Knowledge Management Solution to Challenges of Higher Education in South Africa

Challenges Facing South African Higher Education

South Africa consists of 23 public universities (Ministry of Education, 2006) following the completion of the restructuring process which started in 2002 and resulted in mergers of some of the original 36 state universities and technikons (now universities of technology). The challenges engendered by this restructuring process included de-racialising education, forging new institutional identities and cultures through development of new institutional missions, social educational roles, and academic programme mixes. Moreover, the restructuring process obligated the universities to achieve equity, standardise language of instruction, undertake curriculum reform, expand access, etc. Besides, South African formal education is largely modelled on Anglo-Saxon tradition which is proletariat in nature, and the curricula is shaped to a high degree in such a manner that primary and secondary education were not meant to be preparatory processes to university (The Higher Education Working Group, 2005) instead, the path to a university is perceived as being a progression from primary through secondary to tertiary level. In addition, a lot of resources have been allocated to education without necessarily getting the desired outcomes. Traditionally, there has long been a misplaced notion within the South African higher education that theory comes out of the academic universities and is then converted into applied technology in the technical colleges and university of technologies.