Unisa leaves apartheid behind
2003-10-22 19:11
Johannesburg - The merger of the University of South Africa (Unisa), Technikon SA and Vista's University's distance campus, Vudec, was a step in the right direction, Mathews Phosa said on Wednesday.
Speaking in his capacity as chair of the new Unisa's interim council, Phosa told reporters the merger was the first step on a move away from apartheid-era education.
Education Minister Kader Asmal announced on Tuesday that the merged institutions would operate as a single entity under the name Unisa from January 1, 2004.
Phosa said the restructuring was an enormous undertaking.
"The welfare of organisations with a market worth of more than R2bn is in the balance, as are the futures of many academics and support staff and the development of about 250 000 students."
He said the new Unisa would have an annual budget of R1.8bn and offer more than 3 000 courses, programmes and degrees.
"The new Unisa will be the largest comprehensive institution in South Africa," said Professor Narend Baijnath, acting vice chancellor, Technikon SA.
Unisa presently had 140 000 registered students, Technikon SA 55 000 and Vista about 8 000.
Baijnath said, "... future Unisa students will be able to follow technological, practice-orientated and career-focused programmes that are derived directly from consultation with business and industry and tailored to meet the needs of the South African economy."
Transformation
This would fulfil a "key imperative for transformation of higher education, making it more responsive to the needs of society", he said.
"Although the official merger takes place on January 1, 2004, it really signals the beginning of a process that could run for up to five years before it is satisfactorily completed," said Barney Pityana, vice chancellor of Unisa.
Baijnath said the new Unisa would offer certificates, doctorates, long and short courses, which would be both academic and career-orientated.
An audit was being done to establish what courses already existed. Following this complementary courses would be combined and rationalised and extra courses would be added if necessary, he said.
The potential for growth across the African continent and across the world was "very big" said Pityana. He said Unisa had footholds in different parts of the African continent and its intake of students had more than doubled in the last year.
The decision to retain the Unisa name was confirmed by research, said Pityana.
The three institutions used an independent company to canvas students and staff of the three institutions and over 80% of those surveyed preferred the name of Unisa.
Merger process
"We have all been working steadily on several fronts through specialised task teams consisting of representatives from all three institutions to ensure that integration of everything from systems through to academic offerings is properly considered and introduced in a seamless manner," Pityana said.
The merger had not been easy even though all three institutions offered open and distance learning as their "main mission", he said.
They had established a joint merger office to pilot the merger process, which together with "merger managers" from the three institutions was tackling issues including the finalisation of the merger plan, alignment of academic programmes, preparations for joint recruitment and registration of students and consolidating the institutions' budgets.
Baijnath said: "We are committed to ensuring that present students and those wishing to study later can continue to do so, safe in the knowledge that their qualifications will be recognised."
Current students' work would not be disrupted as the "education task was to make sure students are not prejudiced by changes", said Pityana.
- SAPA