[Editor's Letter]: Study South Africa over time provided an annual overview of the South African Higher Education landscape as well as a forecast of some of the issues that could influence higher education in general and higher education internationalization in particular in South Africa for the year ahead. The 2016/17 issue being the 16th edition of Study South Africa provides an overview of the sector and a short description of all South African Public Higher Education institutions. This year, the Study SA Guide provides information about the system as well as articles that begin to address critical issues influencing the sector. It is foreseen that this would become a general feature in editions to come. The article that introduces a fundamental change in operations of South African Universities, beginning in 2016 and continuing into 2016 is the issue of the student protests on high tuition fees in South Africa. The #FEESMUSFALL movement introduced a topic that is fundamental to the internationalization of South African Higher Education. This event that began as a reaction to the increase in student fees for the 2016 academic year mutated into a social movement on university campuses throughout South Africa that challenged the way Universities function. Although not a mass based movement, but rather a movement driven by a desire to change the current social order in South Africa by a radical fringe, its focus is to use the plight of insufficient funding within South African Higher Education and in particular, focusing on funding of the poor. For a large part the issues raised by students is not in the domain of Higher Education, but a competency of Government and broader society. The influence of the constant disruption of academic activities on all South African University campuses resulted in a tendency to be an inwardly focused system where most of the energy is spent on local issues. South African Higher Education is known for its international connectedness and the way the international world accepted it into their fold as a critical player in a variety of fields, bringing a different voice to global debates. The hosting of Going Global by the British Council in May 2016 in Cape Town and the hosting of the Global Conference in August 2016 by IEASA in the Kruger National Park clearly demonstrated that South African Higher Education is globally an important player. The current situation in South Africa should be seen by the outside world as a process of internal re-evaluation. It is also a struggle to bring together the global and the local. It is a process that is currently driven by South African Higher Education institutions. Although the issues that triggered the revolt is local, the roots are global and our solution to the problem could become a guide to global higher education. It is thus necessary that all the partners of the South African system believe in South Africa as the carrier of goodwill and a message that is worth listening to. It is also necessary to rather engage with South African Universities to understand the issues and not to abandon them at this critical stage. This issue of Study South Africa should remain the connector with the global higher education system and the information provided will hopefully assist all those interested in keeping and building on this connection.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:rhodes/vital:28614 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | International Education Association of South Africa (IEASA), Jooste, Nico |
| Publisher | International Education Association of South Africa (IEASA) |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, book |
| Format | 97 pages, electronic, application/pdf |
| Rights | No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior permission from IEASA. Permission to use material contained in the university profiles must be obtained directly from the institutions concerned. The information in this publication was compiled from a variety of sources, and opinions expressed should not necessarily be taken to represent those of IEASA or HESA., International Education Association of South Africa (IEASA) |
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