The decline in civic participation, dwindling support for social services and deficits in state budgets, has created a climate in which higher education, supported by several policies, has to make a commitment to contribute to the reconstruction and development of society by linking academic programmes to community-based priorities (Campbell…

A successful transition from school to university is crucial to academic success--especially in the first academic year. Various studies have, however, shown that students are increasingly underprepared for higher education studies. Not only is the school-university gap increased by the school system that produces inadequately prepared learners…

Over the past decade the educational environment has not only become more competitive but also more commercialised. These trends have contributed to the introduction of service quality measurement at higher education institutions. Traditionally institutions assume that students have relatively homogeneous needs and expectations and the result is…

This article reports on findings pertaining to education scholarship in higher education drawn from a wider study on all education research in South Africa from 1995 to 2006. After briefly outlining pertinent aspects of the wider study, it offers a preliminary and descriptive account of what were found to be primary research themes in higher…

In this article I survey educational research conducted in South Africa based on articles published in the "South African Journal of Education" ("SAJHE") over the past five years. The themes that feature prominently in "SAJHE" over the past five years are: "Africanisation and indigenous knowledge,"…

The contributions in this special issue have one thing in common: they all highlight the unattentiveness of higher education research to inquiry into and about teaching and learning in South Africa over the past decade. In this article I explore this claim in relation to the first four essays in this volume. Then, in relation to my own…

This article makes an argument for a system of higher education governance that allows the university some freedom but one that manages to offer a critical examination of the lived circumstances of people and their worldview. This proposal for higher education autonomy on the continent is in tandem with Africa's experiences as well as giving space…

According to Martin, Benjamin, Prosser, and Trigwell (1999), the scholarship associated with teaching consists of three related activities which integrate the key functions of higher education, namely engagement with the existing knowledge on teaching and learning; self-reflection on teaching and learning in one's discipline; and the public…

In this article we argue for a conception of learning to be connected to the achievement of cosmopolitan norms and virtues which need to influence the way we understand and undertake learning and teaching in higher education in Africa. Our contention is that learning in universities on the African continent can more appropriately respond to some…

This article is an account of the author's ongoing action enquiry into how she can understand and improve her practice. It is a continuation of an earlier paper, delivered originally as a keynote presentation at the SAARDHE 2007 Conference, University of Pretoria, where she made the case that the "I" should be central in educational…

The curriculum should be paramount in the academic field since the university uses curricula to put its ideas into effect. The curriculum field and community engagement are both comprehensive at universities but research on curricular community engagement (CCE) is imperative. Curriculum theory was used as a theoretical framework for this article,…

The Higher Education Quality Committee's definition of quality (HEQC 2001) includes standard elements familiar to other higher education systems as well as elements specific to South Africa's own contextual priorities and purposes. These elements are fitness for and of purpose, value for money, and individual and social transformation (Singh…

The evaluation of educational or social programmes is paramount for establishing success or impact in higher education. Evaluation questions about programme goals (e.g. better performance of first-year students) or about the quality of programme strategies (design and implementation) and effectiveness of delivery (coordinator inputs and…

A multi-stakeholder-driven model for excellence in higher education curriculum development has been developed. It is based on the assumption that current efforts to curriculum development take place within a framework of limited stakeholder consultation. A total of 18 multiple stakeholders are identified, including learners, alumni, government,…

In this article we argue that higher education institutions ought to be a reflection of society: its vision, values, conscience and ways of doing. It has as its task the production of "human capital" for participation in a global economy and by virtue of its position in society, ought to be able to do justice to that. In this article we…