Effects of Higher Education Institution Mergers on Quality and Access

Date
2012-10-08
Authors
TOM-NOMA, LINDA
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Abstract
A decade or so back, the South African government embarked on a programme to change the way higher education (HE) institutions operated. This change was aimed at increasing access, promoting equity, ensuring diversity to meet national and regional skills and knowledge needs, building research capacity, re-organising the institutional landscape, and establishing new forms and identities. This resulted in mergers and incorporations of various colleges, technikons and universities. The study focuses on the effects of incorporating/merging a Historically Black University (HBI) and a Historically White University (HWI) as manifested in the experiences of students and staff members of both universities. The study seeks to interrogate their perceptions on the attainment or lack thereof of the goals of restructuring in Higher Education. The study will therefore solicit their perceptions after the process and seek to identify recurring themes and issues evident in the experience of those affected by this restructuring. The research methodology adopted in this study is a quantitative one and included questionnaires that were filled in by the students as well scheduled interviews with staff members. These were based on four critical themes which focused on equity and access to resources, tuition cost, culture and the quality of education. The effects of incorporating/merging a “historically black university and a historically white university” on the actual people affected by the process are then documented in this study. The theoretical interpretation of the data under review suggests that political factors might be at the centre of institutional mergers since these restructuring processes were not voluntarily initiated by the individual institutions but were forced through government policies. This is clear through the responses of staff and students who were present stakeholders at the initiation stage. Responses particularly from the HBI staff members reveal concerns ranging from poor consultation, lack of proper communication about the process, job insecurities, and trust issues as well different cultural synergies. These staff members mention the difficulties of working in an environment where you feel that your job is under threat. This they presume results in low levels of morale and hence affecting service delivery. However they appreciate access to more resources and more sophisticated technology. On the other hand, staff members from the HWI feel that very little has changed and do not feel any pressures from the process. Students from the HBI are more concerned about costs but are embracing the cultural diversity and access to better resources
Description
MM thesis - P&DM
Keywords
Universities and technikons, Mergers of higher education institutions, Education quality
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