Bid to merge UWC and Pentech

Published Feb 11, 2002

Share

By Jeanne van der Merwe

Th University of the Western Cape and the Peninsula Technikon should merge, the National Working Group on Higher Education has recommended.

Other important recommendations include:

- The dentistry schools of the University of the Western Cape and the University of Stellenbosch should be merged.

- The universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch should establish a single medical school.

- UCT and Stellenbosch should merge their performing and creative arts departments as a matter of urgency.

The working group was set up by Education Minister Kader Asmal to find ways to redress inequalities in the higher education system.

The working group was headed by Saki Macazoma, deputy chairperson of Standard Bank Investment Corporation, who also served on the Council of Higher Education team that dealt with the size and shape of the higher education system.

The working group also included Gill Marcus, Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank and Maria Ramos, director-general of the department of finance, Malegapuru Makgoba, president of the Medical Research Council of South Africa and Jairam Reddy, chairperson of the council of the United Nations University.

The working group has been conducting extensive interviews with tertiary institutions countrywide for more than a year, with a view to rationalising higher education in South Africa.

The working group recommended that the University of the Western Cape merged with the Peninsula Technikon.

Early indications are that the Peninsula Technikon will oppose the merger.

The working group said that Pentech and UWC should merge to form one "unitary comprehensive institution offering both university type and technikon type programmes," and that the Western Cape College of Nursing should in turn be merged with this new institution.

The working group aims to reduce the number of higher education institutions countrywide from 36 to 21 by mergers of this kind.

Commenting on equity in higher education in the Western Cape, the working group said: "All institutions should give priority to issues of access and equity and to serious regional collaboration."

Related Topics: