[Message from the Honorable Minister of Education, Prof. Kader Asmal]: I am pleased to provide a message for this important Guide to South African Universities and Technikons so soon after my appointment as Minister of Education. Each country depends on the higher education system to meet high human resource needs and to be the engine for the creation of new knowledge and innovation, and critical discourse. Our system offers students a wide choice of career options in a variety of differing environments of a world-class standard. Our universities and technikons play a vital role in preparing students, by equipping them with the necessary knowledge and skills, to take up their rightful place in society and to contribute to the socio-economic development of our country and the many other countries from which students come to study in South Africa. This also affords them the opportunity of making a substantial contribution to the development of human resources in their specialised fields. Like schools, our universities, technikons and other third level institutions must become vibrant centres of community and cultural life. We are looking at the ways in which universities can contribute to the responsibility of citizenship - within an atmosphere of voluntary help. This may be in the form of community service, which many institutions are already involved in, or, for instance, in the form of assisting with a national literacy campaign. In addition they must provide a safe and secure environment conducive to promoting their mission of teaching and learning, scholarship and research, and community service. Proper preparation for the challenges of a fast globalising world is essential if our students are to contribute to the development of the societies and the countries in which they live. Therefore I am committed to building a responsive higher education system of high quality. Such a system should demonstrate its readiness to meet the challenges of the 20st Century.

[Editor's Letter]: This 14th edition of Study South Africa foregrounds the celebration of 20 years of a democratic South Africa. Patrick Fish was commissioned to write a series of articles reflecting the development of South African Higher Education since 1994 for this edition. Reading through this the reader will hopefully experience a sense of the transformation of the South African Higher Education system. Although we all agree in South Africa that we are not done yet, we also recognise that given the South African realities, the change from a race based and fragmented system of higher education to a single but diverse system is well under way. The South African Universities transformed from mostly mono cultural to multicultural institutions that largely reflects the composition of the South African population. The University campuses also demonstrate the institutional appetite to be international. Not only do they jointly house more than 50,000 international students but are also involved in numerous ways in bringing the benefits of being globally connected to the local communities. We are one of the few higher education systems that largely fund our international activities from institutional budgets. This is one of the main reasons that South African Universities practice a style of internationalisation that is relevant to our institutional needs, as well as the local and national needs. Through our internationalisation endeavours we have connected with the rest of Africa in a very special way. Not only do we educate large numbers of students from other African countries but through the South African Higher Education alumni that now live all over the African continent we have built permanent connections that will enhance and develop long standing relationships. IEASA celebrates with all South Africans 20 years of democracy and realise that it is indeed a privilege to be practitioners in transformed ‘knowledge cities’. We are, however, saddened by the incidents of intolerance and destruction in other parts of the world that make the work of higher education institutions impossible, and can only in solidarity with those scholars at risk celebrate with deep appreciation the efforts and determination of those South Africans that made it possible for us to be Universities in a free and democratic society.

This research study aims to investigate the exchange students' experiences with living in a foreign environment. Twenty students took part in this study and were made up of two categories namely study abroad students and student interns. The twenty students who took part in this study were mostly from industrialized countries namely Germany, the United States of America, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. Data were collected by means of individual semi-structured interviews as well as observational methods namely participant and simple observations. The results indicate that if sojourners are to gain a better understanding the South African culture, it is important that they interact with the host nationals. Given that most of the students highlighted the issue of crime as their main concern, their knowledge on how to survive in a crime-ridden country like South Africa would be essential.