong leadership, a bold vision
of the organization’s goals, and a well-articulated strategic plan to realize that vision. According
to Dyer and Dyer (2017), higher education institutions seeking better results must engage in an
objective evaluation of their strengths and areas of improvement, set long-term goals, and
establish a plan that can lead to improved performance. However, while considering the Middle
East Technical University (METU) in Turkey as a case study, Köksal and İlkuçan (2019)
observed that many universities remain stagnant because they lack an ambitious vision and
37
continue to operate using established models. Consequently, such organizations eventually
decline in comparison with their innovative and growing institutional colleagues. Although the
case study includes a university from Turkey, this is applicable to most of the universities across
the world, particularly in Asia, that lack proper vision and prevail a state of stagnation about
higher education and a proper mission to contribute to community and overall humanity.
The best performing higher institutions have leaders with research knowledge and strong
managerial skills. The university president or the vice chancellor should be aware of the core
agenda of the institution to be able to develop and implement a vision for the future of the
institution. In addition, understanding the strategy-map by a university management body helps
improving the performance of a university. Han and Zhong (2015) present the benefits of the
strategy map approach that facilitate a university’s both internal and external growth to be ranked
as a world-class leading university. Han and Zhong (2015) show effective use of strategy maps,
revision and adoption of a strategy map, responding techniques to the changes occurred during
new strategic adoptions. Han and Zhong (2015) differentiate five types of strategy maps:
comprehensive strategy map, core strategy map, technical strategy map, service strategy map and
special strategy map; for a case study, authors choose Tsingua University to illustrate how
strategy maps can be adopted and implemented to increase a university’s status to a world-class
university.
A significant element of strategic vision also entails identifying a niche market upon
which a university can build and maximize its competitiveness. Chapleo (2015) argued that a
university cannot excel in all areas and therefore must choose specific areas of focus. Harvard
University, even with world class stature, is not the best ranked university in all disciplines; its
strengths are in education, medical sciences, law, economics, history, political science, and
38
business studies. As part of vision setting, top learning institutions need to define the main areas
where they have the greatest potential (Chapleo, 2015).
Even as university rankings continue to influence institutions, universities should not
limit themselves to indicators developed in these rankings, especially those not associated with
their change vision (Tierney & Lanford, 2016). Levin, Jeong, and Ou (2006) highlighted that the
subjective nature of world-class universities means they focus more on those factors that may
vaguely enhance reputation but less on those that enhance their teaching quality and educational
activities. Attention to factors such as admission scores, research activity, publications, awards,
and donations for alumni at the expense of innovative curricular and instructional dimensions
can limit the potential of the institution.
Okokoh (2007) informs the CIDA transformation story as well as shows how other South
African higher educational institutions in South Africa can learn from CIDA’s approach and
share in the remarkable sense of determination and commitment demonstrated by CIDA. With a
limitation of examining only one factor at a time, the work focuses on CIDA’s pattern breaking
that can aid better student equity transformation in the higher education system. Okokoh (2007)
emphasizes that CIDA innovative teaching involves awareness of students’ educational needs,
views and emphasis on the physical experience of emotions and reasoning.
Strategic Planning and Sequencing
Time is an important consideration for universities aspiring to international stature. This
study aims at knowing the strategic planning of UWC and the change that happens during the
specific period of 1960s to 1980s as well as to find the themes that help to promote UWC as one
of the topmost universities in higher education in South Africa. Barlett and Chase (2013) argued
that developing a culture of excellence requires a long-term vision. Proper sequencing of
39
interventions and balance of various qualitative factors is necessary. Dyer and Dyer (2017)
emphasized that strategic planning and vision development cannot be accomplished overnight. In
highly competitive environments, successful organizations in both business and academia
relentlessly challenge themselves to improve (Dyer & Dyer, 2017). Performance in the best
universities is never static so long as these institutions continue to replenish themselves with
intellectual capital. Successful organizations are not satisfied with past accomplishment but
continue to strive to be the best in the world (Barlett & Chase, 2013). Indeed, such organizations
are successful in establishing a supportive environment that motivates everyone to define and
pursue stretch goals.
Pedagogy
Hocking (2004) and Troop (2013) argue that universities seeking to improve their stature
must also invest in pedagogical improvement, specifically development of faculty capacity and
skills to lead high-impact educational experiences. Faculty participation is important for a
transformational change in educational landscape. Through ethnographic case studies,
Ventimiglia (2005) examined transformational change processes at three institutions to identify
“macro-contextual elements of institutional culture that support faculty participation in
transformational change initiatives” (p. v). The objective of the research was to identify the
macro-contextual elements of institutional culture. Macro-contextual elements of institutional
culture refer to a sympathetic culture that offered different levels of opportunities for faculty
participation; a reward system in which the primary rewards were intrinsic; a collective
leadership model; a culture of openness; a supportive administrative subculture; and a climate of
readiness. The study also defined faculty participation as involvement in the planning phase such
as, the thinking, designing, and visioning of an institution’s change agenda.
40
One example of pedagogical investment is the philosophy of “enactive teaching”.
Hocking’s (2004) study is of enactive teaching is drawn on Francisco J. Varela, Evan Thompson,
and Eleanor Rosch, whose philosophy is a theoretical critique of epistemological dualism. In
other words, Enactive Teaching in Higher Education is a narrative exploration of embodied
teaching in the university classroom based on the enactive view of cognition described.
Importantly, it is an imaginative proposition for reinventing ourselves as human beings
by acknowledging the participatory nature of perception, how reflection-as-experience
involves/engages us in relationships that determine our most fundamental senses of identity. The
study enquires how enactive philosophy informs personal and collective senses of participation
and identity, particularly in adult and higher education. While presenting the findings, the study
integrated author’s personal experience and self-development with narratives from the readings
and field study, which ultimately, led them craft a text having diverse voices. However, the study
lacked explicitly subjective or objective view of enactive philosophy. Hocking (2004) defines
cognition telling that this is neither one way of being nor another, but it depends on according to
relationships we engage through our ways of living. The enactive philosophy plays a role in
education as it creates autonomous learners.
Higher education should also strive to encourage creativity. Troop (2013) asks for the
process-oriented curricula that actively engage students in collaborative and novel works, the
interpretation of new and meaningful experiences, and the critical evaluation of ideas at three
levels: individual, collective, and global. In their work which is an explorative study in nature,
Troop (2013) classifies aspects of pedagogical design and teaching practice that enable the
building of students’ creative capacities, which can lead to transformative experiences that
inspire and shape participants’ personal and professional lives. Troop’s (2013) observation
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integrates two of graduate level courses: “Professionals in Rural Practice” and “The Lived
Experience of Disability,” which form the unit of analysis for the study.
In the pursuit for creativity, Troop (2013) collected field notes for 12 weeks; these field
notes include: classroom activities, conversations, interactions, reflections, narratives, and artistic
representations such as, paintings, collages, and photographs. Troop (2013) reported in their
multiple-case study dissertation, “comprehending the nuances and subtleties of graduate-level
teaching and learning requires a high degree of researcher immersion in the classroom contexts
in which data will be collected.” The analysis of the case “involved theorizing about creativity as
a course condition for enabling transformative learning in graduate-level education. Case studies
intimately study particular human endeavors in order to paint a unique portrait for each case of
study” (pp. 86-87).
These two examples of pedagogical innovations and philosophies that get to the
foundations and heart of higher education pedagogy are important considerations when
considering the factors leading to world class status.
Internationalization
One significant way of facilitating transformation of a university to a world-class
institution is to effectively adopt an internationalization approach. Alanazi (2016) defined
internationalization as student, faculty and research exchanges with other universities across
national and cultural borders. Many top-ranking universities across the world, initiated
internationalization on their campuses (Alanazi, 2016). The key reason for internationalizing
higher education institutions is to make them globally competitive by enhancing their capacity to
build new knowledge, nurture talents and innovation, and produced globalized citizens
(Hawawini, 2011). An increase of foreign students in an institution can attract students with
42
better and more varied academic preparation, enhancing the quality of the learning experience
with cross-cultural dimensions (Salmi, 2016).
The ability of higher education institutions to attract international professors and
researchers is another critical factor of world-class academic excellence. Universities must be
able to offer incentives to attract top academics from abroad. This entails offering flexible
employment conditions and strong remuneration. University employees play a significant role in
improving the quality of education, and top talent can advance existing departments and aid in
creating new graduate programs and research centers in areas of comparative advantage. African
universities find it a challenge as well as an opportunity to engage in the internationalization
process (Sehoole & Wit, 2014).
Improving the reputation of a university depends on the extent to which the national
scholars and researchers have competence to publish their research results in English.
Rauschnabel et al., (2016) highlighted one-way top learning institutions can enhance their
reputation in the global scale is by publishing research in prominent scientific publications. Since
English is the global language, a lingua franca, the propensity with which its academics can
publish their work or journals in English becomes a critical factor in enhancing institutional
reputation.
Altbach and Teichler (2001) noted that some countries, such as Australia and the United
Kingdom, are also bringing foreign professionals to lead their top learning institutions through
the transformation process. While hiring an outsider to lead a flagship university can hurt
national sensitivities, this is one of the ways in which learning institutions are trying to be
innovative and challenging themselves into embracing a mindset of change (Salmi, 2009). I
43
suggest that beyond just being innovative, the thought process is that diversity is a key
component of being a global contender.
As international borders become softer, competition in higher education has intensified.
Attracting the best scholars, students, and research partners from all over the world has become
the mode of operation for the learning institutions of global repute. According to Yusuf and
Nabeshima (2007), the ability of science and technology-oriented institutions to attract research
contracts from abroad suggests a strong scientific standing for a university that is rising to the
top.
Investing in Technology
According to Englund, Olofsson, and Price (2017), higher education institutions are
increasingly using technology to improve efficiency and effectiveness in teaching, learning, and
management. Modern universities operate in a competitive environment requiring innovation.
Higher education should not slow adoption of information and communications technology.
Kruss et al. (2015) highlighted the challenges posed by intense competition in the education
sector and financial issues require universities to adopt innovative approaches to ensure world-
class teaching, research, and innovation. An innovative institution encourages students to also
challenge accepted wisdom and develop creative responses to emerging problems (Kruss et al.,
2015).
Internet communications technology can also enhance learning experiences of university
students, whether in communicating with tutors or engaging with peers in an online learning
environment. Technology enables students to access learning opportunities by breaking the
traditional barriers of time and space. By taking advantage of technological innovations,
particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, universities are developing robust infrastructures
44
and expertise in online education. Almost all universities in South Africa comparable to
industrialized countries like the US and Canada have online capacity for virtual teaching,
learning and research. During COVID-19, pedagogies are framed by different modes of online
learning, such as synchronous, asynchronous, remote, hybrid; as well as innovating established
models of flipped, experiential, and professional learning. COVID-19 forced a drastic change in
classroom education. Classroom instructors have turned to social media platforms like Snap
Chat, Instagram, Facebook and others, while sometimes struggling to maintain personal privacy.
At Bowling Green State University in Ohio, instructors use a variety of technologies. For
example, instructors create private YouTube channels to store their class videos, which they
record via Zoom for remote, hybrid, and synchronous remote classes. Instructors also use Canvas
Studio to make videos and upload in the Canvas course shell. In Zoom, instructors use breakout
groups for class activities. In breakout groups, students may collaborate with Google Docs, or
use the Zoom whiteboard tool for concept mapping. During Zoom sessions, instructors use these
activities to create a sense of purpose, cohesion, and accountability for students.
In addition to individual courses, higher learning institutions have also developed flexible
degree pathways for learners to access courses at their convenience (Blight et al., 2002).
Universities are offering degree programs outside the traditional semester-based model to
provide students with flexible learning opportunities. The University of Wisconsin is in fact one
school offering online education through its flexible online competency-based program. Online
education is becoming popular even in world-class universities.
World Rankings
The standard curriculum is one of the dominant variables so far as the global education
rankings are concerned. According to Hazelkom (2015), global university rankings have become
45
a growing obsession. What started small in the United States has now become a commercial
information service for students and organizations seeking universities with a global reputation.
Ranking consciousness around the world has risen in recent years in response to globalization,
neoliberal competition, and the need to develop new knowledge. University rankings reflect what
is now referred to as a “battle for excellence across the world” (Hazelkom, 2015). Rankings are
used to determine the status of individual institutions, gauge learning institutions’ level of global
competitiveness, and attempt to gauge the performance and quality of higher education (Liu, &
Cheng, 2005). While governments and higher education institutions have recognized the
importance of internationalizing top learning organizations, the capacity of higher education to
attract talent and generate knowledge has become an important factor for determining a
university’s capacity to participate in world scientific activities and economy (Altbach & Knight,
2001/2019); Salmi, 2016). In the process, Hazelkom (2015) argues that rankings help
transforming universities and reshaping the higher education system since a few can afford to
ignore the rankings.
In the process, Hazelkom (2015) argues that rankings help transforming universities and
reshaping the higher education system since a few can afford to ignore the rankings.
The “College Rank” site explains that when developed in the US, initially rankings were
focused on different aspects of “outcome.” These days rankings fall into three broad categories:
the quality of research, teaching, and the overall international outlook. Although many
universities raise questions about the usefulness, oversimplification, and the methodology, the
existing literature show that rankings play a vital role in many domains, particularly among the
new in-coming university students who examine rankings prior to deciding about attending a
university or college.
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Summary
This chapter aims to contextualize this dissertation in the existing body of knowledge.
The section begins by highlighting problems faced by higher education institutions in South
Africa. This is useful in shining a light on the strategies and policies undertaken by the
University of Western Cape and for the reader to comprehend the significance of decisions made
by the UWC administration.
Secondly, the chapter explores the concept of ‘World Class Institutions’ in extant
research and attempts to define it. This is done to correctly understand and attribute the rise of
UWC internationally. It is proposed that UWC should be viewed as a post-apartheid institution.
Finally, the chapter explores critical success factors that have been posited by the current
literature and scholarship available on the subject. Based an intensive review of literature, five
common factors are discussed namely concentration of talent, resource adequacy, appropriate
governance, alignment of success factors and role of other actors. It will be interesting to find if
any of these factors were critical in the rise of UWC.
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CHAPTER III. METHODS
The purpose of this chapter is to outline the research design, participant recruitment, data
sources, collection, analysis and presentation used in the study. Guided by the research questions
presented in the first chapter, the section proposes a mechanism by which such questions could
be qualitatively addressed.
Research Design and Paradigm
The purpose of this research is to identify the critical success factors that have led to the
transition of UWC into a world-class higher education institution. This study utilized an
exploratory qualitative approach based on five interviews, internal primary source materials, and
a published work on the changes at the university written by administrators and faculty at UWC,
based on a postpositivism paradigm.
Interviews with administrators and faculty are the primary source of information for this
dissertation. Alshenqeeti (2014) establishes interviewing as a data collection method, and thus
will be appropriately employed in this study as described ahead. Equally, Baskarada (2014)
provides guidelines for qualitative case studies, and Connelly (2016) asserts the ways in which
trustworthiness can be established in qualitative research.
One of the benefits for this type of study is that open-ended questions give participants a
chance to respond in their own words. The interview portion of the study used a semi-structured
interview schedule to enhance consistency of the participants’ responses. The major advantage of
this approach is the provision of detailed information and minimization of unfair subject
assessments. A list of questions based on the published research on critical success factors for a
world-class university aided the researcher in obtaining detailed data for the study. While the
researcher asked directly about the critical and minor success factors described in Chapter 2, the
48
interviews allowed participants to contradict those hypothetical factors, and to contribute ideas
for the development of different factors. I critically analyzed the differences between the success
factors in the literature view and critical factors in the findings to see differences between the
established literature, based largely on Western (Anglo-American) universities, and the
University of Western Cape, a historically African institution that developed under Apartheid.
This difference is important to determine how the current models of evaluating institutions of
higher learning may be deficient in their application outside Anglo-America. The exploratory
method is culturally and meaningfully salient. According to Almalki (2016), the method gives
the researcher an opportunity to probe initial responses and encourage detailed findings.
According to Leedy and Ormrod (2019), a postpositivist paradigm is a philosophical
position that holds that positivism, or the idea of perfect objectivity in the search of absolute
truths is an unattainable goal. Despite their best efforts to collect and analyze data in an impartial
manner, researchers are instruments in the research and bring their perspectives, experiences, and
biases to their investigations—biases regarding the best ways to measure specific variables or the
most logical inferences to draw from data patterns. From a postpositivist perspective, progress
toward real understandings of physical, social, and psychological phenomena tends to be
incremental and probabilistic. Moreover, the study based its conclusions on the existing literature
about the UWC and the transition process (Leedy & Ormrod, 2019).
The qualitative approach is the most appropriate means to study these questions due to
the value it places on people’s experiences. Knowledge is constructed through people’s
experiences, beliefs, and attitudes; therefore, fully understanding the mechanisms involved in the
eventual success of the UWC could only be achieved through detailing the personal experiences
of its stakeholders (Rahi, 2017).
49
In utilizing the qualitative approach, I tried to capture and synthesize the experiences of
members of the UWC community. The postpositivist paradigm and the qualitative approach are
intertwining concepts valuing personal meanings and experiences rather than quantitative or
numerical data. The purpose, objectives, and questions of the research align with the techniques
of postpositivism and qualitative approaches.
Rationale for a Case Study Research Design
The focus of the study on UWC allowed the researcher to produce culturally relevant
results that could illuminate the processes of improving performance standards as well as
improve the evaluation criteria of South African universities. Through a case study, the
researcher expects to overcome limitations of quantitative analysis by providing holistic and in-
depth explanations of a social phenomenon (Yin, 2017), an observation of the organization in
question (Baskarada, 2014), and the exploration and understanding of complex issues. These I
defined as critical success factors, which the secondary literature suggests are crucial for a
university to aspire to and achieve world-class status. In summary, the case study particularly
focused on evaluating the improvements made at the UWC since Apartheid in order to identify
critical success factors necessary for the development of effective quality improvement strategies
in higher education.
Case studies are in-depth and detailed inquiries of a given group or organization to
describe a situation or phenomenon in relation to the topic in question (Yin, 2017). According to
De Massis and Kotlar (2014), case studies are usually qualitative in nature. The case study
provides a narrative description of experience that articulates the findings in a systematic
manner, allowing readers to understand the content of the research. The case study approach is a
salient tool in qualitative research because it helps in the exploration and description of a
50
phenomenon (De Massis & Kotlar, 2014). It is also more flexible than other research approaches,
allowing the researcher to explore a wide variety of issues during the research process (Hyett et
al 2014).
Role of the Researcher
The researcher has a central role in qualitative research. In qualitative studies, the
researcher is the instrument (Slembrouck, 2015), making the potential of researcher bias high. To
reduce potential bias, the researcher utilized a semi-structured interview schedule as a data
collection tool or instrument. Nevertheless, the researcher recognizes Slembrouck’s (2015) claim
that it is always essential to be aware of the relevant aspects of the self, including biases,
assumptions, and experiences that might impact the researcher’s ability to conduct the study.
The researcher perceived his role in this research as the primary data collector, organizer,
and analyzer. It is the researcher’s responsibility to monitor and reduce bias through strictly
following the ethics of research. In order to minimize confirmation bias, all interviews were
audio recorded; the researcher also re-evaluated the statements of respondents to challenge any
preexisting assumptions, ultimately aiming to accurately record and interpret respondents’
responses. Validity Procedures
Creswell and Miller’s (2000) explanation about validity procedures is helpful for this
project, particularly, member checking, peer debriefing, and an impartial audit helps expedite
this research process. Using lens and paradigm assumptions, the authors create a two-
dimensional framework for locating nine different types of validity procedures. The following
Table 2 exhibits the validity procedures within the qualitative research framework.
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Table 2
Validity Procedures Within Qualitative Lens and Paradigm Assumptions
Creswell and Miller (2000) argue that with member checking, the validity procedure
shifts from the researchers to participants in the study. Therefore, the interviews of the
participants were recorded via Zoom, which were transcribed later by the researcher, revised by
the researcher’s colleagues followed by IRB regulations in researcher’s presence using
researcher’s computer facilities, and resent to the participant for a final version of the transcript.
By collaborating with colleagues who reviewed the interview and transcripts, correcting and
minimizing errors on the part of the researcher, as well as communicating the transcripts back to
the participants, the potential for misinterpretation or malevolent bias on the part of the
researcher was reduced.
The participants enhance the credibility of the study by affirming their voices in data and
the narrative. The goal of a formal audit is “to examine both the process and product of the
inquiry, and determine the trustworthiness of the findings” (Creswell & Miller, 2000, p. 128). In
addition, through this process of documenting a study and a review of the documentation by an
external auditor, the narrative account becomes credible. Moreover, the peer debriefing or peer
Paradigm assumption/Lens
Postpositivist or Systematic Paradigm Constructivist Paradigm Critical Paradigm
Lens of the Researcher Triangulation Disconfirming evidence Researcher
reflexivity
Lens of Study Participants Member checking Prolonged engagement
in the field Collaboration
External Lenses (Reviewers,
Readers) The audit trail Thick, rich description Peer debriefing
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review “can provide written feedback to researchers or simply serve as a sounding board for
ideas. By seeking the assistance of peer debriefers, researchers add credibility to a study”
(Creswell and Miller, 2000, p. 128).
The most important step in understanding who I am as a researcher is to evaluate how my
worldview may influence my approach. Although researchers are often presupposed to be
objective and impartial as they attempt to discover and interpret new information, personal
understanding of the world and of the research itself is bound to shape one’s perception. This is
why Watts (2006) emphasizes that each study begins with “placing the researcher openly within
the research process as a subjective participant” (p. 388). Milner (2007) also emphasizes the role
of positionality while bringing race and culture in relation to a researcher’s positionality. The
author argues that “researchers are challenged to work through dangers and to reconsider their
own and others’ racialized and cultural positionality in conducting research” (p. 397). Instead of
being an objective head of the study, a researcher is a subjective participant driven by the goal to
reveal something new and reach a greater understanding of the world. This subjectivity is not a
barrier between the researcher and successful results, but rather a personal position on existence
and knowledge influenced by personal worldview. Guided by this idea, I will evaluate myself as
a researcher through the lens of different views on research.
As mentioned, subjectivity is an inevitable part of all human knowledge, so people may
come to understand other points of view only through a conscious effort when they are motivated
to accept those views that are different from their own. Consequently, it may be concluded that
from my point of view, people come to know and understand through their subjective
experiences of the environment. The problems caused by this way of obtaining knowledge reflect
on the process of research. For example, Watts (2006) mentions that in the study context “the
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concept of barriers takes on an almost inevitably subjective form, so what the researcher
perceives as a barrier may not necessarily be seen as such by those taking part in the study” (p.
392). This is why I, as a researcher, aim to keep in mind that my understanding, the information
from secondary sources, and the knowledge of other research participants are all limited and
partial. I can expand my understanding and come to know more than I currently do, but I can
never know everything, and my interpretations are bound to remain subjective.
According to Jones, Torres, and Arminio (2013), these beliefs are predominantly
postmodernist with an indication of the critical position. They further mention the following
relevant characteristics of the critical position: “truth is influenced by history and societal
structure” and “the view of objectivity as goal is harmful”. On the other hand, Burbules and Rice
(1991) in their explanation of the postmodernist position include such equally relevant
characteristics as “the limits of one’s understanding of others from their point of view” and “the
subjective process of identity-formation” (pp. 400-402). Therefore, as my beliefs about human
knowledge evidently reflect both positions, my research approach is bound to be influenced by
them.
In conclusion, my worldview defines me as a qualitative critical and postmodernist
researcher. First, I believe that the purpose of research is to uncover valuable information,
although I aim to use this information not only to gain a greater understanding but also to trigger
positive changes. Second, I think that the most compelling questions are the ones revealing the
complexity of cause-effect relationships, and they come from the complexity of the world and
human beings. However, once again, the answers to these questions are valuable not only
because they reveal information but also due to the fact that they may be useful for practical and
transformational goals. Third, I suggest that people come to know and understand through their
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subjective experiences of the interactions with their environment, so their knowledge is shaped
by the external informational sources and their individual perception. All of these beliefs reflect
the aspects of both postmodernist and critical research positions. Therefore, as a researcher, I
would have to consider the limits of these views because they are bound to influence my
approach to all of the aspects in the research process.
Personal Interest
As a researcher, my interest in the research is committed to improving the quality of
higher education. I suggest that educational good comes from serving minoritized populations in
a way that respects their intrinsic cultures and values. On a professional level, I value higher
education transformation; particularly, I have an interest in contributing to the development and
advancement (irrespective of cultures, race and ethnic groups) and of higher education in South
Africa and in countries outside the Western axis. The development of South Africa is
fundamentally reliant upon the ability of higher education institutions to improve its human
development capacity (Leibowitz & Bozalek, 2014). I was inspired by the transition of the UWC
from a small college to a world-class university. Without doubt, I am interested in understanding
how the institution transformed its faculty and administration. It is my intention to produce a
study that can be applied by other higher education institutions. I am also interested in
developing critical success factors that can be used as standards of performance by higher
education institutions inside and outside South Africa. There are significant disparities among
higher education institutions in South Africa. I believe that performance disparities in higher
education can affect equal access to high quality education.
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Participant Selection
The quality of data collected is reliant upon the selection of participants (Gardner et al.,
2017). For the case study, it was important to find participants who have relevant, valuable, and
in-depth information about the UWC. Therefore, it was significant for the researcher to reflect on
which participants would provide the information sought. The population of interest includes
UWC administrators as well as current and former administrative staff and faculty members.
Given that the research is qualitative in nature, a non-probability sampling method is
most appropriate (Robinson, 2014). Therefore, purposive sampling was utilized in choosing the
participants. The method allows the researcher to select a sample size based on the time and
resources available. Since the participants (they were not meant to represent a population, the
participants are not, representation of the relevant population of academic and administrators at
UWWC. Purposive sampling is a suitable method of participant selection in this study
(Robinson, 2014).
There were no specific limitations or inclusion criteria set on age, background, and
gender of the participants, as long as they are significantly knowledgeable about the
development, history, educational strategies, and performance of the UWC; however, in order to
get diverse perspectives on the topic of the study, the researcher required participants to be part
of the UWC organization for a period of no less than ten years. The researcher expected eight to
twelve participants to participate in the study, in the end five participants fully participated in the
interviews. Unlike quantitative research, a small population sample is adequate in qualitative
research because the focus is not on getting a representative sample (Malterud et al 2016). In
addition, limits on travel to South Africa and in general during the COVID-19 pandemic, starting
in March 2020 through early 2022, limited the ability of the researcher to travel to South Africa
56
as planned, and limited the ability to make in-person contacts with UWC administrators and
faculty. Therefore, I tried to produce sufficient primary data for the research by using these five
respondents who observed the change.
Participant Recruitment
The recruitment involved email correspondence with UWC administration as well as to
search the university website to know about the past contributors who contributed to the
successful change. This included the process of knowing about the important people who
contributed to the change of UWC.
All of those who involved in the process agreed to be a part of the study and agreed to be
named, waiving anonymity. The recruitment process was formal. The recruitment process began
after the identification of research participants (Namageyo-Funa et al., 2014). The researcher
preferred the direct method of contacting participants through the email in order to easily explain
the purpose and relevance of the study. After confirming participation, the next step was to
provide the participants with a detailed informed consent through email. In the consent letter,
participants were informed of the ethical considerations of the study, their rights, and other
pertinent information about study.
In the beginning of recruiting process, the researcher sent out emails, the addresses
retrieved from UWC faculty website, to around 30 faculty members. Most declined to participate
in the study due to personal, professional, and social engagements. The direct approach not
yielding connections, I learned about a partnership between the University of Missouri and
UWC, and contacted the head of the program and a retired Law professor from Missouri, Dr.
Ronday J. Uphoff, who recommended contacting six academic and staff at UWC. I contacted
these six individuals, and two of them, Dr. Umesh Bawa, head of UWC international Office, and
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Dr. Ndomelele Ludidi, a professor of Plant sciences and involved in several ongoing
collaborations, immediately agreed to participate in this study; the four others Dr. Uphoff
recommended could not participate due to personal, health and professional reasons.
Nevertheless, Dr. Umesh Bawa was enthusiastic about this research and became the
researcher’s most important point of contact at UWC. He graciously recommended other
participants and personally encouraged them to participate in this study. As a result of Dr.
Bawa’s support, Ms. Lois Dippenaar, the director of Institutional Planning, and Dr. Abdulrazack
(Razack) Karriem the director of Institute for Social Development agreed to and participated in
interviews. Also, a friend of the researcher recommended to contact Dr. Khalida Sabi, Associate
Lecturer of Neuropathy, to be a participant in the study, and he agreed. Thus, the five
participants in this study are:
- Dr. Umesh Bawa, Director of the International Office;
- Dr. Ndomelele Ludidi, Professor of Plant Science;
- Ms. Lois Dippenaar, Director of Institutional Planning;
- Dr. Khalida Sabi, Associate Lecturer of Neuropathy
- Dr. Abdulrazack (Razack) Karriem, Director of the Institute for Social Development
Despite the efforts to interview eight to twelve participants on the part of the researcher, his
faculty advisor, Dr. Uphoff at Missouri, and Dr. Bawa at UWC, the researcher was only able to
conduct five interviews. These interviews were rich, detailed, and are the core of the findings in
this dissertation, supplemented with primary and secondary sources that are central to the
research questions and provided complementary evidence to this study. These interviews were
conducted via Zoom in May and June, 2022 while maintaining IRB regulations.
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Instrumentation
In this research, the semi-structured interview schedule proposed and utilized; therefore,
the study primarily used, open-ended questions that helped unearth important experiences,
observations, and opinions (Popping, 2015). The respondents were not given multiple choices
items; instead, they answered questions in their own words. The respondent had more freedom to
craft an answer. It was important to allow the respondents the freedom to answer questions
because the research is more concerned with getting original responses about the main research
questions. Data Collection Method
When the research questions were identified, I focused on developing the case study
approach. The purpose of data collection is to gather reliable information to help address the
research questions. Qualitative interviews through a semi-structured questionnaire had been used
in gathering information. In justifying the method, an interview is found to be effective in
collecting in-depth information (Alshenqeeti, 2014), thus it was relevant in helping to deepen the
understanding of the critical factors that led to the improvement of the UWC. Apart from this, it
also allowed the interviewer to ask for clarifications pertinent to fully understanding the context
of the study (Dowling, Lloyd, & Suchet-Pearson, 2016). An interview allowed respondents to
address the issues they think are important. Also, an interview allowed the respondent to engage
fully with the questions (Jamshed, 2014). Semi-structured interviews are designed to last
between 60 and 90 minutes. Participants had been asked about their experiences at the
institution, their administrative experience, and how UWC has improved faculty and academic
programs.
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Printed and Published Sources
Because of COVID-19, the researcher was not able to visit UWC as planned for in-
person interviews. The researcher also learned that the university archives at UWC only collect
contemporary dissertations and theses, and do not have holdings related to the history and
development of the university after the Apartheid era. Therefore, the primary resources for this
research consist of interview data, primary documents, and published secondary sources from the
university. For this dissertation, in addition to five interviews with current university faculty and
staff, printed sources include Institutional Operating Plans (IOP); annual campus reports of
UWC, and an edited volume written by UWC faculty and administrators, From Hope to Action
Through Knowledge: The Renaissance of the University of the Western Cape 2001-2004 (2020).
Upon completion of the interview with Ms. Lois Deppenar, she recommended I look into
Institutional Operating Plans and the Annual Reports of the UWC, which were available in
digital form and available to outside researchers. Ms. Lois Deppenar was able to access to
Institutional Operating Plans from the years 2010 to 2025 and the Annual Reports of the UWC
from the years 2007 to 2016 and emailed them directly to the researcher. and the Annual Reports
of UWC. What I learnt is that each year UWC produced IOPs and ARs, but I used the resources
(whatever was available, as mentioned already) to answer the research questions of the study.
These resources, in addition, helped the project to know the strategic and visionary plans of
UWC.
As I searched for participants for this study, I was in email contact with Dr. Ronday J.
Uphoff, Dr. Premesh Lalu, and Dr. Ramesh Bharuthram, and they all recommended for this
project an edited volume published by the university in 2020 called From Hope to Action
Through Knowledge: The Renaissance of the University of the Western Cape 2001-2014. This
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edited work describes the history of UWC from Apartheid through 2014, and the role of
leadership, governmental relations, university finances, recruitment of faculty and students,
infrastructure, and many other crucial topics during the critical time and the process of
transformations of UWC. This work helped this dissertation project by providing information
about transforming, institutional, strategic realignment of the academic project, and most
importantly the reflection stories from participants in the transformation of UWC since
Apartheid.
With all these printed sources, primary and secondary published by the UWC, the
researcher maintained a critical interpretive eye on the documents, understanding that
institutional reports and published materials may be biased in favor of telling a story that
emphasizes what is seen to benefit the institution, and may minimize challenges or discord
during that period (Escolano, 1986). As with the interviews, the research used the published
materials in this dissertation to triangulate, confirm, and seek disconfirming evidence to better
support the interpretations, findings and conclusions.
Data Analysis and Presentation
In qualitative data analysis, the analytical and interpretive skills of the researcher are
critical. The process of effectively analyzing raw qualitative data begins with content analysis,
referring to the categorization of verbal data to classify and summarize the semi-structured
interview data. As a common qualitative technique, theming had been used to categorize the
data. Theming allows the researcher to identify the main ideas of the respondents (Stuckey,
2015), and is one of the best techniques in recording opinions and experiences (Saldaña, 2015).
About data collection, Creswell (2013) argues that it is “a series of interrelated activities
aimed at gathering good information to answer emerging research questions” (p.146). The one-
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on-one interview is one of the data collection methods for this study, which provided me with
essential information to address my research questions. In this study, theming allowed for the
categorization of strategies and initiatives that were used to improve UWC, ultimately helping
clarify the critical success factors that helped the organization to achieve success. However, sets
of data had been synthesized into specific themes, such as the Role of Management, or Changing
Vision and Core Values, and so on. Generally, theming helped summarize the data and reduce it
to components that can be classified as critical success factors of UWC improvement.
Data presentation is an important aspect of the research process because it provides the
researcher with an opportunity to interpret the data. The textual method of data presentation had
been used in this study due to its appropriateness in explaining complex and diverse social
phenomena. Verbatim quotes from the research subjects were used for the purpose of
highlighting the main themes of the research.
Ethical Considerations
Ethical considerations are important for credible research as they reflect accepted
standards of behavior and decision-making in research (Silverman, 2016). In addition, ethics
promote the pursuit of knowledge and truth. The way a researcher handles ethical issues has a
significant impact on the integrity of the research. The researcher made every effort to adhere to
ethical methods and processes. The research was conducted under strict ethical standards,
respecting confidentiality and privacy, using no deceptive practices, to ensure responsible
conduct (Mockler, 2014). The researcher had approval for the study through BGSU and
Institutional Review Board (IRB), ensuring that the research plan respects the rights and welfare
of the participants.
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Consistent with the view of Silverman (2016), the researcher perceives human
participants as the most important aspect of this research (Silverman, 2016). Given this, the risk
to human participants was minimized by securing informed consent and respecting requests for
confidentiality. Because the research focused on the improvements made at the UWC, and not
delicate or dangerous individual activities, the researcher and the BGSU Institutional Review
Board agreed there were minimal risks, if any, to participants in this study. Participants were
informed that they have the right to end their participation in the study at any time. In addition,
they were informed that they could withdraw from the study should they feel any discomfort in
answering or participating. Participants were also informed that their identity can be protected at
all times. Recordings of semi-structured interviews will be kept in a flash drive and protected by
a password. Only the researcher will have access to the confidential information. The researcher
is also determined to exercise a culture of honesty in the reporting of procedures, methods, and
results. The ethical principle of objectivity was applied by ensuring that all forms of bias are
eliminated from the research as much as possible. I will uphold the study’s integrity by keeping
all promises to the research participants.
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CHAPTER IV. FINDINGS
In this section, I describe the findings of this case study on the rise and ascent of UWC.
This study was conducted to answer the following research questions: -
1- What are the critical success factors that transformed UWC to improve its international
standing?
2- What administrative approaches and strategies did UWC implement to improve its
educational quality and operational performance?
3- What resources were developed and utilized by UWC during its period of development?
To answer these questions, explorative semi-structured interviews were conducted with
five participants UWC faculty and staff. They were selected based on responsiveness,
availability and experience at UWC. In addition, the researcher reviewed primary and secondary
sources published by UWC regarding its development since 1994. The following themes were
developed and organized from most to least important, based on the density and depth of
responses around the themes.
RQ 1. What Are the Critical Success Factors that Transformed UWC to Improve its
International Standing?
In this subsection, the researcher will analyze a few of the success factors such as the role
of management, changing Vision and Core Values, all types of supports from government,
financial resources, academic improvement, research and innovation, and community
engagement. These are ordered while focusing the significance of subject matters as well as
these factors were highlighted the most in the interview data which was later validated by the
printed sources.
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Role of Management
The Role of University Management is a primary success factor in the transformation of
UWC. Among all respondents and printed materials, different matrices of leadership were noted
and mentioned, in particular the role of University Rector Brian O’Connell. In his interview, Dr.
Umesh Bawa (Director of the International Office) stated:
“We had Rector Brian O’Connell who was a visionary man, who was previously the
director-general of education. He led the university for the period of 14 years to blossom the
university into some world-class university.”
it was that visionary leadership of Brian O’Connell that went forward. So the Public
Health building was the same story. As with infrastructure, if you don't have the
laboratory, well then you can't play with the big players. You can't be a global player, if
you can't match their facilities. So there was a strategic vision to build facilities that could
make this happen for the University, which we did. Very, very well.
And I think this is the way that leadership lead the transformation. People develop
leadership collectively from the top down, but also from students. And students in South
Africa are very thoughtful, they work quite hard. So, this is how they were able to feed
into the university process. And (investing in) people will make you grow.
Similarly, Professor Ndomelele Ludidi (Professor of Plant Science) named Rector O’Connell as
a primary leader in transforming the University:
Professor Brian O’Connell is one reason that UWC became the leading historically
disadvantaged black institution in South Africa. He drove excellence and development of
the university to a level that I think no one ever imagined that UWC would become. And,
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I really think that UWC owes its success to these two leaders, specifically Professor Jakes
Gerwell and Professor Brian O’Connell. And of course, the other leaders played their
roles as well. But, I think these are the two that really stand out as excellent leaders for
UWC they have leadership styles, they have commitment of UWC and they are desire to
transform UWC to one of the leading university in the country.
Ms. Lois Dippenaar (Director of Institutional Planning) mentioned several challenges that the
university leadership faced, particularly with facilities and expanding the academic offerings
beyond the humanities and education into the physical and natural sciences:
I think leadership played an important role internally. The university was at a low point
[around the Year 2000] staff morale was very low, our finances were a mess, and uniting
staff and leading the staff in believing the future of the university again was a big thing,
very important. And then to do things, ensuring the financial recovery plan, and not just
one thing at a time and rebuilding the elements of the academic projects. Finding money
to re-envision the physical campus, and to invest in the new buildings that supported the
academic projects that we were trying to rebuild and the best example of these our
science facilities was very old and outdated in a sense. So, at first, a very big new
building was a life sciences building and a lot of our finances went into rebuilding the
science facilities. UWC was never planned by the apartheid government in 1960 to be a
strong science player in the country. And part of what the leadership did was to identify
for us to be taken seriously nationally we have to be strong in the sciences as well. Not
just in the humanity and social sciences and those areas and education. So, that was
internally driving a vision making staff believe that the university has a proud past but it
also has the opportunity to have a very proud future. I think externally it was rebuilding
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partnerships and forging new relationships and obviously searching for funding. So, I
think it was a balancing act between what the leadership did within the university but also
what they did externally, rebuilding the name of the university, rebuilding the trust in
UWC as a strong university that provides good education which degree must be
respected. The graduates were respected for their qualifications, the qualifications were
respected.
Dr. Khalida Sabi, (Associate Lecturer of Neuropathy) recognized the role of academic and
campus leadership at many levels as UWC transformed:
Leadership is extremely important in UWC. And we have been blessed with amazing
leaders at UWC. From the rector down to the deans, , all of them faculty managers, and
faculty officers, they are excellent leaders. They don’t just build themselves in the
university they built and meet them as well like lecturers, deputy managers, etc.., they
build them up. The leaders are very open-minded with regard to personal and
professional growth. And they have the understanding in UWC that leadership is not a
one-man show, leadership is a collaborative effort. And that brings about the biggest
change. Because leadership is not a single road for everybody, so they need to contribute
to the leadership in some way and some of our leaders build the leaders that are exactly
what we need. Because of the leadership, UWC become a place of growth, in every
single level this growth is exactly what we need. And thus contribute to the overall
success of the UWC has is because of our leadership. And our leadership is being
positively driven which is great.
In addition to the interviews, published and primary sources from UWC mention Rector
O’Connell and the role of university administrators. Tyrone Pretorius, who later became the
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Rector and Vice Chancellor of UWC, mentions the following about his predecessor’s role in the
transitions of UWC:
Under Brian O’Connell’s inspiring leadership, it has forged ahead to become one of the
nation’s acknowledged research-intensive universities and a formidable intellectual
powerhouse. UWC’s research impact in fields from genetics and biotechnology to
nanoscience, from renewable energy to space science, places it in the leading position or
among the leaders in South Africa (Pretorius, 2015a).” (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p.
435)
Motivation, staff and leadership development were also mentioned in relation to the role of
university management:
In parallel to establishing an appropriate Executive Management Team for the realisation
of his vision, Professor O’Connell concentrated on motivating all other staff members. He
continued to enunciate his strong belief that UWC was uniquely positioned for great
achievements, despite the institution’s limited resources: “We are special because of our
past: therefore, we must believe in ourselves.” (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p. 7)
Though Rector O’Connell’s health did not allow him to participate in the interviews, he wrote
about his understanding of how the university would transition from serving a disempowered
political minority to a political majority after Apartheid:
We began early on to make sense of our historically black status. We must celebrate it
consistently to remind us about how brave we were, how daring we were and how
successful we were given a particular set of challenges. So, it’s within us to rise to
challenge. That’s why we remind ourselves….The second reason we must hold onto it is
to keep reminding ourselves that the majority of people in this country were on the wrong
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side of the largesse, the welfare of this enterprise. So, the majority of the people shared
our historical blackness. So, in everything we do we must be in discourse with them,
because we are saying in a sense we are you, but because of our particular mandate we’ve
got to think about what we might be. And so, we want you to look at us and as we go into
discourse with you, see how it’s possible for us to begin to move this entire enterprise into
a more advantageous position with respect to securing a better future.
So, we can’t let go of our historical blackness, but we can’t hold onto it as our defining
characteristic. Our defining characteristic is that we were that, but now we are in a new
situation. We carry all the hurts of that, but we are now striving to see how we challenge
our reality, and we challenge it on both sides. It’s to dare that way and it’s to dare this
way, because it’s a fork.
So how do we make sense of this now? We make sense of this by saying as an historically
black institution we must debunk the notion that certain kinds of knowledge are the
preserve of a certain group of people. That modern science is a Western thing. We must
debunk that and we debunk that by showing we can do it too, and if we must link
anywhere, we must link with Timbuktu, and we must link with some of the early African
universities, and the Persian universities of that time, to show that this is not the right of a
privileged few. This is all part of our human possibility. (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p.
9).
So, one of the important changes O’Connell noted was the need for the university to confidently
enter the worlds of science and technology, and draw upon the histories and traditions of other
non-Western universities with confidence that Western science is not just the realm of European
and Western universities. O’Connell continued:
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Our history has denied us the freedom to engage with the world and to dare it. We now
have that chance. This University is you and this is you doing this. Look at what you can
do so that you lose your inhibition and you lose your sense of self-consciousness- and
your self-esteem will grow as you start to play at ever higher levels, more complex levels
or more necessary levels of sophistication, of quality, in order to confront what the
challenges are and deliver on your aspirations of being competent in meeting your
challenges.
So, it’s not an aspiration in the sense of being fanciful. It’s an aspiration to ask what must
we know if we are to survive and grow, and if we don’t know it now, can we at this
University-given the fact that it (UWC) is embedded within all the challenges and
difficulties of this (disadvantaged) sector - identify and acquire the necessary knowledge?
Can we actually dare to walk that ambitious journey and, if we walk it successfully, what
does it say to our culture and our society, because it’s not someone else - we and you are
doing it from within. We are not leaving our community…we are not going and becoming
something else. We remain a part of you, your own people and (because of our success)
look at what we are capable of doing. And that’s how I feel about UWC particularly and
that’s how make sense of it.” (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p.10)
In summary, the above discussion shows the importance of O’Connell in the present
study because of his intriguing discussion about the role of management, a critical success factor
of the research. In other words, it is evident how all sources unequivocally point out to the
visionary leadership of O’Connell and his administration and its instrumental role in reclaiming
the university and making it blossom to its current state. O’Connell brought changes in the role
of leadership too by training, motivating, and inspiring the faculty members and staff. He,
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overall, had been able to bring a sense of belongingness among the people working at UWC,
which ultimately made UWC a functional, visionary, and a dynamic higher educational institute.
Changing Vision and Core Values
The interviewers and other texts demonstrate that the University’s Vision played a key
role in guiding UWC through this transition. There were major shifts in this vision as well. From
an Apartheid-era marginalized institution to one representing all majority Black South Africans
under Dr. Jakes Gerwell and after 1994, to develop UWC into a world-class university while
respecting its unique history. Four out of five interviews, and published materials highlighted the
university’s Changing Vision and Core Values.
For example, Professor Bawa referred to the post-apartheid leadership of under Dr. Jakes
Gerwell “visionary”, adding:
There was much focus on ‘opening the doors of learning for all,’ which was the motto of
the Freedom Charter. Anyone, any member of any racial group could afford to get to the
university, and be afforded access to education; which had fundamentally been denied to
people of color like me. I could now have the opportunity to access advanced education
that could be of service to society. The governance from the Senate voted for opening the
university. There was a lot of opposition because it was a public university funded by the
government in 1984. There was a reduction of resources decreed by apartheid legislation.
They stratified the allocation of the resources. The so-called white race got 1000 USD per
student. If you are so-called colored you got 400 USD. If you are so-called African you
got 100 USD, that’s how they stratified the resource allocation by race. The university
was now accessible for quality education. Our UWC motto is ‘From hope to action
through knowledge’. So, knowledge is important to bring about change. Some kind of
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societal change and qualitatively change the peoples’ conditions. Before 1994, Jakes
Gerwel, a strong leader, focus on engaging with the community helped also by the cohort
of intellectuals who were progressive in their thinking and worked to be able to upgrade
and share their international experience, as they had been exiled previously. So, the
university was developing and burgeoning; building on its strategic vision to lift the
quality of education, not to the level of white education but international benchmarked
quality education from the top universities.
Professor Ludidi stated the following, underscoring the role of vision in the transformation of
UWC and how even student representatives understood it very well at that time:
We had high quality leadership at the executive and senior level but also high-quality
leadership in the student level as well. The student group representative comes all the
time they have very clear knowledge of where the institution aspirations were, and the
leadership at senior and executive level was of high quality. Had a good reason and knew
which direction had to go in order for it to be seen as an institution of excellence.
Professor Ludidi also stated about the institution’s vision:
It played a huge role, and I think this is leadership at all levels at the executive level we
really have leaders that have a vision for UWC could be an institution of excellence, an
institution that is accessible to the community that UWC serves.
Professor Razack Kareem states:
One of the things is as I said earlier, the history of the university was to be teachers,
basically produce teachers. And people like Jakes Gerwell and others basically rethought
what the university was going to be. So, the one, they broadened and opened it up,
transformed it in a sense to represent all South Africans.
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Staff member Lois Dippenaar expressed how this vision permeated into the staff at UWC
enabling them to perform better and grow with UWC: “…So, that was internally driving a vision
making staff believe that the university has a proud past but it also has the opportunity to have a
very proud future.”
Similarly, Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) argue that the vision of Professor Brian
O’Connell as the Rector and Vice Chancellor of UWC played a critical role in the turnaround of
UWC and its ascent. Under his leadership the dissent and activism of the University from its
Apartheid days took a more intellectual flavor, trust in management was restored, academic
quality was improved, enrollment and financial problems were addressed. As Professor
O’Connell stated “…we can’t let go of our historical blackness, but we can’t hold onto it as our
defining characteristic …” (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p. 9), thereby giving the University a
fresh lease of life and the ideological foundation upon which to build a bold future free from the
burden of the past. Bharuthram and Popkas (2020) write:
Professor O’Connell had a deep understanding of the daunting challenges facing South
Africa’s fledgling democracy and the importance of the role of universities as the
originators of new knowledge and thought processes. He constantly articulated the need
to make sense of the situation as depicted in the picture below, which he used
consistently to remind the UWC family of the institution’s greater purpose.
The challenge was to find the middle road that addresses the dire needs of the 85% of our
country’s population who were previously severely disadvantaged, at the same time not
putting fear into the 15% who were advantaged during apartheid. (pp. 8-9)
Professor O’Connell wrote on this transition and the University’s vision:
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So that’s what I now see as the function of our universities, but UWC in particular
because of its past, because of its integrity, its reputation. There is a possibility that the
culture will listen to UWC in ways that it won’t listen to other universities, which it
considers to be foreign or alien voices. UWC has a legacy in the struggle against
apartheid as representing the voice of the people - the downtrodden, the oppressed. So if
this University was to really, really shine academically within our democracy and start
producing large numbers of students from our communities of great ability underpinned
by excellence in scholarship, while not losing our societal impact, then we shall give our
culture great hope for the future. Such achievement will improve our chances of having a
successful discourse with our culture. There’s trust in this organisation because of its
past, as there will be trust in some of the others, for example, the University of Fort Hare.
(Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p. 10)
The above evidence clearly highlights the role of a new vision for UWC was based in its
core values: serving the Black population of South Africa that had assumed a central role in
governing the country after Apartheid, while honoring its history of struggle during Apartheid;
developing a sense of hope that the conditions can improve at the University and for Black South
Africans in general, where the aspirations are clear to become an institution of academic
excellence, and how this vision permeated the institution.
Support from Government
Conflict with the Apartheid government was a defining feature of UWC’s identity and
legacy before 1994. In 2002, a report by the National Working Group (NWG) underscored the
poor financial health of the institution in the early 2000s. This prompted the University
administration and Vice Chancellor to respond by stating that ‘…UWC’s financial vulnerability
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was strongly related to its apartheid past and its attempts to challenge this legacy, and the
University should not be penalised for the persistence of these structural inequalities across the
system.’ (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p. 18). With the official end of that system, government
support and donors proved instrumental in the preservation and development of the University,
but this support came with its own set of challenges. Support from government was important to
deal with matters related to finance, legislation, and regulation of UWC. The Department of
Education had planned to merge UWC with another institution but its leadership was able to
convince the government after a long struggle that UWC should be preserved as an independent
institution because of its indispensable value to the South African people and the community.
Lois Dippenaar stated the following regarding support from the government and
government institutions: “The support I talked about earlier how the government allowed us to
grow to have more students contribute through tuition. But they also support the university in
different ways through different grants.” She continued:
One is the infrastructure and efficiency grant that helped us to get new buildings because
our student numbers grew tremendously from 2000 to now – we’ve more than doubled in
science and to allow our infrastructure to grow to cope with the growth we required a lot
of money and also, we are going to produce a new grant: the historically disadvantages
distribution HDI grant. The historically disadvantaged institutions (HDIs), there are eight
of those in this country within 26 universities, and those are the ones who by the
apartheid government. We created for non-white students. It may be Black students, or
colored students, or Indian students but non-white students. They received lower funding
than former white universities. Recognizing the deficit that HDI was sitting with and
creating a special grant to support HDIs was also an important straightforward and I think
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also the national department allowing us to significantly grow our student
numbers...which we were also able to increase our incomes through fees and the student
who are also funded by the departments, students from poor household that receives
government grants to support their funding. I think this a combination of that. If one
refers to the investment of the government that includes political leaders. Because the
national department is under the leadership of political leaders. And I think in terms of
donors, it’s not necessarily the traditional donors that one would think of, but I think the
funding and income we got through partnership projects.
Professor Ludidi added:
So, there was a lot of government support for UWC’s advancement, which of course was
facilitated by the good leadership that the university has. So, our national government as
a stakeholder had a big role in contributing to UWC success.
Dr. Sabi posited:
With regard to the percentage of change, donors play a strong role. Donors and
government support definitely. Government support specifically with regards for the
students is to be able students to study. UWC and all other universities have funds from
government-supported organization that basically provides help to university students to
study. From my teaching experience, that has made, the biggest difference with regard to
a student being able to study, despite having financial concerns. And we have donors that
specifically donate to the university, like for example that I know of is the current
Bellville community medical center. The faculty of health science moved to Bellville
specifically and we had donors that basically financially supported us in building up the
amazing building that we have right now. So UWC had assistance, we did not do that on
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our own, which is great. So we are so grateful to the donors who contributed towards
building up such amazing buildings with all the latest equipment, which gives our
students an added advantage to learning. So, government support and donors definitely,
those that I know of helped us absolutely amazingly to bring us where we are now. To
build up a university that is worth recognizing.
Professor Kareem stated about funding from the government that:
We got money from the university and government and we get money from the donor
agency the other part is the partnership that exists…So, it is a government funded
institution, we got quite an amount of money from the government. that plays the key
role, but it’s also about the grants that different departments raise for example.
In sum, the increase in government support for UWC, and the impacts this had on how
departments could support students, as well as an increase in donations to the university was a
crucial change that allowed the university to achieve its goals of academic excellence. The
biggest support from the government was the recapitalisation of UWC (Bharuthram & Pokpas,
2020).
Academic Improvement
Academic improvement is the fourth critical success factor found in the study that
demonstrates that success of academic excellence in UWC setting and goals of the administrative
leadership. The UWC made it a priority to improve the quality of teaching and research being
conducted on its campus. In this regard, it established a Directorate of Teaching and Learning
(DTL) in 2008 based on inputs from the South African Council of Higher Education CHE’s
report. Dr. Sabi focused the most on academic improvement in her interview. She stated:
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From my experience, I know the university prides itself on four areas or three areas
predominantly. That is teaching and learning, the research aspect, and the community
engagement aspect. The fourth aspect is the student experience, which folded in the extra
basically. So, focusing on teaching and learning, the UWC has come a very long way in
teaching and learning. They got success in concentrating on staff to be better of what they
do. With regards to teaching and learning, we have coaches that teach us how to get
knowledge across to get better to the students for example. So, they are constantly
throughout the running year after year with regards to teaching, teaching strategies,
teaching methods, etc. So, those go for quite a long.
Lois Dippenaar stated:
Identifying key academic strengths, building those and listing those and not just areas we
were already very strong. But it is also the areas wherein the region we are doing
something unique. So that we wouldn’t have a lot of direct competition within the area.
So, in some of the academic areas, so, it goes back to making choices not giving
everybody the same funding but identifying areas where additional funding support will
really make a difference. So, I think that was done quite successfully and we managed to
build very strong academic units because, at the end of the day, a university is strong if its
academic project is strong. And unless you invest in what happens in your departments
and faculties, nothing else will reap the same benefits. So, investing in the academic
project was very important.”
Dr. Bawa highlighted academic improvement in various areas at UWC as follows:
But in the Sciences, the university built up strong programmes invested in the Natural
Sciences. Astrophysics is one example of that. South Africa with Australia had a project
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which was about the radio telescope. These are the two biggest projects to blossom into
world-class work in our research endeavors. All this is from the vision of investing in a
certain program and project to develop STEM. So, Science and Technology happened to
be very stronger. We also have great strength in the Arts and Humanities and in
Humanities research. We looking at the questions of what it is to be human in the world.
To investigate the relationship between human and the technical. Thus, interdisciplinary
work been done by the university professors in bridging the gap between science and the
humanities, led by the only National Research Foundation (NRF) recognized flagship in
the Humanities, the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at UWC. Our other focus
recently has been successful is the university’s strategic focus on the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDG’s). We at UWC, with our focus on social justice and serving
society, have focused on the SDG’s The SDG’s of No Poverty, No hunger, Gender
equality, health, and well-being, quality education: all these sustainable development
strategies one, two, three, and four and Peace and stability, have enhanced our strategic
focus, globally. The university research work in teaching and learning, collaborative work,
crosses across all the SDG’s. And, this has led to the UWC ranking very highly in the
World University Impact Rankings. Investing in those historically disadvantaged
universities, have garnered UWC a good reputation among its peers. The recent Times
Higher Education ranking, a few days ago, revealed that UWC was number 6 in South
Africa among all universities, and the only historically disadvantaged institution on that
list.
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Professor Ludidi stated:
The aim of that had been firstly to make sure that we are academically competitive, and
serious efforts were made to put faculty that is has the appropriate standing to take the
university forward in terms of research excellence but also in terms of teaching
excellence. And that was tied to really giving full support of the academic, you know in
terms of support staff.
Professor Kareem also very emphatically and extensively stressed on academic improvement and
focus on research as a key instrument of change. He argued:
So, in a sense, the university has transformed itself and get teaching a very practical need.
And through this, getting practitioners in it is meant that the teaching staff was able to get
access to the government officials throughout the country from the smallest municipality
to the biggest metropolitan area. This way I think the research output increased it was a
much more dynamic way of teaching but also it was a same like how can we increase our
research profile and one of the things it did was they decided to apply for South African
research chairs, that are funded by the department of higher education and science and
technology and UWC has quite a few research chairs, from Physics to the Space Station,
and through that, they have been able to attract PhDs, postdocs so that the idea is they
would publish.
To focus on research output and quality it realigned its hierarchy of management to make
the Office of Research report to Deputy Vice Chancellor (DVC) Academic instead of the earlier
chain where it reported to the Vice Chancellor directly. This was changed to achieve an efficient
alignment and effective management of research portfolios. Based on this and many other
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positive changes the research output at UWC increased five-fold between 2002 and 2014
consequently (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020).
Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) capture the progress in the academia after the
implementation of IOP (Institutional Operational Planning) 2010-2014 as follows:
(1) UWC was one of the first higher education institutions (HEIs) in South Africa,
following a recommendation from the Higher Education Quality Committee HEQC
audit, to develop a charter of graduate attributes at institutional, faculty and
departmental level, and to develop an institutional process for embedding the
attributes in curricula and assessment tasks. Because of this, the UWC Director of
Teaching and Learning, Prof Vivienne Bozalek, was invited to a number of regional
and national HEls in South Africa to co-facilitate workshops on embedding graduate
attributes in those institutions;
(2) The institutional approach that UWC adopted for its focus on teaching and learning
was a conscious decision, which involved a number of strategies, which included the
establishment of a Directorate for Teaching and Learning;
(3) The University put a comprehensive infrastructure into place for ensuring that the
Strategic Plan was implemented at institutional, faculty and departmental levels
through the establishment of a Senate Teaching and Learning Committee and Faculty
Teaching and Learning Committees, and with the appointment of Deputy Deans of
Teaching and Learning and Faculty Teaching and Learning specialists. These
committees reported on a quarterly basis on the enablement and constraints in
achieving the identified goals of the Strategic Plan for Teaching and Learning;
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(4) As part of the University-wide engagement, the approach was to, firstly, engage with
heads of academic departments (HoDs) in teaching and learning residential retreats to
assist them to review their own teaching and embed graduate attributes. This was
recognized as a novel approach in the South African higher education system towards
getting academics on board with teaching and learning, and the embedding of
graduate attributes. Generally. The focus in many HEls is on working with individual
academics to get them to change their practices. Secondly, the retreat for HoDs was
followed up by one for Faculty teaching and learning specialists, who worked
together with HoDs and all academics in the different departments to align the
curriculum as a whole with graduate attributes;
(5) To promote the scholarship of Teaching and Learning both on a national and an
international level, UWC also started an open-source, online journal entitled Critical
Studies in Teaching and Learning (CRISTAL); Together with other HEls in the
Western Cape, UWC initiated regional short courses on teaching and learning in
higher education through the Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC). A set of
short courses was collaboratively designed and taught by teaching and learning
specialists across the four HEIs in the Western Cape, and these were attended by
academics from across the four HEIS. UWC, CPUT and Stellenbosch University also
developed a joint Postgraduate Diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher
Education (PG Dip T&L HE), which has been running since 2014 and is taught
collaboratively across the three institutions…These are the only co-taught short
courses and PG Dip T&L HE that exist in the South African higher education system.
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(6) As part of their induction to UWC, new academic staff members are also required to
attend a three day off-campus induction workshop on teaching and learning in their
first year, and in the second year of their probation period they attend a six-month
course Towards Professionalisation of Teaching and Learning, which enables them to
develop a teaching and learning ePortfolio which they can then build upon during
their academic careers. These requirements are written into their employment
contracts;
(7) With regard to the scholarship of teaching and learning, outputs in the form of
doctoral degrees in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, journal publications,
books and book chapters increased substantially during the period 2010-2019.
Moreover, workshops are held on how to develop funding proposals for research into
teaching and learning, as well as writing for publication, and sharing best practices
both institutionally and regionally. (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, pp. 445-446).
In summary, there was significant focus in improving academic atmosphere (teaching,
learning, research, etc.) at UWC, which deserves praise and the attention from other universities
across the world. For example, UWC invested money, with joint collaboration especially with
Australia, and intellectual labor to do research in scientific and technological arenas. In regard to
infrastructural and other logistics, including the global partnership with the universities of the
United States and Belgium, UWC’s efforts were successful.
Research and Innovation
Research and Innovation is the fifth success factor that reinforces what critics like
Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) demonstrated in their work, which is summarized at the end of
this sub-section. Also, all five of the interviewees stressed on the importance of this factor.
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Professor Ludidi stressed the role of research in the transformation of UWC in his interview:
One of the things that UWC has done is try to transform itself so that the distinction
between teaching and research is not in a way that separate them completely. We are now
a research led institution that integrates the research and teaching and that is one of the
key aspects that have made our university successful.
Professor Ludidi also states how research excellence contributed to allay some of the financial
challenges that UWC faced. He argued:
One of the things that pushed us to search for research excellence because the reality is
such that if a university is research productive, so when I say a research productive that is
in relation to publications in research journal, academic journals and in country and
publications of books and books chapters and graduation of masters and PhD students, so
that research productivity is linked to government subsidies. The more of those a
university produces, the more government money the university earns. So, it is one of our
major sources of income. So, you can see how these two are tied. Meaning—research
excellence gives the opportunity for the university to earn more from subsidies and
research grants that people generate.
Professor Sabi mentioned the importance of the university promoting and support faculty and
student research:
In the research aspects, UWC prides itself or pushing its lecturers to become great at
research with regarding to do your Ph.D. they got to do promoting articles, and constant
writings retreats that the UWC lecturers go on in order to facilitate the publications and we
also have things like, writings days where the university offer to complete some certain
articles, with research aspects, etc. Furthermore, we have lectures to encourage our
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students, to engage in as early as their first year of arrival. The second one is, that the
research work in UWC is very strong and we have come in a very long way to
publications and research outputs, Ph.D. outputs, etc.
Overall Professor Kareem spoke about the transformation in research and innovation at
UWC most extensively and thoroughly. He identified the leadership of the Deputy Vice
Chancellor Ramesh Bharuthram as one of the critical factors that lead this change. He stated:
Basically, today UWC’s law faculty is one of the best law faculties in the country if not
the best. It was not always the case. So, the quality was definitely improved, it was as a
result of the resources it was within and also as the result of the quality of the staff the
university was able to attract. But also, as they were expanding into the sciences, the
health sciences, and they were starting to then move to shift their focus to the research
institutions, not just the teaching but research-focused. And that’s when it started earlier
but when it was under Brian O’Connell, he got a deputy VC research Ramesh
Bharuthram, he was the one who really focused the university about publications and
research.
He continued:
People like Bharuthram and others were like ‘how do we shift ourselves into much more
research focus…’then they went to the next stage, ‘how do we increase the quality of
research’, and they started then through government and other NGOs and other
international financial institutions to get funding. So, we got a new building, science
building like the state of the art and so why having the state of the art building meant that
you attract the quality staff, you have good quality equipment, so they were able to attract
really senior staff from abroad and domestically to lecture in this university and the labs
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were the state of the art so we meant to get Ph.D. students, the master’s students to do the
research. I mean in that way they fed into the research-intensive focus of the university
because much of the research in the sciences was done in the historically white
universities: the university of Cape Town, and so on.
Dr. Bawa quite ingeniously captured the motivation and direction of this work as follows:
The political struggles were translated to the universities throughout all the structures for
teaching and learning and research. Underpinning all was the idea of a Black person
reclaiming one’s identity as a person of strength, scholar, and a thinking human being.
Something the apartheid ideology and legislation did not do. As the university pivoted in
terms of its intellectual works, in challenging the dominant apartheid ideology, UWC
attracted a concentration of academics and intellectuals, students to come to the
university in a very vibrant and effervescent way, to engage in debates, open national
questions, and how to get universal human rights for everybody.
Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) illustrate that the new research policy adopted by the UWC with
the following focal areas:
(1) Excellence in Research: Identification of research niche areas, Definition and
establishment of research units, centres and institutes;
(2) Research Capacity Development Attainment of doctoral qualification Black male and
female academics (the latter irrespective of race) in research leadership, harnessing
the expertise of retired research scholars. honorary research appointments;
(3) Strategic Research Partnerships, internationalization, collaboration with science
councils, commerce and industry, partnerships for an engaged university;
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(4) Staff Research Incentive Scheme: Research publications, graduating doctoral
students, NRF rating, postdoctoral fellowships;
(5) Internal Research Funding Scheme: Criteria and support for conference attendance
research projects, research assistants, seed funding. leverage funding, research
equipment;
(6) Research Ethics Policies for animal research, biomedical research, humanities and
social science research, research ethics education;
(7) Innovation, Protection of Intellectual Property and Commercialization; and
(8) Marketing of Research, Publications, websites, media. (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020,
pp. 121-122).
The following indicators posited by Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) capture the achievements of
the above-mentioned research policy changes and developments, and some of the recent research
achievements of the faculty:
(1) A research capacity development initiative to increase the number of staffs with
doctoral qualifications introduced in 2009, resulting in 46 staff members completing
their doctorates by the end of 2012;
(2) From one to eight DST (Department of Science and Technology) /NRF (the National
Research Foundation) SARChI (the South African Research Chairs Initiative)
Research Chairs and one UCT (University of Cape Town) /UWC (University of
Western Cape) /SKA (Square Kilometer Array) Research Chair in Astronomy in
2015;
(3) From 56 NRF-rated researchers in 2008 to 103 in 2014; and
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(4) A 5-fold increase in institutional research outputs from 2002 to 2014 as measured by
the Department of Higher Education and Training.
(5) During this period UWC’s leading research units and centers grew in stature and, in
so doing, gained national and international prominence. For example, the Centre for
Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies was elevated to an Institute and the Community
Law Centre was elevated to the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law,
Governance and Human Rights. In 2015 UWC was the first HDI awarded the hosting
of a National Centre of Excellence (COE), in Food Security together with the
University of Pretoria.
(6) In 2015 UWC was the first institution to be awarded a DST/NRF flagship grant, the
Flagship on Critical Thought in African Humanities.
(7) One of UWC’s greatest research achievements under the inspirational and innovative
leadership of Prof Brian O’Connell was when UWC become the first historically
disadvantaged institution to join the Tier 1 rank of research led universities in South
Africa in 2011, a remarkable achievement for an institution with a low-income base.
(Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, pp. 447-448)
In summary, the fifth critical success factor shows us the importance of research,
productivity that was connected with the government subsidies. UWC attracted the quality staff
and faculty members from within the country. UWC developed its infrastructure, not just the
academic environment, to a greater extent during the development period.
Community Engagement
Community engagement is a significant critical success factor in the list that exhibit the
vision of an engaged university, and the role of community—local, national, and international—
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on that front. All five interviewees elaborated how communicating with external community and
stakeholders was critical to the success of UWC.
Dr. Bawa remarked the following about the Community and stakeholders involved in the
development of UWC:
We are involved with the worker struggle, and the unions and they contribute to all in the
council involved members from the society to workers as well as the students, Alumni,
community people and so there was richness around that. Around the external the
political leaders, yes, and political leaders from our own university, because they were
involved in the society. For example, Nelson Mandela got his first honorary doctorate
from the UWC because he was focused on, part of the organization that was building up
that new vibrant thoughtful intellectual tradition. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, our recently
deceased Chancellor, brought that kind of internationally focused, thoughtful, rich ethical
way of engaging. All our achievements are built on foundation of a just society. A society
where we have our roots and they feed the university, with the nourishment that we
should be able to develop. Because the fruits that the university bear are the children from
the community.
Dr. Bawa added regarding international community supporters of UWC:
We had donors from SIDA. And Norwegian organizations from abroad who were also
involved in the anti-apartheid struggle. They contributed to the resources to the
university. If you think about our School of Government, that school of government that
was built and donated and opened by the King of Norway. This enabled UWC to say: this
is a new government, we train people to be able to pick up the position in society. UWC
does a lot of training now with the same kind of resources for Africa, South Africa, and
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South Sudan for the piece bringing initiatives the university involved in the activities for
the part of it. Our donor community is an important community both the anti-apartheid
donor community from the North and part from the South, including Cuba, to be also
offered strong support. This is why, the university still has very strong partnerships and
relationships historically partners who were working in the university to support it.
Something Mandela said is we take our policy some the effect that we know who are the
friends, so we maintain on keeping on a searching scope. We said that about Gaddafi, we
said it about Yasir Arafat, and we said it about Fidel Castro; which was not only a
popular thing when you think of education. The Cuban model of healthcare is not only
just fantastic. Our public health people were using it since the early 90s they have been
part of this kind of strong exchange. It also raises an important issue about first things
like the importance of solidarity. The solidarity, both in research, and solidarity with
countries, institutions who work for common goals, and SDGs helping that way. And
also, countries like Palestine we know have struggles that we had. So, the solidarity the
university has with Palestine is very, very strong.
Professor Ludidi mentioned the following about external community support that UWC
received:
But, beyond that we had and still have alumni very deeply connected and rooted in UWC.
So, we get a lot of alumni support as well. In contributing to UWC success and
sustainability. The alumni act as ambassadors of UWC to promote UWC and to facilitate
investment back into UWC. But we also external donors that play a role in the
development of in terms of students but also in terms of infrastructure for UWC. For
example, we have one of the iconic buildings of UWC. That building came to existence as
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a result of external donors during the administration of Professor Brian O’Connell. The
same goes with the new building space as faculty those two buildings a results of external
donor funding but not only funding from external donor but also funding support from our
national government, department of education and training.
Dr. Sabi mentioned the following focusing on donations that UWC raised from external donors:
And we have donors that specifically donate to the university, like for example that I
know of is the current Bellview community medical center. The faculty of health science
moved to Bellview specifically and we had donors that basically financially supported us
in building up the amazing building that we have right now. So UWC had assistance, we
did not do that on our own, which is great. So we are so grateful to the donors who
contributed towards building up such amazing buildings with all the latest equipment,
which gives our students an added advantage to learning. So government support and
donors definitely, those that I know of helped us absolutely amazingly to bring us where
we are now. To build up a university that is worth recognizing.
Lois Dippenaar stated:
I think going back to leadership, the vice-chancellors spent a lot of time, reconnecting the
university with the communities and did partnerships with other local universities. So,
there were the international partnerships, the local partnerships, and rebuilding the
partnerships with communities was important because that supported the stature of the
university and how the public from outside saw the university. So, a lot of effort went into
rebuilding the image of the university.
In that context, Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) propound that:
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Community engagement is strongly represented in UWC’s vision and mission and in its
academic and staffing policies. Being connected to community has always been one of the
core pillars of the intellectual project at UWC. The Institutional Operating Plan (IOP):
2005-2009 recognized that this would continue to be part of the identity of the University
when it favored the ‘engaged university’ future scenario, and this remains an embedded
feature. Some areas of achievement include:
(1) Placing the CE Unit within the portfolio of the DVC Academic and the appointment of
a full-time Director of CE in 2010 embedded the importance and relevance of community
engagement to the institution’s academic project. The emphasis on scholarship and
graduate attributes in CE programs straddles the entire academic project as well as in the
sphere of quality of student life. Therefore, community engagement is now
institutionalised within the University’s academic, cultural and historical spheres; and
(2) The development of a comprehensive CE database and accompanying reports facilitate
an interdisciplinary approach to community engagement. allowing for a holistic
institutional approach through partnerships within the institution as well as outside. As an
example, the Community Workers Substance Abuse training program has produced two
substance abuse research reports, and two case study manuals developed through a co
creation process with participants from the community in the training program. As a
result, UWC’s CE Unit has developed a niche area in the field of substance misuse, which
is recognized across the province. (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p. 448).
In summary, UWC appointed efficient skilled personnel in the right places who with their
visionary skills took the university into a different level. UWC also engaged its community into
an effective manner. The community, in return, donated money and involved in other numerous
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ways. UWC believed that the society is where its roots were lying and the society feed the
university, with the nourishment that it had been able to develop. In addition to engage with the
society, UWC was successful in building rapport with local and global stakeholders.
Financial Resources
Financial resources are one of the factors that played a vital and essential role in fostering
sustainable environment within UWC infrastructure. It is a common knowledge that the financial
well-being is critical for the growth and development of any higher education institution. Hay
and Monnapula-Mapesela (2009) propounded that a substantial damage to the higher education
system before 1994 was done as a result of inequitable distribution of resources to institutions.
Besides this, in the case of UWC the steady decline in enrollment engendered a host of financial
problems consequently in the form of less tuition and state subsidy.
Professor Ludidi stated:
One of the important aspects of the university is, of course, financial sustainability. You
know this has been really difficult for UWC, as a historically disadvantaged institution,
meaning a historically black university; the majority of our students are actually from,
economically disadvantaged communities. Which means the students don’t necessarily
have the money to afford university education and this you know, for UWC in an attempt
to provide educational services to the majority of the South African economic (I would
say) classes, we had to keep our university fees very low. They are amongst the lowest in
the country. Which means that revenue income from student fees was and still is, limited.
So, we have to find other ways to acquire enough income to keep the university going
besides student fees.
Lois Dippenaar stated how UWC’s leadership recovered it from its financial predicament:
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I think leadership played an important role internally. Staff morale was very low, our
finances were a mess, and uniting staff and leading the staff in believing the future of the
university again was a big thing, very important. And, then to do things, ensuring the
financial recovery plan, and not just one thing at a time and rebuilding the elements of the
academic projects.
The recapitalisation of UWC, overcoming its long-standing debt and answering to alleged
tax contraventions by South African Revenue Services (SARS) were just a few of the many
milestones that were crossed in making UWC financially sustainable under Professor
O’Connell’s administration. The role of the administration, support from the government in
recapitalisation and support from UWC’s creditors were critical in making this turnaround
(Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020).
Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020, p. 73) capture this transition and explained how it was
achieved in the following words:
The recapitalisation of UWC was essentially redress funding whereby the DoE
acknowledged UWC’s determined and bold contribution to the fight against apartheid
and the price the institution had to pay by being denied appropriate support from the
apartheid government during those years. The University was effectively restored to
operating from a zero bank balance and to embrace the future with confidence.
UWC posted annual surpluses on its General Fund from 2004 and has continued to do so
to this day. Prof O’Connell was instrumental in realizing this financial success, as his
vision, drive, hard work and charisma brought stability and created confidence in the
University. Ironically, vendors that did not want to be associated with UWC were
knocking on our doors for business. Banking houses suddenly showed an interest in
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UWC, with the intention of competing for the main account of the University, which was
now dubbed ‘a prestigious client’. (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p. 73)
In summary, the financial resources demonstrate once again the role of O’Connell’s
vision about financial stability. He was too instrumental in realizing the financial success. One of
the most important things of the UWC approaches and strategies is to keep the tuition fees low
and affordable that made student enrollment high. All these seven above discussed critical
success factors explained the nuances of the transformation of UWC.
RQ 2. What Administrative Approaches and Strategies Did UWC Implement to Improve
its Educational Quality and Operational Performance?
This section demonstrates approaches and strategies UWC implemented to improve
administrative effectiveness and become a globally competitive university. Based on the
interviews and published sources, five subthemes were identified in relation to improving
educational quality and operational performance: Building Leadership and Trust, Training and
Upskilling Employees, Organizational Culture and Values, Role of Vision, and Strategic
Planning.
Leadership and Trust at UWC
The first subtheme identified from the research is Building Leadership and Trust. All five
interviewees spoke at length about leadership and highlight different aspects of Leadership’s
contribution at UWC.
Dr. Bawa illustrated that part of building leadership and trust was involving many constituents at
the university, including students and alumni, in developing the changes at the university, what
he called “collective leadership”:
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It was central both in terms of the university, and its relationship with society. So,
members of academic community and of society, were also part of political
organizations, and civic organizations, and an important partner of a collective
leadership. It was not top down. It was the part of the structure. Students have a strong
say, and alumni would have a strong say. Because everyone who was there, had a
common vision and transformed a democratic society. And so the leadership was very
important.
Professor Ludidi added that UWC had a deep bench of student and administrative leaders of high
quality:
We had high quality leadership at the executive and senior level but also high-quality
leadership in the student level as well. A student group representative comes of the time
they have very clear knowledge of where the institution’s aspirations were, and the
leadership at senior and executive level was of high quality, had a good vision and knew
which direction UWC had to go in order for it to be seen as institution of excellence.
I would mention people like Professor Jakes Gerwel who was the vice chancellor at the
time; he really steered the institution toward really excellence. Especially in the early
’90s all the way till he retired from UWC, or say moved from UWC to government work.
He worked for former president Nelson Mandela. So, he’s in my opinion, one of if not
the most prominent leader of the university. The other members of leadership that worked
with him at the time were excellent leaders and the next crop of leadership since then has
really been very very good as well. And especially during the time of the first term of the
current vice chancellor who is towards the end of his second term. I think the first term of
his, his first five years this now Prof Tyrone Pretorius were really excellent. His
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leadership combine with the leadership of the rest of the senior management in the
executive was really really good in his first term. And this is the period that saw a lot of
growth for UWC but that growth was actually initiated through really really excellent
leadership of the previous vice chancellor before professor Tyrone Pretorius.”
Professor Sabi made a similar point, with an emphasis on growth:
Leadership is extremely important in UWC. And we have been blessed with amazing
leaders at UWC. From the rector down to the deans, all of them faculty managers, and
faculty officers, they are excellent leaders. They don’t just build themselves in the
university they built and meet them as well like lecturers, deputy managers, etc., they
build them up. So, it’s amazing to work on effort, the leaders are very open-minded with
regard to personal and professional growth. And they have the understanding in UWC that
leadership is not a one-man show, leadership is a collaborative effort. And that brings
about the biggest change. Because leadership is not a single road for everybody, they need
to contribute to the leadership in some way and some of our leaders build the leaders that
are exactly what we need. Because of the leadership, UWC become a place of growth, in
every single level this growth is exactly what we need. And thus contribute to the overall
success of the UWC has is because of our leadership. And our leadership is being
positively driven which is great.
Professor Kareem highlighted the role of Leadership very many times during his interview and
touched on various aspects of it. He stated:
I think leadership is key. If I go back again [to] Professor Jakes Gerwel, it was through his
leadership that he basically decided as the head that we need to shift. So, in the apartheid
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regime but he took a leadership position to open up the university to the students
regardless of race. So, that was a strong leadership position.
Professor Kareem continued about the overall leadership development in the transformation:
So, you need leadership, but we speak about the leadership of university-level also the
leadership at a departmental level and then so these are the kind of issues and leadership
of figures that they did was a really instrumental role in moving the university in a
direction that it is today.
Bharuthram and Pokpas, in connection, write about how new administrators developed trust
through “All Leader” programs:
the first of these was aimed at building trust among the institution’s leadership and
strengthening its capacity at all levels. Prof O’Connell spearheaded a leadership
development process across the institution that amongst other things, included what was
called ‘All Leader’ engagements. These brought together the executive management,
deans, professors as well as head academic departments and support divisions. These
academic departments external leadership development by institution’s engagements
were facilitated by an external expert who worked closely with the institution’s
leadership. The intention was to create opportunities for the University’s leaders to come
together to think and plan together. While some elements to this initiative worked better
than others, overall this focused attention on developing leadership capacity across the
institution and creating spaces for collaborative engagement on the very real challenges
confronting UWC proved to be very valuable. A second strategy that deepened the
‘sense-making’ that Prof O’Connell called for was the implementation of various
strategic projects and change initiatives. While these took different forms and were
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supported through external and internal funding sources, they were conceived as
important spaces for organizational learning. More specifically, as ‘projects’ they created
spaces where university leaders could ‘experiment with new ideas and practices aligned
to the University’s strategic goals and through this experimentation develop the
confidence and insight to embed them within the culture and day-to-day functioning of
the organization" (Howell, 2014, p. 65). (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p. 24)
In summary, members of society, faculty members, and staff worked in different
organizations with different level of leadership that helped transforming, among other factors,
UWC into a major serving institute. Leadership is one of the major key factors in making UWC
succeed. To top it off, as a part of trust building, O’Connell sponsored a leadership development
program at the university that includes “All Leader” and “sense-making” engagements, among
other things.
Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning is the second approach that this current study found in the discussion
of primary resources. UWC relied upon its Institutional Operating Plans (IOPs) to outline and
develop frameworks for implementing change across the university. These plans were important
for all stakeholders during the transition. For example, the Department of Education (DOE)
required approval of UWC’s Institutional Operating Plan (IOP) before making it eligible for
recapitalization in the early years of the process.
Professor Ludidi mentioned the following about planning:
I think the mission of the university is structured in a way that encourages excellence but
also really looks at how to develop the UWC people in the community around it and that
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coupled with the strategic claim of the university with, I mean we have five-year strategy
plans.
Professor Bawa mentioned strategic planning to fulfill Sustainable Development Goals as
follows:
Our other focus recently has been successful is the university’s strategic focus on the
Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). We at UWC, with our focus on social justice
and serving society, have focused on the SDG’s The SDG’s of No Poverty, No hunger,
Gender equality, health, and well-being, quality education: all these sustainable
development strategies one, two, three, and four and Peace and stability, have enhanced
our strategic focus, globally. The university research work in teaching and learning,
collaborative work, crosses across all the SDG’s. And, this has led to the UWC ranking
very highly in the World University Impact Rankings.
Lois Dippenaar mentions IOPs and highlighted their role briefly as follows:
And I think the fact that we started to work with IOPs (Institutional Operation Plans) on
the strategic framework that was accepted by the whole university and that guided us to
going forward, and I think that also helped. I think these are some of the key things.
Internal planning was indispensable for UWC to move forward. A clear ordering of priorities is
always critical when embarking upon a transition. In general, UWCs reliance on its IOPs has had
a positive impact on its performance. Dippenaar added:
Linked to that we started a process of five-year financial plans so these are rolling plans,
but we no longer dealt with the University finances just year by year at point we were
bankrupt. So, we owe to bank a lot of money that is a financial recovery plan to assist us
in terms of the University’s funding so that’s the second one.
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Like Dippenaar, Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) emphasize the role of Institutional Operating
Plans (IOPs) at UWC:
Professor O’Connell began to metaphorically depict this tension and what it meant for
UWC by bringing together two contrasting images of Cape Town one capturing the
extreme affluence and industrial advancement of the city, and the other showing the
abject poverty of its vast informal settlements. He suggested that, as a university, UWC is
positioned between these ‘two worlds’. This means that the university is shaped by the
congruencies and contradictions that this reality creates, and as a university it is required
to constantly navigate and balance the tensions between them. IOP 2010-2014 delves
further this and states that ‘UWC speaks of itself as an ‘engaged university’ in an attempt
to avoid constraining modern alternatives and to define a high-level intellectual role in a
society in rapid transition’. It then goes on to explore what this positioning means for the
delivery of its core functions. focusing on excellence in teaching and learning, research,
multiple responsiveness, establishing a culture of sense-making and UWC’s role in
making a sustained difference for a better society. (University of the Western Cape, 2009.
p. 5). (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, pp. 22-23)
Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) continue:
The central goals of the IOP (2005-2009) that informed UWC’s recapitalization began to
be graphically depicted within Prof O’Connell’s ‘two worlds’ diagram - the goals were
positioned between the two images of Cape Town, suggesting that the realisation of each
of these goals required carefully considered processes for managing these tensions.
Similarly, and this was a point consistently emphasised by Prof O’Connell and his
leadership team as the change processes unfolded -- working towards the realisation of
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these goals would be beset by constant challenges as these tensions played themselves
out and staff would be challenged to consistently grapple with the discomfort of being in
this space. (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p. 23)
Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) conclude on this topic recognizing that putting the strategic plans
into practice would much more difficult than developing the plans:
…While these understandings of UWC as an engaged university were important in
providing a conceptual frame for the implementation of its strategic plans following its
recapitalisation, it was recognised that the litmus test for UWC would be the translation of
this vision into practice across the institution. Prof O’Connell and the planning team were
acutely aware at this time that institutional change by its very nature is a highly complex
process, especially within higher education institutions. (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p.
23)
Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) go on to note the All Leader engagements that brought together
academic affairs from top to bottom, and Sense-Making strategies that engaged the details of
implementing the plans as crucial to realizing the university’s vision, structured through the
Institutional Operating Plans, and developed in part through these two implementation strategies,
among others, including a Teaching and Learning Plan and Charter of Graduate.
RQ 3. What Resources were Developed and Utilized by UWC during its Period of
Development?
Addressing the third and final research question, the essential resources that this study
encountered regarding the development of UWC are Human Resources, Financial Resources,
Infrastructure, and Partnerships.
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Training and Upskilling Employees
Professor Ludidi asserted the significance of investing in human resources and training of
faculty and staff early on his interview:
We initiated programs that included different forms of training for administrative staff.
When I say administration staff, it is a bit different from the senior executives and
management of the university. Here we are actually talking about grassroot level of
administrative staff. You know, secretaries, financial officials within departments, you
know that kind of support staff. And even coordinators of lab sessions, and so on. So, the
university has a lot of investment in training those people in the discipline that they are
involved in so that they offer different support to academic staffs that would be faculty in
the US system.
UWC’s investment in its employees has been highlighted by Bharuthram and Pokpas
(2020), which goes in line with the second approach and Institutional Operational Plans (IOPs)
that is Training and Upskilling Employees. Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020, pp. 91-92) discussed:
The staff development programme introduced to upskill staff with new competencies, as
part of the mandate stipulated in the IOP, played a significant role in generating a
unifying energy. This was achieved by conducting appropriate learning needs analyses
(LNAs), scheduling developmental workshops and establishing community of practice
groups (COPs). The latter meetings were held across hierarchies and hence also
integrated the academic and professional staff to think, learn and advance together. The
leadership development initiatives and the follow through with COPs brought people
together, there have been several success stories of individuals who went through this
process at UWC and today hold senior leadership positions - several of whom made
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personal paradigm shifts to become leaders who add great value. This programme served
as a catalyst for a united UWC workforce that took collective responsibility for
advancing the institution.
An important component of the staff development programme was the talent stewardship
programme. This programme was introduced as a strategic initiative to plan for future
competency and capability requirements to meet the University’s IOP strategic goals
towards realizing UWC’s long-term vision. For the academic sector, the focus was on
young academic staff and senior postgraduate students serving as tutors and showing
promise and a passion to reach higher levels in academia There was a parallel programme
in place for administrative and support divisions.
Organizational Culture and Values
The Organizational Culture and Values is the second strategy that emerged from the
interviews and published materials. Professor Ludidi indicated the importance of communicating
the vision across the university, demonstrating change, and the importance of widespread
participation in the development and the recognition of the change:
then obviously the contribution of UWC own community in terms of students and staff
and faculty and towards making sure that when UWC leadership says we are this
institution this is what we stand for, you know our track record, would not have been
possible without commitment and excellence of the staff and faculty of the university.
Surveys conducted in anticipation of developing IOPs focused on the work orientations and
experiences of university staff. Bharuthram & Pokpas (2020) note:
A number of staff surveys were conducted during the process to prepare for
implementing the IOP: 2004 to 2009. A strategic survey measuring the alignment and
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commitment of staff to the goals of the University delivered mainly positive results. This
was followed by a cultural survey designed to assess the dominant personal values of
employees, their desired workplace values and also how they experienced the current
workplace values. (p. 92)
…It is important to note that apart from the University-wide study, the outcomes of this
survey were also specifically focused on each faculty and division. This provided the
leadership at the different levels with insights into how their work culture is perceived.
HR (Human Resources) embarked on communication sessions to share the results with
the stakeholders and to offer interventions to effect positive changes based on the
information from the survey.
The HR policies, procedures, strategies and interventions developed and implemented
during Prof Brian O’Connell’s term of office were instrumental in mobilising UWC staff
to embrace and commit to the O’Connell Vision as a collective, and placed UWC’s HR
function on a very solid and stable platform. (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p. 93).
Role of Vision
The third subtheme, Role of Vision, focuses leading UWC by developing and articulating
an expansive vision that reflects and eventually enhances the university’s academic and
administrative excellence. Dr. Bawa commented the following about the visionary Leadership of
Dr Brian O’Connell which generated resources for UWC, in this case financial and
infrastructural to build science and health infrastructure, as a first step toward building world-
class programs:
It was again building from scratch. We really didn't have the resources then, because once
apartheid had ended in 1994. Now students could go to any university, so they went to
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any of the universities, from which they had been barred during apartheid. Not
necessarily UWC. It was the traditional white University that had the benefits before,
who were still now getting the benefits of new budgets from the society rather than just
building up the other university. But you know the university with his leadership,
persevered, and righted the ship, showing improvement (in the University) over time. So,
one example Chuck Feeney from Atlantic Philanthropy (which is a huge philanthropic
agency), was approached by Brian O’Connell our Rector. He wanted to have a meeting
with him, and that he wanted to jointly build infrastructure at the University. And what in
Science (i.e. he chose science as the field of investment). And he said I don't want a hand
out. He said – I just want from you 700 million to match our 700 million and we're going
to then build a world class Science faculty. We have the expertise. We just wanting you
to partner with us. We don't want it as a handout, but with us we want to build this and
we will be in 5 years, the top Science faculty in the country. Which is what happened.
And so, it was that visionary leadership of Brian O’Connell that went forward. So, the
Public Health building was the same story. As with infrastructure, if you don't have the
laboratory, well then you can't play with the big players. You can't be a global player, if
you can't match their facilities. So there was a strategic vision to build facilities that could
make this happen for the University, which we did. Very, very well. And I think this is
the way that leadership lead the transformation. People develop leadership collectively
from the top down, but also from students. And students in South Africa are very
thoughtful, they work quite hard. So, this is how they were able to feed into the university
process. And (investing in) people will make you grow.
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Professor Ludidi stated the following underscoring the role of vision in the transformation of
UWC and how even student representatives understood it very well at that time:
We had high quality leadership at the executive and senior level but also high-quality
leadership in the student level as well. A student group representative comes of the time
they have very clear knowledge of where the institution’s aspirations were, and the
leadership at senior and executive level was of high quality, had a good vision and knew
which direction UWC had to go in order for it to be seen as institution of excellence.
Professor Lududi also stated about the Leadership having that vision:
It played a huge role, and I think this is leadership at all levels at the executive level we
really have leaders that have a vision for UWC could be an institution of excellence, an
institution that is accessible to the community that UWC serves.
Professor Razack Kareem refers to UWC’s history as a normal school, and how earlier
transformations laid the groundwork for the university’s post-apartheid changes:
One of the things is as I said earlier; the history of the university was to be teachers
basically produce teachers. And, people like Jake Harold and others basically rethought
what the university was going to be. So, the one, they broadened and opened it up,
transformed it in a sense to represent all South Africans.
Lois Dippenaar a staff member expressed how this vision permeated into the staff at UWC
enabling them to perform better and grow with UWC, “So, that was internally driving a vision
making staff believe that the university has a proud past, but it also has the opportunity to have a
very proud future.” Importantly, Brian O’Connell emphatically articulated his vision in the
following words (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020):
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I tell this story in the way that I do with absolute conviction because it’s true. It’s not a
made-up thing, not a mock-up thing, tell it like it is about this University and the role it
must play in this country. It must shine. It must contest with those historically white
institutions on their own terms, not, "Well, we are a poor historically black university’.
We must say it is because of our passion, energy and self-belief, just because of who we
are: ‘We’ll go and we’ll play the game with you and beyond, whatever it takes’.
(Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p. 11).
This illustrates the role of vision in transformation and how it was important at every level and it
emanated directly from the top leadership at UWC.
Administrative Staff Expertise and Loyalty
The fourth subtheme on the development of resources at the university is Administrative
Staff Expertise and Loyalty. Human resource is absolutely critical for any educational or
research institution and so was the case of UWC. As mentioned below the dedication and
commitment of the faculty and staff was indispensable in UWCs transformation. Lois Dippenaar
who has worked with staff was the best resource to answer this question and she stated the
following:
I think the staff is critically important and staff I mean the loyalty of staff to rebuilding
the university was astonishing. I remember one meeting that the VC had to make the staff
way as a part of the financial recovery, we staff, agreed to take very low and were
increases much lower than inflation. To assist in recovering financially.
At another instance she added:
And then, I quality of our staff and commitment of our staff for me that was the thing that
really stand out about UWC staff they were loyal to and committed to the university and
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our students. I think anybody who worked at UWC would speak about that. A massive
commitment to the future of the university because of its role in supporting the students.
Professor Razack Kareem stated:
Again, the combination of factors, we can’t forget about the human resources that are our
students and staff and the academic as well as the admin staff. Because without them we are
nothing, without the cleaning staff we are nothing, without the IT staff we are not much.
Professor Razack Kareem similarly noted:
When I say administration staff, it is a bit different from the senior executives and
management of the university. Here we are actually talking about grass root level of
administrative staff. You know, financial department, that kind of support staff. And
coordinators of lab sessions, and so on. So the university has a lot of investment in
training those people in the discipline that they are involved in so that they offer different
support to academic staffs that would be faculty in the US system…which is driven by a
desire for excellence but also providing support to both support and academic staff to
actually achieve the level of excellence that as of now defines what UWC is all about.
Concerning the Human Resources as an essential resource, educators like Bharuthram and
Pokpas (2020) highlight:
The shift in the purpose statements of HR in the three IOPs stretching from 2000 to 2014
progressed as indicated below:
The primary purpose of the IOPS 2000-2004 and 2005-2009 was: To select retain and
develop staff contributing to UWC’s mission. This statement captures the basic premise
of HR being expected to be mainly an administrative function. However, towards the end
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of 2009 there was a realisation that the focus of HR needed to change in order to advance
the institution. Goal 4 of the IOP 2010-2014 reads:
EXCELLENT TALENT: To attract., retain, diversify and develop excellent talent to
enable UWC to realise its vision and achieve its strategic goals. (Bharuthram & Pokpas,
2020, p. 81)
They further add:
The shift in the HR statement was significant, indicating a changed view that people
represent talent and have much to contribute people represented capability for UWC and
not only competence. Appropriate talent and capability were essential to realise Brian
O’Connell’s vision of UWC ‘playing alongside and competing with the best’.
The transition from the one IOP to the next embodied continuous change and
transformation. This reflected the messages received from staff through the staff surveys
undertaken (UWC Cultural and Strategic surveys 2008/2009, 2011 and 2014), namely
that UWC is effective on transformation and we want this to continue. The survey results
were also evidence of the workplace starting to function at level 5 of the Capability
Maturity Model (CMM) model (Humphrey, 1989; Curtis, Hefley & Miller, 2009),
reflecting a workplace embracing continuous Improvements. (Bharuthram & Pokpas,
2020, p. 82).
Such changes were accompanied by and a result of steps taken to improve policies, procedures
and skills of the staff as indicated below:
Further stability was created by developing and implementing effective relevant policies
and processes; this brought consistency because workflow was no longer dependent on
individuals but rested on a foundation of process flow charts that supported adherence to
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policies Consequently, concurrent with the changes to create a new and e strategy, HR
commenced a process to review existing policies and establish enhanced HR policies,
practices and processes in response to the new culture starting to take shape at UWC.
………In order to embed this as an ongoing process, a decision was made to motivate for
the appointment of a dedicated policy specialist within HR.
………..This role had to ensure ongoing reviews and alignment of policies and practices
in the HR system in consultation with the Executive Management. (Bharuthram &
Pokpas, 2020, p. 90)
Partnerships
Partnerships are another significant subtheme, especially as they built connections
between UWC and other global universities, alumni, and international donor agencies. Four
Interviewers spoke about it in different degrees of elaboration. UWC has benefitted from many
partnerships and collaborations with other institutions in its journey towards excellence. Lois
Dippenaar mentioned:
I think, we built an existing international partnership, where the University of Missouri is
the key one and we forged new international partnerships, and also, specifically another
partnership with the Belgium was very important. Because as the part of that, we got that
is called “UCLOUVAIN” from The University catholique du Louvain, but in the
document, you will see that as well. So, this partnership in Belgium supported five of our
faculties to assist the start of our Ph.D. to Ph.D. students and a lot of postgraduate
students.
Professor Ludidi stated regarding various partnering stakeholders:
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We had and still have alumni that are very deeply connected and rooted in UWC. So, we
get a lot of alumni support as well. In contributing to UWC success and sustainability.
The alumni acts as ambassadors of UWC to promote UWC and to facilitate investment
back into UWC. But we also external donors that play a role in the development of in
terms of to students but also in terms of infrastructure for UWC. For example, we have
one of the iconic buildings of UWC, that building the majority of it came to existence as
a result of external donors. In the administration of Professor Brian O’Connell. The same
goes with the new building space as faculty those two buildings a results of external
donor funding but not only funding from external donor but also funding support from
our national government, department of education and training.
Professor Kareem commented about one partnership:
We had a partnership with Bonn university in Germany, where, through the German
Academic exchange program we used to get funding for Ph.D.s sometimes for Master’s
students to come and study and the vast majority of students are from the continent.
Professor Bawa stated:
This is why, the university still has very strong partnerships and relationships historically
partners who were working in the university to support it. Something Mandela said is we
take our policy some the effect that we know who are the friends, so we maintain on
keeping on a searching scope.
Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) write about partnerships:
One of prominent ones was with a Flemish funding agency from Belgium for a project on
human and social development called ‘The Dynamics of Building a Better Society
(DBBS)’. (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, p. 5)
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It was consciously in the humanities and social sciences area because of the unique history and
legacy of UWC, which could prove to be a valuable contribution globally even if the research
capabilities were felt to be stronger in other areas at that time. This is again a reiteration of how
vision guides institutions towards their goals. Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020) mention some
successful examples of International Partnerships of UWC and their impact as follows:
The Community Higher Education Services Partnership (CHESP) project was an
institution-level strategic initiative to operationalise its commitment to community
engagement through the development of a cluster of related individual programmes in
accordance with the institution’s mission and strategic planning goals, and to align them
with the key policy priorities of the White Paper on Higher Education, which emphasised
the need for higher education institutions to be more aware, responsive and accountable to
community needs (Department of Higher Education, 1997).
The CHESP (Community Higher Education Services Partnership) initiative, started in
January 1999, aimed to increase the relevance of higher education with regard to
community needs through developing Service learning exemplars and the focus was on
"the development and promotion of socially accountable models for higher education,
research. community service and development" (Lazarus, 2001). The project was piloted
at eight different institutions, namely, University of the Witwatersrand, University of
Transkei, University of the Free State (Main and QwaQwa Campus), University of Cape
Town, University of the Western Cape, and at the University of Natal’s Durban and
Pietermaritzburg campuses. One of the goals of this project was also to “contribute to
educational reform and the development of educational policies. (Bharuthram & Pokpas,
2020, pp. 136-137)
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Bharathram and Popkas continue on the details of developing partnerships through academic
departments and faculty, rather than starting with institutional collaborations:
The Executive Management Team recognised in 2008, when reflecting on the
development of the next 5-year IOP, that for UWC to have a global presence, they
needed a strategic approach to the establishment of partnerships with international
universities. We had to move away from the common practice of simply hosting
delegations from universities abroad. These visits resulted in the signing of Memoranda
of Agreements (MOAS) or Memoranda of Understandings (MOUS), which would
invariably just sit in files on computers or on shelves. Consequently, it was decided that
the strengthening of our identified established and emerging niche areas, the development
of our emerging scholars, as well as the strategic development of our academic
programmes should serve as the basis for seeking new international university
partnerships and for realigning existing partnerships. As a first step, an analysis was done
of our existing international partnerships. The longest standing was that with the
University of Missouri (UM), USA, which had been established in 1986. The generous
funding provided by UM since then continues to play a significant role in the scholarly
development of UWC staff members and academic programmes through exchange visits.
Already by 2008 more than 400 academics from UWC and UM had been supported
through such exchange visits. Given that UM has four campuses (in Columbia, Kansas
City, Rolla and St Louis), each of which could function as an independent university, we
were presented with a range of opportunities for enhancing our partnerships with UM.
UWC undertook other successful international collaborations as well during this time:
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A similar approach was adopted for our other longstanding partnerships, such as with the
University of Ghent (UG) in Belgium. UG played a leading role in the 10-year Dynamics
of Building a Better Society project (DBBS, 2014), funded by VLIR-UOS of Flanders.
Belgium. The DBSS Protect had a major positive impact on our staff capacity
development and niche area programmes. Likewise, the University of Minnesota was seen
as an important partner in strengthening UWC’s postgraduate education and research in
the humanities. Consequently, the management of such partnerships of strategic
importance was escalated to the Executive Management team by Prof O’Connell.
(Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020, pp. 125-126)
Infrastructure
Infrastructure was somewhat important as well. It was mentioned by 4 interviewers. It is
a tangible and easily accessible evidence of progress as UWC.
Dr. Bawa stated:
One high importance is the infrastructure, if you don't have the laboratory, well then you
can't play with the big players. You can't be a global player, if you can't match their
facilities. So, there was a strategic vision to build facilities that could make this happen
for the University, which we did. Very, very well.
Dr Ludidi briefly mentioned the transformation in infrastructure at UWC as:
For example, perhaps one of the iconic buildings of UWC is the then new Life Science
building, though not new anymore. The majority of it came to existence as a result of
external donors under the Leadership of, of course Professor Brian O’Connell.
Professor Kareem also stresses on the importance of infrastructure and how it influences
enrollment among other things. He mentioned:
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For example, the number of students in information systems programs, and the computer
science program has increased because the quality of the building and the equipment has
increased it meant they would be able to attract good staff, and then good students to
come in.
Lois Dippenaar mentioned grants to boost infrastructure at UWC:
Finding money to re-envision the physical campus, and to invest in the new buildings that
supported the academic projects that we were trying to rebuild and the best example of
these our science facilities was very old and outdated in a sense. So, at first, a very big
new building was a life-sciences building and a lot of our finances went into rebuilding
the science facilities…One is the infrastructure and efficiency grant that helped us to get
new buildings because our student numbers grew tremendously from 2000 to now - we
more than doubled in science and to allow our infrastructure to grow to cope with the
growth we required a lot of money.
In addition, Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020, p. 28) state:
The third project entailed a focus on reimagining campus infrastructure in support of its
strategic aspirations. In an interview about UWC’s School of Public Health Prof
O’Connell made the following remarks about infrastructure.
The symbolism attached to infrastructure is extremely important. Can you imagine how
people in ancient Greece travelling to Athens from their rural setting must have felt when
they approached the Acropolis and saw the Parthenon? This gigantic building must have
filled them with awe and pride. The same goes for the Taj Mahal in India and the
Pyramids in Egypt. Buildings tell stories that last for many generations, even centuries
and our School of Public Health buildings in a class of its own, while being hugely
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functional Everybody who looks at it and other buildings on our campus sees what is
possible. (Govender, nd).
The planning of the campus physical infrastructure forms part of a long term planning
framework that, amongst other factors, takes into account infrastructure capacity in
relation to enrolment forecasts. More important though, it also focuses on reimagining the
University and the possibilities of creating a physical environment that supports
continuous change in pursuit of excellence.
Financial Resources
The seventh and final subtheme for research question three, on resource development, are
the financial resources themselves. Having adequate and growing financial resources has allowed
UWC to invest heavily in infrastructure, technology, and other necessary administrative,
research, and logistic services to realize the vision and strategic plans of the last two decades.
Financial resources that played a vital and essential role in fostering sustainable environment
within UWC infrastructure. It is a common knowledge that the financial well-being is critical for
the growth and development of any higher education institution. Hay and Monnapula-Mapesela
(2009) propounded that a substantial damage to the higher education system in South Africa
before 1994 was done as a result of inequitable distribution of resources to institutions. Besides
this, in the case of UWC the steady decline in enrollment engendered a host of financial
problems consequently in the form of less tuition and state subsidy. Professor Ludidi stated:
One of the important aspects of the university is of course financial sustainability. You
know this has been really difficult for UWC, as a historically disadvantaged institution
meaning a historically black university; the majority of our students are actually from,
economically disadvantaged communities. Which means the students don’t necessarily
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have the money to afford university education and this you know, for UWC in an attempt
to provide educational services to the majority of the South African economic, I would
say, classes, we had to keep our university fees very low. They are amongst the lowest in
the country. Which means that revenue income from student fees was and still is, limited.
So, we have to find other ways to acquire enough income to keep the university going
besides student fees.
Lois Dippenaar stated how UWC’s leadership recovered it from its financial predicament:
I think leadership played an important role internally., staff morale was very low, our
finances were a mess, and uniting staff and leading the staff in believing the future of the
university again was a big thing, very important. And, then to do things, ensuring the
financial recovery plan, and not just one thing at a time and rebuilding the elements of the
academic projects.
The financial situation of UWC at its critical is described by Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020, p.
439) in the following words:
During this period the University could only survive with the help of an overdraft facility
from the bank. The period from December to March, when the subsidy was received,
salaries and operating costs were funded from this overdraft facility. At its peak the
overdraft facility stood at R140 m, which is R393 m in today’s terms (US dollars 24.49
m). At the same time the University faced a deficit of R160 m and was technically
insolvent since its liabilities exceeded its assets by at least a factor of three. This dire
financial situation led to one of the saddest episodes in the history of the University. In
1998 the University took the unprecedented decision to retrench 41 academic staff and
300 professional staff.
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The University subsequently under its new leadership made it a priority to become financially
sustainable as iterated earlier in this chapter. To reiterate, Bharuthram and Pokpas (2020, p. 73)
state:
The recapitalisation of UWC was essentially redress funding whereby the [South
African] DoE (Department of Education) acknowledged UWC’s determined and bold
contribution to the fight against apartheid and the price the institution had to pay by being
denied appropriate support from the apartheid government during those years. The
University was effectively restored to operating from a zero bank balance and to embrace
the future with confidence. UWC posted annual surpluses on its General Fund from 2004
and has continued to do so to this day. Professor O’Connell was instrumental in realising
this financial success, as his vision, drive, hard work and charisma brought stability and
created confidence in the University. Ironically, vendors that did not want to be
associated with UWC were knocking on our doors for business. Banking houses suddenly
showed an interest in UWC, with the intention of competing for the main account of the
University, which was now dubbed ‘a prestigious client’.
In conclusion, the sixth and the final subtheme is the financial resources. Generally, it is
known that a higher education institution’s financial situation is vital to its growth and
development. Critics like Hay and Monnapula-Mapesela (2009) also validated that. At UWC,
the persistent reduction in enrollment resulted in a slew of financial issues, including reduced
tuition and governmental support. UWC’s leadership, according to Lois Dippenaar, was able to
get the organization out of its financial bind. Ludidi also added that financial sustainability is an
important part of the university.
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CHAPTER V. DISCUSSION, RECOMMENDATIONS, AND CONCLUSION
The important observations or findings of the study indicate that an overarching
consensus on the factors that contributed to the rise of the University of Western Cape UWC and
enabled it to overcome the new challenges it faced after the end of the apartheid in 1994. The
primary sources of the study help in contextualizing the factors and explain how the transition
came through gradually, especially with the interviews that reflect a more personal and human
understanding of the phenomenon. The analysis in this chapter is anchored on recognizing the
important critical success factors the present study found, and reflects on the findings before
drawing some answering questions, preliminary conclusions, and for recommendation future
studies. Addressing the Research Questions
The following table provides a bird’s eye view of the factors that help answer the first
research question about critical success factors. The list starts with the role of management and
provides sufficient proof in support of that factor.
In the case of UWC, the role of management has been a clear and fundamental
initializing agent of change. The primary sources unequivocally support the same concept
indicating that this is a view that is very commonly held by UWC faculty and staff. UWC is a
prime example of a university that changed its course, and it is because of the able leadership. In
the critical time when international connections were newly available after the isolation of
apartheid, the administration of Brian O’Connell pulled the university of precarity and placed it
on the path of steady progress. In this process, they had to make fundamental structural changes,
start new initiatives, rejuvenate management hierarchies and manage financial issues, among
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other initiatives, all at the same time. The following subsection will explore the observations of
the first research questions pertaining to the critical success factors.
RQ1: What are the Critical Success Factors that Transformed UWC to Improve its
International Standing?
Table 3
The Critical Success Factors in UWC’s Ascent and Critical Factors in Existing Literature
Research
Question Factors Contribution/Evidence
Factors in existing
literature
1. What are the
critical success
factors that
transformed
UWC to improve
its international
standing?
Role of
Management
Restructuring of Management;
Institutional Operating Plans
(IOPs), Leadership training
Appropriate
governance (Wood &
Robertson, 2015)
Concentration of
Talent
(Salmi, 2009)
Changing vision
and core values
Brian O’ Connell’s turnaround
vision, Change in UWC vision
and mission
Alignment of
Success Factors
(Salmi, 2009)
Support from the
Government
Recapitalization, Redacting
merger, DHET support
Resource Adequacy
(Pisár et al.,2019)
Appropriate
governance (at the
National Level)
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(Wood & Robertson,
2015)
Financial
resources
Recapitalization, ABSA
support, Grants and
Collaborations, fiscal
discipline
Resource Adequacy
(Pisár et al.,2019)
Academic
Improvement
Establishment of Directorate
of Teaching and Learning
(DTL), IOP focus on
improving academic quality
Appropriate
Governance
(Wood & Robertson,
2015)
Research and
Innovation
5-fold increase in research
output, Adoption of new
research policy, IOP focus on
research.
Concentration of
Talent (Salmi, 2009),
Appropriate
governance.
(Wood & Robertson,
2015)
Community
Engagement
Reflected in UWC vision Alignment of success
factors (Salmi,
2009), Leadership
and Strategic Vision
(Dyer & Dyer, 2017)
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One success factor stated in the literature review is concentration of talent, which is also
connected to the finding of the study role of the management, and other findings about the
resources. Critics like Salmi’s (2005, 2009) works investigate how institutions can help countries
and university leaders reach that goal. UWC has grown with support from government, private,
and charitable players, contributing to its position as one of South Africa’s highest performing
institutions. The study demonstrates that UWC successfully aligned its success factors. It is
worth noting that the universities at the forefront of creation and dissemination of knowledge
need individuals of exceptional caliber. A university of international standing needs to retain top
scholars and professors both locally and globally (Salmi, 2009). Bawa highlighted how UWC
received talent from renowned institutions all over the world as intellectuals returned to post-
apartheid South Africa after 1994. Bawa narrated that, UWC focuses on concentrating abilities,
establishing suitable governance, and utilizing whatever resources are available.
Although UWC’s financial endowment was minimal in comparison to other historically
White South African universities, such as the University of Cape Town, UWC accomplished a
great deal with the resources available to it. The fresh influx of talent provided UWC with very
useful human resources to develop and meet post-apartheid challenges. Several examples were
provided by Bawa about the return of academic and intellectuals to UWC. Professors Lududi and
Sabi also mentioned how talented faculty played an important role in the academic and research
capacity of UWC. The dedication and commitment of staff and employees was also roundly
highlighted by Lois Dippenaar in her interview: “what the leadership did was the recovery of the
academic projects and attracting the key academic staff members to rebuild the academic
projects.”
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Moreover, Dippenaar and Salmi (2016) argued that in addition to faculty and upper
administration, university staff played a vital and leading role in the transformation of UWC. In
that regard, Dippenaar recalls a meeting in which the Vice Chancellor VC had to smooth the way
for the financial recovery, and convinced the staff to take very small pay increases, well below
inflation. To aid in financial recovery of the institution, the money saved from staff salaries
contributed to a larger budget to develop the institution. This demonstrates the staff’s real
financial contributions to the future of the university. Leadership, according to Dippenaar, is vital
inside the university, among the constituent parties, as well as externally.
Two elements, according to Salmi (2016), explain the theory of change in higher
education. Leadership is one of the elements that define and control the success of higher
education institutions. Dippenaar believes that the leadership exhibited by the university staff, as
mentioned above, was vital. Outside of the institution, Dippenaar trusts partnerships, both local
and worldwide, were the second important leadership factor. For example, UWC has received
excellent support from the Department of Higher Education and Training in a variety of ways
over the years for all kinds of development—be it infrastructural, or academic, or administrative.
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RQ 2. What Administrative Approaches and Strategies did UWC Implement to Improve
its Educational Quality and Operational Performance?
Table 4
Administrative Approaches and Strategies at UWC and Critical Factors in Existing Literature
Research
Question Factors Contribution/Evidence
Factors in existing
literature
2. What
administrative
approaches and
strategies did
UWC implement
to improve its
educational
quality and
operational
performance?
Building Leadership
at UWC
All Leader Engagements
within UWC, Leadership
trainings by external experts.
Replacement of UWC
Leadership (academic and
administrative) lost to the
post-apartheid government.
Appropriate
Governance
(Wood &
Robertson, 2015),
Concentration of
Talent (Salmi,
2009),
Alignment of
success factors
(Salmi, 2009)
Training and
Upskilling
employees
Focus on training in IOPs,
Conducting Learning Needs
Analyses (LNAs),
Community of Practice
(COP) groups, Staff
Development Programme,
Talent Stewardship Program
Alignment of
Success Factors
(Salmi, 2009)
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Organizational
culture and values
Visionary Leadership of
higher management, Shared
vision among all
stakeholders as commented
by Dr. Bawa and Dr.
Loududi
Staff surveys and cultural
surveys based on Richard
Barnett’s 7 levels of
consciousness used to asses
desirable and non-desirable
values.
Appropriate
Governance
(Wood &
Robertson, 2015),
Role of
Institutions:
Leadership and
Strategic Vision
(Dyer & Dyer,
2017)
Financial resources Recapitalization, ABSA
support, Grants and
Collaborations, fiscal
discipline
Resource
Adequacy (Pisár et
al.,2019)
Role of Vision Transformation in
Leadership at all levels,
International Grants and
collaborations
Alignment of
Success Factors
(Salmi, 2009)
Strategic Planning Reliance on IOP framework,
Development of UWC as an
‘Engaged University’
Appropriate
Governance
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(Wood &
Robertson, 2015)
The role of leadership, an oft-repeated theme of this dissertation, has been extensively
acknowledged in contemporary scholarship (Salmi, 2009). At UWC, Professor Gerwell in 1987
declared UWC as the intellectual home of the Left, and subsequently in 1989 he opened the
university to all races, against official government decree (Bharuthram & Pokpas, 2020).
Although this caused many short-term difficulties to UWC from the adversarial apartheid
government, this stand blessed the university with a distinct identity and eventually with a
unique legacy. From this apartheid-era identity, Rector Brian O’Connell took the University on
multiple fronts, including science departments, new academic infrastructure, talent concentration
and financial stability, and during his tenure enrollment more than doubled.
Sehoole and Adeyemo (2016) stressed the significance of strategic visions along with the
role of leadership that enhance democratic values and build a just society. Strategic planning and
the role of vision were instrumental at UWC. In that context, Kareem nuances the dynamism of
leadership when he mentions that institutional and department level are crucial. In my opinion,
Kareem’s distinction is the micro and macro level. In similar fashion, Bawa highlights the
importance of the role of the leadership saying, “I think the most important resources that
brought about changes are the staff and students, and the leadership of the university.” Along
similar lines, Horta and Yudkevich (2016) argue that those institutions that entirely rely on their
own undergraduates to proceed into graduate programs are not likely to be at the leading edge of
intellectual development. This intellectual development is one of the distinct phenomena of the
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resources, in particular the concentration of talent, which will be explored in the findings of the
third research question in the following segment.
RQ3: What Resources were Developed and Utilized by UWC during its Period of
Development?
Table 5
Resources were Developed and Utilized by UWC and Resources were in Existing in Literature
Research Question Resources Contribution/Evidence Resources in existing
literature
3. What resources were
developed and utilized
by UWC during its
period of development?
Human
Resources
Committed and meticulous
staff,
Focus on training in IOPs,
Conducting Learning Needs
Analyses (LNAs), Staff
Development Programme,
Talent Stewardship Program
Concentration of
Talent (Salmi, 2009)
Financial
resources
Recapitalization, ABSA
support, Grants and
Collaborations, fiscal
discipline
Resource Adequacy
(Pisár et al.,2019)
Infrastructure New Health Science
Building
Resource Adequacy
(Pisár et al.,2019)
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Partnerships Flemish Institutions, DBBS
Appropriate
Governance (Wood
& Robertson, 2015)
The study demonstrates the importance of human resources, logistic resources, and
financial resources. In regard to the financial resources, Lududi indicated in his interview that the
biggest support from the government was to provide financial sustainability early in O’Connell’s
tenure, while Dippenaar added that increases in allowed enrollment capacity also acts as a
financial incentive. The government also rescinded its recommendation to merge UWC with
another institution at the behest of UWC leadership, which also indicates support, and autonomy
as indicated above. When there were also some alleged financial irregularities, UWC was able to
extricate itself because of the generous disposition of government bureaucracy overlooking this
issue. The researcher, therefore, recalls the claim of Raby, Sharma, and Bista (2019), who
recognized that universities are complex organizations, but UWC avoided the bureaucratic
complexities from within the institution and from the government, likely due to the transition
from an antagonistic to sympathetic government after 1994.
Regarding financial resources, Kareem also discusses the apartheid/post-apartheid
scenarios of financial instabilities, especially when students and staff who joined the government
cabinet came to rescue UWC from the brink of financial ruin. For example, Kader Asmol, a
former professor at UWC who became a government minister, along with some other senior
government officials decreased student fees, which helped increase enrollment. In line with
Kareem, Sabi emphasizes the role of staff and government to resolve the crisis, but most
importantly, Sabi focuses on the role of donors. For example, Belview Community Medical
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Center financially supported UWC, particularly the faculty of health science. The role of
sympathetic government that now had actors intimately familiar with UWC made possible
overcome the crisis.
Concerning the resource adequacy, one of the five critical success factors that this present
study synthesized, Kareem brought the story of Professor Baruthram, a scientist who came from
the University of KwaZulu-Natal with a strong set of resources and a vision about how to use
them. Hence, once again, we see the different matrices of leadership in changing UWC. One of
significant contributions that Baruthram brought is the vision of collaboration. The vision helped
UWC collaborate on more significant research projects across South Africa and around the
world. Other resources such as government support, tuition, donors, grants, internet, and so on
played a massive role in facilitating change at UWC, but Kareem speculates that it was the
human resources that accelerated the momentum of change. Kareem categorically refers to
students and staff (both academic and administrative) as two fundamental aspects of human
resources. Conclusions
The study identified the most important and frequently discussed critical success factors
that overlap in the literature review and the findings are: (1 the role of leadership; (2 resources;
(3 the concentration of research and innovation, and (4 strategic planning. Also, this study
identifies (5 partnerships, one not found in the literature review. The findings suggest this is a
major critical success factor that should be recognized for non-Western universities seeking to
improve their standing
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Given the original focus of this dissertation on improving international standing, it is
notable that interviewees stated UWC was not attentive to specific rankings. Perhaps this was a
focus on the process of change, rather than fixating on external measures of it.
Among the critical success factors mentioned in the literature review, what the researcher
identified as minor factors were in fact critical for UWC. For example, strategic vision and
planning were significant at UWC as success factors but not in the literature review.
Only partnerships as a success factor at UWC is unique in the sense that the review of the
literature does not adequately address it. My observation is that most of the participants assure
that the role of partnership, specifically while considering the United States and Norway, made
an impactful contribution in the academic, logistics, and administrative of UWC’s ascent.
Similarly, the experience of “staff leadership”, or micro-level leadership falls in this
study under the critical success factor of leadership, but the literature on world-class universities
and the researcher’s hypothesis about critical success factors for non-Western universities did not
anticipate the importance of the sense of mission, belonging and commitment of university staff
to the success of the institution. The findings demonstrate that this aspect of loyalty to UWC
shows the community’s resilience and belongingness. The loyalty, above all, helped rebuild the
trust among different stakeholders. Teaching and researching come together when the function of
a university is described. Chapter Two focuses more on teaching aspect rather than researching.
On the other hand, most of the interviewees praise the role of research that (re)shaped and
transformed UWC.
In the literature on world-class universities and the researcher’s hypotheses about critical
success factor for non-Western universities addressed the major critical success factors UWC
experienced, but not all. Some that were anticipated to be minor turned out to be major, but none
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of the concepts the researcher anticipated to see at UWC were absent. However, the study is
valuable for identifying partnerships, micro-level leadership, and the positive benefits in relation
to mission, belonging, trust and commitment to Rector O’Connell’s vision for the university.
A few of the other general observations that were not directly asked or discussed in the
research questions, but are worth mentioning. First, all five interviewees were quite convinced
and onboard with the supposition that UWC had been transformed as a successful institution. To
the interviewees, the story of UWC and its unique history was something that they readily
affiliated with and were proud of, and happy to share with the rest of the world. This proved to
be significant because this was the common minimum that was indispensable to have a fruitful
interview since the research questions are premised upon such a shared comprehension. It is
important to consider that among the five interviewees, and the internal and external published
materials, counterarguments and conflicts may have been diminished in favor of telling a
positive story about the institution, or the threat of the “saga” of higher education. Indeed, one of
the challenges of composing any institutional study is to remain critical when faced with an
overwhelming message of positivity. While the study identifies several challenges the university
faced, the overall message is one of success and accomplishment. This should not preclude
further studies about the intricate challenges and conflicts that undoubtedly occurred in this case.
This is discussed further below in the limitations section.
Another vital observation is that although the factors that contributed to the rise of UWC
seem to be in line with common knowledge of the subject, it is the story and context of their
implementation that reflects the uniqueness of the journey of UWC. As an example, ‘government
support’ seems to be a well-known factor that seems to play a pivotal role in the ascent of
institutions and for it to make to our list is not unexpected. However, the sources provide context
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to this factor and explains the complicated relationship that UWC had with the government. In
simple words, it was never safe to characterize this relationship as black or white, but it was
rather a complex interaction, which shaped the identity, performance, and values of the
institution in a profound way. The government was not solely adversarial before during the pre-
apartheid era although it did cause substantial problems and impediments. In the same way, after
1994 as well, the interaction with the government although significantly better and fruitful, did
not come without its fair share of problems and roadblocks like the motivation to merge UWC
with another institution.
Another significant observation that was quite apparent was that UWC, despite its
tumultuous struggle, nonetheless enjoyed a very high and healthy level of autonomy. This
became evident from the interview discussions and other primary sources through several
historical instances. First, it was Gerwel’s decision to open UWC to all races despite functioning
under an apartheid regime. It is obvious that even though the regime became adversarial it did
not interfere much in the aftermath of this incident. Second, during post-apartheid period when
the government and its Department of Higher Education indicated their intention to merge UWC
with another institution, the administration and leadership at that time under O’Connell was able
to disagree and convince the government that it is in the interest of UWC and the country that
UWC be preserved as an independent institution which is what ultimately happened.
Bawa and Lududi indicated that the post-apartheid Mandela government cabinet had
many UWC alumni leading the country in different positions, which may have helped UWC in
functioning with relative freedom. To reiterate, although none of the interviewees directly
mentioned this as a factor, this was bolstered by the content of their discussion and other sources.
This is very much in line with the existing body of knowledge that necessitates and predicates
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institutional success upon autonomy and academic freedom. Scholars like Wood and Robertson
(2015) have highlighted the role of independence in the success of the universities in the United
States. Clarke (2014) also posited a similar observation in the context of non-white West Indian
countries of Jamaica and Dominican Republic. He inferred those institutions with higher
autonomy had more functional flexibility and were therefore better equipped to face convoluted
and constantly evolving challenges. Aghion et al. (2008) and Estermann (2015) have also
highlighted the same relationship between institutional performance and autonomy.
Another essential observation that proved to be a blessing in disguise in the long run
albeit a stiff challenge when it arose was the competition faced by UWC in the aftermath of
apartheid. As apartheid ended and Black students received the freedom to go to any higher
education institution of their choosing, UWC had to step up to compete against the best South
African Universities in a short amount of time. This is precisely what UWC did eventually
changing the enrollment from below 10,000 to above 20,000. Pucciareli and Kaplan (2016)
iterate the same that competition is indispensable to the ascent of universities and when
competition withers institutional performance also tends to become lackluster. Salmi (2009)
made a similar observation about some French and German universities where lack of
competition and limited autonomy has adversely affected performance. This section has already
hinted at the role of government and the resource adequacy briefly above; however, it is worth
exploring this factor in more detail. The existing body of knowledge has highlighted its
importance considerably.
John, Daun-Barnett, & Moronski-Chapman (2018) have underscored the role of
government in improving university standards. Felt and Glanz (2002) iterated that governments
are critical in supporting universities by providing autonomy and financial resources. In the case
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of UWC, the former has already been covered above and the latter has been of utmost
significance in UWC’s rise from pre-1994 decline. The greatest support came in the form of
recapitalization that saved UWC from its financial predicament.
This present research has been able to shed light on the ascent of UWC and the factors
that contributed to it. Several interviewees claimed that the path of UWC can provide a roadmap
to other universities facing this uphill task, especially nonwestern institutions which bolsters its
practical significance. Bawa indicated that UWC’s model can be replicated at other places and its
example is noteworthy. Bawa narrated that UWC has a unique history which was founded in
difficult circumstances, but these conditions do not decide where UWC will end up. UWC
overcame the major challenges because the people’s perseverance and resistance were sufficient.
University is about claiming its own strengths as having to pay the price, Bawa continued, but
truly combating the internal inferiority complex that it has. To be able to own it and say that
while you may view it one way, Bawa sees it another way, and Bawa enjoys working on it.
While comparing to the United States universities including Harvard University, Bawa maintains
that there are still more works to be done at UWC.
In addition, Sabi also indicated that UWC is a role model due its rise from a
disadvantaged and minor-serving university to its current stature. In the interview, Sabi points
out that “UWC has come a long way, and we come a long way in the sense that we weren’t an
advantaged university but rather a disadvantaged university. And looking at where we are at
now, and looking at the achievements over the years, UWC is a role model, if I can say so. It’s a
role model in the sense that, you can achieve if you put your mind to it. That is literally what we
teach to our students. And, the history of UWC speaks at the top.” Lududi also unequivocally
iterated the same, “We are only just over 60 years old as an institution, and we’ve really
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transformed from disadvantage institution with really limited academic capability to one of the
competing universities in South Africa.” Lududi, furthermore, emphasized the contribution of O’
Connell, “there’s one reason that UWC became the leading historically disadvantaged black
institution in South Africa.” Dippenaar too did add a valuable nuance that UWC’s path was
context-dependent, and so a generic blueprint based on its unique history may not be most
suitable for others, but there are certainly a lot of valuable insights prevalent in its example.
The present research can also contribute to a better comprehension of the differences in
the dynamics of institutional development between western and non-western environments by
presenting UWC’s case as an example. UWC can be considered a model example which is
demonstrated by Sabi’s words. Sabi, in her interview, states that, “I would say we are a very
good example and we will continue to be a good example”. The main reason is UWC always
looks for avenues to improve by focusing on its own flaws and drawbacks, not by carrying any
sense of unhealthy competition with other higher educational institutions. UWC’s success, in the
words of Ludidi, lies with the matter of fact that it successfully was able to produce not just
academic leader but also political leader. Ludidi highlights that the university has been a home of
the Left-wing scholars, who promote diversity and excellence at the same time while striving for
equity. These factors, as pointed out by Ludidi, transformed the university to a genuine
progressive globally competitive university. Once again, the work of O’Connell came to the
discussion. As per Ludidi’s words, it was O’Connell’s dynamic and visionary perspectives that
made UWC excel. Nevertheless, Kareem is reluctant to consider UWC a good model or example
for others as he thinks that contextualization is important to determine if UWC is a good
example.
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Limitations of the Study
This study has potential limitations like any other research. Among all the hurdles, first
and foremost, it is essential to address from the discussion the idea of the saga, that is, whether
or not the documents and the interviews inform us of the positive and the good side or they tell
us about some negative aspects of UWC. The printed primary sources and interviews give us a
more favorable impression of UWC than the negative drawbacks. But the struggle that UWC
faced in terms of political and financial turmoil, among other significant events, helped establish
a constructive criticism for the present study. The present study, therefore, analyzes whatever
available data is found from the existing mentioned sources. Hence, the findings of this current
study have to be seen in the light of some limitations.
Regarding the transformation of UWC, the change UWC from being political to a kind of
university with the spirit of resistance for Black and people of color in South Africa made the
UWC a competitive university. Brian O’Connell states that “we have to leave that behind.” This
hints and suggests to us that there was something they gave up making this transition, this kind
of resistance to the White domination, although the traces of apartheid were left.
One of the study’s primary objectives is to make a model for other non-western
universities. Nevertheless, using this model for other non-western universities, it is worthwhile to
remember that there was a political paradigm shift at UWC. During the apartheid, even though it
was a minority of people with power, it was a minority university. After apartheid, it turns out
into a majority university, where the black and people of color have political power. Therefore,
when we think about applying the model to other universities, we must keep that political
paradigm shift in mind. While considering a non-western university, we should feel the sense of
a non-western university within a minority political power or a non-western university in a
137
cultural significance like being. Part of the reason is that some universities are not dis-
empowered in the same way that UWC was.
Although the present study emphasized a non-western university in a unique socio-
cultural environment, which formed the premise for the transition of UWC, it cannot accomplish
further research on investigating the differences and commonalities in such factors across
national boundaries and socio-cultural settings. Hence, it recommends and encourages further
future research on exploring the differences and commonalities. The reason is that such
investigation can help universities charter a course that best suits their needs without focusing on
factors imported from a foreign environment. Because of time constraints, the present study
focused on only one university, UWC. Still, future research should give attention to multiple
universities that may be more useful in shedding light on the success factors rather than one
single university despite the challenges in resource availability.
Notably, the present study could not find adequate archival materials, not just because of
time constraints but because of the lack of proper well-articulated strong UWC archival sites.
UWC can follow the footsteps of some good universities, including BGSU, to establish solid
archival sites. Having digitized archival sites is crucial because access to archival material can be
an excellent resource for future research. Since the present study could not access archival sites,
such access would have proven beneficial for the analysis.
Because of the global pandemic COVID-19, the researcher personally could not visit the
UWC campus, which substantially made some obstacles to providing more intriguing findings of
the results. The current study recommends future researchers see the UWC campus in person and
narrate the saga for readers using firsthand experience.
138
Recommendations for Future Research
The researcher makes the following recommendations after a rigorous examination of the
findings of the study. First, the current research focused on a non-western university in a unique
socio-cultural environment, which formed the premise for the transition of UWC. A similar
study on a university in a western environment can build on studies like this present one and
illuminate on the differences in factors that predict success. It would also be worth noting to
investigate the differences and commonalities in such factors across national boundaries and
socio-cultural settings. Such investigation can help universities charter a course that best suits
their needs without getting focused on factors imported from a foreign environment. The
influence of western, imperialist, and orientalist metrics and rankings on non-western higher
education environment has been questioned roundly by scholars and classified as soft power (Lo,
2011). Others have referred to it as a process of hegemony (Ishikawa, 2012). On the other hand,
researchers have pointed out that university rankings are useful tools to improve research
(Vernon, Balas, & Momani, 2018) despite some of the concerns. Given such concerns, a
delineation between western and non-western success factors would certainly bolster the current
body of knowledge and clear the pathways for further research contextualized within respective
socio-cultural and geographical boundaries.
Moreover, focusing on multiple universities may be more useful in shedding a light on
the success factors rather than on one single university despite the challenges in resource
availability. A case study is valuable in providing deep understanding on a unit of study or
multiple units (Creswell & Poth, 2016). Although qualitative research in general has little to do
with generalization, and is very useful in gaining valuable insights, especially in the field of
education (Merriam, 1988), it is also advisable to use other designs and constructions to gain
139
more scalable and generic knowledge on this topic. Grounded theory can provide a cohesive
generalization with an overarching theory (Creswell & Poth, 2016), where multiple universities
can be studied simultaneously. Quantitative studies would also be necessary since a lot of
rankings judge the performance of higher education institutions based on measurable metrics.
In addition, access to archival material can also prove to be a great resource for future
research. Much of the archive on historical events has not been available in digital format in the
case of UWC. Such an access would have proven helpful for this research. It is also worth
mentioning that similar themes or ideas have been iterated in the interviews, primary sources,
and secondary sources using varying terminologies. Alternatively, a multitude of language was
found to indicate similar or overlapping themes throughout the examination of all the results and
resources.
Finally, during the interviews and investigation of textual resources slight differences
between South African and American spoken English was also apparent. These differences
spanned around spellings, articulation, pronunciation, and accent among other things. However,
these differences only required slightly more diligence on the part of the researcher and
interviewees, but this issue never became an impediment.
Summary
The chapter begins with the discussion of three major research questions findings and
some other additional observations that were missing from the primary sources. A close
connection—be it agreement or disagreement—has been then made between the findings with
the existing literature. While discussing the findings, a chronology of three research questions
has been followed. In the discussion of findings, it is also exhibited how UWC transformed into
a major-serving higher educational institution.
140
The concluding section synthesized the major observations derived from the primary
sources, including interviews, and printed publications, and finally, the chapter recommended
some clues for additional research. The study recommends that an investigation be performed to
help institutions in charting a course that best meets their needs without relying on variables
imported from another country. The study demonstrates that there was no (or lack) of access to
archival material, but that will be an effective useful resource for future research. Such access
would have been beneficial to this present study.
141
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APPENDIX A. IRB ACKNOWLEDGMENT
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APPENDIX B. IRB CONSENT
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APPENDIX C. IRB APPROVAL
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