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Higher Education as a System and
Governance
Prof Urmilla Bob
INSPIRING GREATNESS!
Global context
… It’s tragic because, by my reading, should we
fail to radically change our approach to
education, the same cohort we’re attempting to
‘protect’ could find that their entire future is
scuttled by out timidity.
(David Puttman, 2012 cited in Barber et al., 2013 – An Avalanche is
Coming: Higher Education and the Revolution Ahead)
What are the key drivers influencing Higher
Education environments? Changing global environment (including economic and socio-
political aspects)
Globalization (Altbach, 2010)
Global knowledge economy
Internationalization
Massification of higher education
Changing policy and regulatory environments (Du Toit, 2013)
Cost of higher education
Quality of education
‘Information explosion’ – questions on quality and relevance
Centrality of building research capacity – not an option any
longer
Innovation and applied-orientation
Transformation, redress, equity and access (
Governance and leadership in Higher Education
Focus on relationships between higher education, the state
and society
Power dynamics and shifts
Changing Higher Education landscape
Traditional universities
Distance learning
Corporate universities
Constantly adapting
Institutional autonomy and public accountability
Higher education as a public or private good?
Proactive and innovative
Sustainable
Taking responsibility
Inclusion of stakeholders as decision-makers
Key governance and leadership issues
Notions of what is a university and rethinking ideas of
knowledge
Re-norming of the academic profession
Strategic orientation and organizational culture
University restructuring
Management and leadership styles
Change management
Political and demographic changes
Technological changes and advancements
Dealing with major change moments or disruptions eg. mergers,
protests, technology, etc.
Managing risk
Student and staff mobility
Heightened competition
Good governance principles
Accountability
Transparency
Consensus-orientated and participatory
Efficiency and effectiveness
Responsiveness
Visionary and strategic (anticpate future issues and plan
accordingly)
Rule of law
Equity and inclusivity
Emergence of the evaluative state (CHE, 2016)
Dominant governance styles and characteristics
Hierarchical and top-down, bottom-up vs matrix management
Rigid and policy-driven
Inadequate and inefficient systems
Decision-making processes
Bureaucratic
Slow
Indecisive
Checks and balances (lack of trust)
Highly regulated – influence of government
How to govern complex institutions eg. UKZN and the College
model?
Dealing with governance breakdown, corruption,
maladministration and mismanagement
Dominant governance styles and characteristics
in South Africa (CHE, 2016)
Diverse stakeholders and beneficiaries
Staff – academic versus professional
Students
Government
Communities
Funders/ sponsors
Are institutions be responsive (adapting to changing contexts
and environments) and responsible (broader long-term
interests)?
Student and staff-related issues
Diverse student and staff bodies
Who are our students and what are their experiences
(education and emancipation project findings)?
Personal responsibilities
Financial challenges
University support/ guidance
Decolonization and transformation
Language issues
Student protests
Discrimination and abuse
Governance and representation
Marginalization and expectations
South African context:
National Development Plan (2013: 317)
‘The data on the quality of university education is disturbing.
South African universities are mid-level performers in terms of
knowledge production, with low participation, high attrition
rates and insufficient capacity to produce the required levels of
skills. They are still characterised by historical inequities and
distortions. The university sector is under considerable strain.
Enrolments have almost doubled in 18 years yet the funding
has not kept up, resulting in slow growth in the number of
university lecturers, inadequate student accommodation,
creaking university infrastructure and equipment shortages.
The number of institutions that have recently been put under
administration is an indication of the leadership and
governance challenges.’
Key challenges to meet targets
• Overcrowding and poor quality provision
• Resources and funding (postgraduate
research costs money)
• Lack of supervision capacity
• Student support and incentives
• Throughput rates
Declining value for money of a degree
(U.S. Department of Education, 2010)
Number of articles published in last 300
years (Jinha, 2010)
Year Academic articles published per year
1726 344
1750 699
1800 3,066
1850 13,439
1900 58,916
1950 258,284
2000 1,132,291
2009 1,477,383
African trends in Higher Education
• Demand for Higher Education increasing (increase in
student-staff ratios)
• Levels of Higher Education provision among the lowest in
the world
– Eg. the SADC region is projected to achieve a 16.3% Higher
Education enrolment rate by 2050, compared with the current global
gross tertiary enrolment rate of 30%
• Increased demand has not been met with increased funding
• Challenges specifically in the Science and Technology
disciplines
• ‘Brain drain’ – challenge to develop and retain academic
staff
• Unqualified staff (many completing postgraduate studies
themselves)Source: Kotecha (2012) - CEO, Southern Africa Regional Universities
Association
African trends in Higher Education
• Low throughputs and high drop-out
• Poor infrastructure and ICT
• Focus on strengthening investments in postgraduate
education and increasing postgraduate throughput
– Concerns in the literature on ‘massification’ of postgraduate studies
• Increase mobility of staff and students
– Trends in internationalisation
• Strengthening regional and institutional cooperation and
collaboration
• Innovation in flexible learning and sharing good practice
• Proliferation of private institutions
Source: Kotecha (2012) - CEO, Southern Africa Regional Universities Association
STUDENT AND STAFF GROWTH (Tettey, nd)
Number of Higher Education institutions in SADC
(Wilson-Strydom and Fongwa, 2010)
South Africa as an illustrative example
• National Development Plan targets
– 75% of academics should have a PhD (currently 36% in a
highly differentiated system
– Increase university enrolements from 1 million to 1.6 million by
2030
– 100 000 PhDs by 2030 (pipeline Masters programmes)
• Current rate: 1 800 PhDs in 2013
• Need to train 6 000 PhDs per year to meet target
• Need an additional R5.8 billion a year to meet target)
• HEI institutional context
– High reliance on state funding (importance of postgraduate
success rates and publications)
– Limited and unequal academic and leadership capacity
South Africa Post-School System (Cloete et al.)
Expenditure on Higher Education as a % of
GDP for selected countries (Cloete et al.)
South Africa student enrolement (DHET)
Headcount enrolments per qualification level from 2006-
2011 in South Africa (Council for Higher Education, 2013)
PhD graduates per million of the population: 1990-2014
(SCISTIP report, 2016)
Changing demographics of researchers who are publishing
(SCISTIP report, 2016)
1990 1998 2014
% of scientific papers published by
female authors10% 20% 32%
% scientific papers published by
black authors3.5% 10% 32%
% scientific papers published by
authors above the age of 5018% 45% 45%
Key aspects in relation to governance
Diverse higher education contexts
Multiple stakeholder with multiple agendas and
interests
Contestation and conflict
Resource allocation and budgeting
Key income streams
Student fees
Subsidies (student enrolments, graduated students, research
outputs, etc.)
Grants (infrastructure, development, research, etc.)
Donors
Third stream income (contracts)
High levels of differences discernible (types of outputs,
levels, disciplines/ fields)
Resource allocation models – how best to
distribute resources
Increased prominence of incentivizing research
Result impact – differences and inequalities that
tend to increase over time
University costs increasing
Increased demands (student numbers increasing)
Infrastructure and maintenance
Increasing research costs
Decreasing public funding
University debt
Mismanagement of funds
Resource allocation and budgeting cont.
Dominance of state funding
Relationships between the state and universities
Impact on university autonomy
Influence on performance management and promotions
Focus on financial sustainability imperatives
Importance of monitoring productivity (‘bean counting’)
Social, personal and professional costs and benefits
Challenges identified
Quality versus quantity
Reinforces inequalities (racial and gender biases in
particular, among universities as well)
Discourages collaboration and creativity/ innovation –
individualism
Capacity-building
Examples of conceptual underpinning
to explain funding dominance in
higher education
• Entrepreneur paradigm: increasing recognition and
institutionalization (in terms of career advancement
and funding) of commercialization in higher
education – the business model
• Performance-based funding model – focus of
incentivization systems and funding allocation
approaches in the Higher Education sector
• Lam’s categorization of academic scientists’
motivations: financial (gold), reputational/ career
(ribbon) and intrinsic rewards (puzzle)
What do we value and the implications
thereof? Research Publications Outputs
as an illustrative example
• Peer reviewed publications
• DHet accredited publications
• Spread in national and international journals
• Focused research and scholarship
• Impact factors and citations (including book
reviews, assessor and reviewer reports, etc.)
of individual publication and journal
Total HE research output (subsidy units): 1987-2013
Source: Mouton, 2015
UKZN research output by type (2005 – 2013)
859.3
977.8
793.5
917.36
1033.93 1030.48
1152.2
1325.12
1489.78
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Articles Books Proceedings
Source: Mouton, 2015
UKZN’s production of Research Masters
and Doctoral graduates (2005 – 2013)
364.31348.44
330.54364.84
443.40 437.34
480.43
532.26
614.29
98 108 106136
159 163 154177
207
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Research Masters Doctorates
Source: Mouton, 2015
University rankings: driving incentives? Where is
teaching and learning as well as community outreach?
Times Higher Education QS Top Universities ARWU
• Teaching (30%)
• Research: volume,
income and reputation
(30%)
• Citations: research
influence (30%)
• Industry income –
innovation (2.5%)
• International outlook –
staff, students and
research (7.5%)
• Academic Peer Review
(40%)
• Global Employer
Review (10%)
• Faculty/Student ratio
(20%)
• Citations per faculty
(20%)
• International faculty
ratio (5%)
• International student
ratio (5%)
• Education: Alumni
winning Nobel Prizes
and Fields Medals
(10%)
• Faculty: Staff winning
Nobel Prizes and Fields
Medals (20%)
• Highly cited researchers
in 21 categories (20%)
• Research – papers in
Nature and Science
(20%)
• Papers indexed in
Science/ Social Science
Citation (20%)
• Per Capita academic
performance (10%)
Source: Barber et al. (2013)
Key issues in relation to rankings?
• Who are the benefits and who are the losers of
global rankings?
• How is rankings influencing higher education?
• What are the implications for African universities?
(Teferra, 2015)
• Should we develop an African rankings system?
• Biases – language, historical, economic, etc.
• Is it appropriate to compare different types of
institutions?
• What are the impacts of rankings on students?
Selected indicators of research excellence
International ranking and rating
Publications outputs, especially in accredited and high impact
journals
Number of excellent (NRF rated and internationally recognised)
researchers, SARCHI Chairs and Centres of Excellence
Number and throughput rate of postgraduate (masters and PhD)
students
Post-doctoral scholars
Research partnerships and collaboration (Universities, Research
Councils, government, etc.)
IP and commercial research components
Private sector/ industry linkages
Third stream funding/ research-based consultancy
Originality and significance of research
Impact on staff morale and motivation (Harde et al., 2011)
Quality assurance and data
management issues
• Linked to ethics and integrity
• Research has well-established peer review
processes – what are the challenges?
• What quality standards and controls should we
use?
• Role of quality assurances processes and units
• Do we have the capacity and resources?
• Do we have the systems and procedures?
• What should be the indicators?
• Critical for monitoring and evaluation
Additional challenges emerging
• Academic freedom and accountability
• Institutional plagiarism (Berry, 2013)
• Perverse incentives (Stephan, 2012)
• Neglect of community outreach and
engagement (2012)
• Disciplinary bias
• Gender (Fox et al., 2011) and racial bias
• Locational bias (Damtew, 2015) – Africa’s
position
Adopting an institutional strategic
approach
Strategic focus (20+ years)
Priorities, guidelines and responsiveness to future
opportunities
Alignment to university’s strategic research objectives
and financial and human resources
Establish links between research, teaching,
partnerships and community engagement
Continuous monitoring, review and evaluation to inform
improvements and ensure excellence in research
Strategic summary at UKZN
To be the Premier University of African Scholarship
African-led
globalisation
Efficient and effective
management
Institution of
choice for staff
Institution of choice for
learners
Responsible community
engagement
PRE-EMINENCE
IN RESEARCH
Excellence in
teaching and learning
Research focus areas
Increasing publications (especially in
international and high impact journals)
Increasing postgraduate recruitment and
throughput
Increased funding in R&D/ improved incentives
Increased research partnerships and
collaborations
Recruit and retain excellent staff (especially
among historically disadvantaged groups)
Research innovation and commercialisation
Staff and student mobility
Strengthen and diversity the research portfolio
Research based consultancies
Competitive research infrastructure
Effective research management and governance
National and international ranking of UKZN
Graduation and retention rate among postgraduates
No. of publications in international and high impact journals
No. of active collaborative research projects/ partnerships
Impact index of scientific publications - citations and H
Factor
No. of rated and internationally recognised researchers
No. of doctorate students and
postdocs
Amount of funding for R&D
No. of fellowships and mobility grants
No. and amount of research grants
No. of patents
No. of research-based consultancies
Vision
Goals
Strategic
research
initiatives
Progress
indicators
Main areas of intervention
Quality versus quality – how do we change behavior?
How do we address inefficiencies and inequalities?
Recruit and retention
Undergraduate and postgraduate programs – increase
efficiency and throughput rates
Strategic partnerships with relevant government
departments (eg. MILE, national departments) and the
private sector
Strategic partnerships with international universities and
funding agencies (especially in Africa)
Fostering interdisciplinarity and partnership (Townsend et al.,
2015)
Mentoring, training and support
SWOT Analysis: Identifying challenges
and opportunities
STRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
SWOT AnalysisSTRENGTHS WEAKNESSES
- Attracting top academics and researchers
- Growing research pedigree
- Development of niche areas
- Endowments that permit funding for strategic
projects
- Clear policies and guidelines
- Growing national and international partnerships and
collaboration both nationally and internationally
- Research inactive or low productivity staff
- Academic profile/ qualifications
- Tensions around workload allocation
- Aging staff profile
- Sustainability considerations
- Postgraduate throughput
- Staff turnover and mobility
- Poor monitoring and evaluation of impacts
- Few externally funded research positions
- Dependency on state funding instruments
- Limited mentoring of new and inactive staff
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
- External funding (but can improve)
- Increase in private sector third stream funding
- Increased quality and impact of research globally
- Increase internationalization in relation to staff and
student mobility
- Researchers and research areas with strong national
and international profiles
- Increased focus on innovation and opportunities for
commercialization
- Higher education competitive environment
(national and global)
- Reduction in funding
- Attrition and loss of staff
Broader Purpose
… knowledge must continually be renewed by
ceaseless effort, if it is not to be lost. It
resembles a statue of marble which stands in the
desert and is continually threatened with burial
by the shifting sand, The hands of service must
ever be at work, in order that the marble
continues to lastingly shine in the sun. To these
serving hands mine shall also belong.
(Albert Einstein)
