Corporate governance practices at higher education institutions in South Africa

Ben Marx

doi:10.4102/jef.v1i2.363

Abstract

South Africa boasts a vibrant higher education sector, with more than a million students enrolled in its higher education institutions. These institutions constitute highly complex organisations, with many and varied stakeholders and with budgets running into hundreds of millions of rands. Sound management and strict adherence to corporate governance principles and practices are essential to the success of these institutions. This will include the establishment of a well-balanced, independent and diligent council, as well as properly constituted and effective sub-committees of council. Of these sub-committees, the audit and finance committees are sure to play a pivotal part in ensuring financial discipline and adherence to sound corporate governance principles and practices. The principal aim of this paper will be to focus on the basic governance-regulatory requirements of higher education institutions in South Africa, and to benchmark these requirements against the corporate governance principles and practices required by King II.

Highlights

South Africa boasts a vibrant higher education sector that provides world-class tuition and research opportunities to more than a million students enrolled in its 23 universities, universities of technology and many colleges
The population used in the empirical study consisted of the 23 higher education institutions listed on the website of the Council on Higher Education (CHE) as on 5 May 2006 (Council on Higher Education, 2006)
According to a research report prepared for the Council on Higher Education by Hall, Symes and Luescher (2002), early higher education institutions in South Africa were based on models from United Kingdom and Scottish universities

Summary

Introduction

South Africa boasts a vibrant higher education sector that provides world-class tuition and research opportunities to more than a million students enrolled in its 23 universities, universities of technology and many colleges. Throughout the last decade, student numbers in these institutions rose steadily from 473 000 in 1993 to 564 000 in 1999, to exceed the 1 000 000 in 2006 These institutions (like many of their counterparts in other countries) constitute highly complex organisations with many and varied stakeholders and with budgets running into hundreds of millions of rands. They are faced with many challenges, which, inter alia, include issues of gender, transformation of students and staff, funding and resources, research and teaching, governance and administration, as well as the growth in the local and international providers of private higher education (Subotzky, n.d.; Garson, n.d.). Sound management and strict adherence to tried-and-tested governance principles and practices are deemed essential to the success of these institutions

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