Institutional combinations and the creation of a new higher education institutional landscape in post-1994 South Africa

Abstract

The institutional change agenda for higher education in South Africa post-1994 was extensive in its foci, ambitious in goals, and far-reaching in nature. There was a wide array of transformation-oriented initiatives aimed at institutional change. These included the definition of the purposes and goals of higher education; extensive policy research, policy formulation, adoption, and implementation in the areas of governance, funding, academic structure and programmes and quality assurance, and the enactment of new laws and regulations. There was also a major restructuring and reconfiguration of the higher education institutional landscape and of institutions that included the mergers of institutions and the incorporation of some institutions into others. These initiatives tested the capacities and capabilities of the state and higher education institutions and affected the pace, nature and outcomes of change. In this paper we examine one aspect of institutional change: mergers, addressing the context, determinants, dynamics and outcomes of mergers, or more generally institutional combinations, and the overall restructuring of the higher education institutional landscape post-1994.