Changes in the offing

John Butler-Adam

doi:10.1590/sajs.2014/a0061

Abstract

It comprises 411 pages, has a Ministerial Forward, a Chairperson's Introduction and an Executive Summary of well over 14 000 words. Add in some nifty formulae and graphs and you have the Report of the Ministerial Committee for the Review of the Funding of Universities. To capture and summarise the detailed content of so substantial a report in a thousand words or so would be an impossible task. But there are four aspects of the Report that might be of interest to readers of this Journal: the review team's recommendations will be modelled to determine their effects on South African universities, emphasis is placed on steering the higher education system towards differentiation, there are proposed changes to the rewards for publication and a proposed shift in focus in the allocation of Research Development Grants.

Highlights

It comprises 411 pages, has a Ministerial Forward, a Chairperson’s Introduction and an Executive Summary of well over 14 000 words
There are four aspects of the Report that might be of interest to readers of this Journal: the review team’s recommendations will be modelled to determine their effects on South African universities, emphasis is placed on steering the higher education system towards differentiation, there are proposed changes to the rewards for publication and a proposed shift in focus in the allocation of Research Development Grants
[t]here is broad agreement that South Africa needs a diverse university sector which is purposefully differentiated in order to meet a range of social, economic and educational requirements

Summary

Introduction

It comprises 411 pages, has a Ministerial Forward, a Chairperson’s Introduction and an Executive Summary of well over 14 000 words. Add in some nifty formulae and graphs and you have the Report of the Ministerial Committee for the Review of the Funding of Universities.

Results

Conclusion