ANC Research Unit- Parliament of the Republic of South Africa
Howard Johnson
Researcher: Education

A TOpposal for a study visit to higher institutions of learning.
Visits to institutions of higher education of which mergers were approved as from January 1, 2004, are to take place from l August 2004 to 6 August 2004-

The visits will be undertaken by two groups of five members each of which one will be visiting institutions in the north and the other one institutions in the south.

The following institutions approved for merging in the north of South Africa
will be visited:
University of Potchefstroom - two days
Pretoria University - two days
University of South Africa - one day

The following institutions in the south were approved for merging in January 2005 will be visited:
University of Port Elizabeth and PE Technikon – 1^st day for one day
Border Technikon and Eastern Cape Technikon – 2^nd day for one day
Unitra – 3^rd day for half a day
University of Durban Westville - 4'h day for one day
University of Natal – 5^th day -for one day.

Members are to leave their homes on Sunday l" August 2004 and field work starts on Monday 2nd August 2004-

Objectives of the visits.
The primary objective of the visits in general is to exercise oversight and monitoring of the merger process and in particular to evaluate its impact on transformation in higher education-

The' salient features of the tour should focus among other things; the
following:
(1) What are the key issues and challenges in the merger process
(2) Cost of mergers
(3) Progress with regards to the new funding formula and how to support weak institutions with greater need (lack of financial and material resources)
(4) Access and enrolment equity targets, e g demographics
(5) Governance, leadership, accountability and effecting credibility to the process
(6.) Do historically advantaged institutions necessarily swallow historically disadvantaged institutions
(7) Is the curricula in line with the Human Resource and Development Strategy to produce quality graduates needed for social, economic and technological development
(8) What considerations determined the new fee structures and who determined this
(9) Other challenges identified by institutions