Title: Changing higher education landscapes - implications for South Africa

Authors: Stefanie Baumert

Addresses: Global and European Studies Institute, University of Leipzig, Research Academy Leipzig, Burgstraße 21, 04109 Leipzig, Germany

Abstract: In changing societal contexts, systems and institutions of higher education are in need of reorientation. In this article, it is argued that part of the search for reorientation in the South African higher education system is confronted by two overlapping processes: national transformation on the one hand and the impact of challenges related to international trends in higher education (such as the reference to processes of globalisation and the knowledge society) and their interpretation in South Africa on the other. A brief portrait of current international developments in higher education with a view on the changing role of the nation state is provided, followed by a description of recent developments in South African higher education. Against this background it is shown how the rhetoric of globalisation and of the knowledge society are mirrored in South African policy documents and how that has influenced the national transformation process of higher education.

Keywords: higher education; globalisation; transnationalisation; South Africa; universities; reorientation; overlapping processes; national transformation; challenges; international trends; knowledge society; international developments; changing roles; nation states; policy documents; socio-economic divisions; political divisions; developed countries; Global North; developing countries; Global South; knowledge economies; public policy.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPP.2012.048718

International Journal of Public Policy, 2012 Vol.8 No.4/5/6, pp.281 - 294

Published online: 31 Jul 2014 *

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