Most of today's societies are confronted with an increasing necessity to legitimate the organization of their access to higher education. Commonly used as a yardstick to compare societies, the level of access to higher education is often presented as an indicator of the level of development and the capacity to produce knowledge, as well as a…

The aim of this article is to investigate the rural educators' understanding of the legislations that impact on school practice. An argument is presented that the understanding of the legal frameworks that govern school practice begins with the educators' understanding of the Bill of Rights and the South African Schools Act. The article reports on…

In this article a proposed model for the branding of higher education institutions is provided. The model describes, among others, the internal practices that have a profound impact on branding and on an institution's overall reputation and image. The authors argue that a strong internal focus is necessary before a meaningful brand experience can…

This article explores the extent to which funding is used to steer the public higher education sector towards meeting the social, political and economic imperatives of post-1994 South Africa. It argues that the design of the funding framework influenced the direction of higher education after 1994, and that funding mechanisms explicitly or…

The Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE), was established with DFID [the UK Department for International Development] support in 2006. It is a partnership between research institutions in the UK, Bangladesh, India, Ghana and South Africa. This paper is the first in a series of CREATE publications which…

Higher education systems, globally, are being called upon to effect changes in terms of widening student access and diversifying a previously homogenous academic staff profile. In South Africa, one of the main forces driving the diversification of academic staff is state policy in the form of employment equity legislation, with racial redress…

Through an analysis of quantitative and qualitative data on school funding in South Africa, this paper aims to analyse the user fee policy option in public schooling in South Africa. Debate is ongoing about the role of private input into public schooling and whether this practice affects access (and the constitutional right) to basic education,…

South Africa is currently experiencing a crisis in its educational systems that if not addressed, could threaten the stability of the newly established democracy. A lack of access to quality education and severe shortage of skilled trained educators is perpetuating vestiges of the old apartheid state in the nation. Approximately 6,000 students…

When one considers the possibilities for a new progressive era in American higher education, the author contends that it is wise to review the past because there are lessons to be learned. In fact, the latter part of the 20th century was one of great progress for diversity in higher education, generally speaking, and for African Americans in…

This article reports on findings pertaining to education scholarship in higher education drawn from a wider study on all education research in South Africa from 1995 to 2006. After briefly outlining pertinent aspects of the wider study, it offers a preliminary and descriptive account of what were found to be primary research themes in higher…

Over the last decade South Africa has undergone a unique process of transformation--a process which has still not been completed. In this paper I explore the concept of transformation within the context of higher education. I attempt to analyse the concept philosophically with the aim of showing how it can manifest in higher education. I construct…

Recognizing that teacher commitments are consequential for classroom practice, this study sets out to determine the extent to which the ethos of South African schools has been transformed towards integration in the truest sense. Findings emanating from this research indicate that teachers do not enter their classrooms as "blank slates"…

In the new democratic South Africa that emerged after 1994, educators are having to cope with the demands of multicultural situations that are developing in the former racially and ethnically segregated schools, and in the process striving for the equal treatment of the learners, the removal of discrimination and prejudice, the inculcation of…

Equal access to quality education forms a central principle in the South African Constitution. After South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, the prevailing situation in many under-resourced schools was a lack of access to quality education. We outline six ethical issues in the decision to use radio to advance access and educational…

The structures of support services for disabled students in the South African higher education system find themselves in a contradictory conjuncture of rights, benevolence and the social model of disability. To elucidate this argument, this paper (a) outlines the status of support provisions for disabled students in South Africa; (b) compares the…