CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW
2.5. HIGHER EDUCATION ACT, 101 OF 1997
The Education White Paper 3 as a central policy in higher education, is viewed in this study as a means of closing the gap that still exists between the HDIs and the HAIs, where the former were disadvantaged, especially in governance, while the latter were advantaged in terms of both governance and facilities, and so forth. Thus Education White Paper 3 is appropriately sub-titled "A Programme for the Transformation of Higher Education".
that redressing of past inequalities was supposed to be made compulsory from the onset when this Act was enacted so as to commit every institution's official to this struggle. One of the key aspects of the HEA is the requirement that every public higher education must establish an Institutional Forum.
The Institutional Forum rose from groupings such as broad transformation forums, which played an important role in the contribution made by educational institutions to South Africa's struggle for democracy and freedom, both for the nation and educational institutions themselves. Because of the significance of this past role, and because the need for the democratisation of institutions of higher education was ongoing and could not be completed merely by means of policy and legislation, and through the intervention of the Department of Education, the Higher Education Act established Institutional Forums, and defined their roles, on a legal basis.
Clearly the Act intends institutional forums, firstly, to assist in the transformation of institutions, and thus to act as change agents and facilitators of "co-operative governance," which is a key concept in the Preamble of the Act. Secondly, in order to advise the Council, to be the Council's eyes and ears in each institution (Higher Education Act, 101 of 1997). The preamble ofthis Act is important because it establishes the spirit and the letter of the law as it applies to the governance of institutions of higher education.
The HEA states it is desirable to:
Establish a single co-ordinated higher education system which promotes co-operative governance and provides for programme-based higher education; restructure and transform programmes and institutions to respond better to the human resource, economic and development needs of the Republic; redress past discrimination and ensure representivity and equal access; provide optimal opportunities for learning and creation of knowledge; promote the values which underline an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom; respect and
encourage democracy, academic freedom, freedom of speech and expression, creativity, scholarship and research; pursue excellence, promote the full realization of the potential of every student and employee, foster tolerance of ideas and appreciation of diversity; respond to the needs of the Republic and of the communities served by the institutions;
contribute to the advancement of all forms of knowledge and scholarship, in keeping with the international standards of academic quality;
be it therefore enacted by Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, as follows:
The Institutional forum of a public higher education institution must- (a) advise the council on issues affecting the institution, including:-
(i) the implementation of this Act and the national policy on higher education;
(ii) race and gender equity policies;
(iii) the selection of candidates for senior management positions;
(iv) codes of conduct, mediation and dispute resolution procedures; and (v) the fostering of an institutional culture which promotes tolerance and respect for fundamental human rights and creates an appropriate environment for teaching, research and learning; and
(b) perform such functions as determined by the council (Higher EducationAct, 101 of 1997).
During the last eight years of South Africa's new dispensation, as educational policy and legislation was being planned it became clear that policy and legislation alone would be insufficient to reshape institutions. This was because institutions had developed habits shaped by the old hierarchical dispensation. It was realised that the continued presence and influence of the Institutional Forum would be needed. This led to the legislated establishment ofInstitutional Forums (Phelps, Mamba& Guma, 2001: 1).
Understandably, the more conservative the institution was, and the more it still carried forward the personnel of the past with the attitudes of the past, the more confrontational such conservatism would be towards institutional forums. To institutions with a top-down administrative structures of the apartheid era, the idea of a new democratically elected, and intentionally democratizing agent with direct access to the Council, such as an institutional forum, was, to say the least, a most uncomfortable one. The concept of co- operation instead of subordination was, in some instances, like a red rag to a bull (Phelps, Mamba& Guma 2001 :1).
This study views the enactment of this Act as one of the most important initiatives taken by the South African Department of Education, because it is clear that without the formulation of this Act, the duty to reshape the higher education away from the past inequalities would not be possible. This Act led to the formation of institutional forums which assist in the transformation of institutions and which give advice to the institutions' councils on issues affecting the institutions, including, race and gender equity, the fostering of an institutional culture which promotes tolerance and respect for fundamental human rights, etc. Ideally this will eventually lead to equality for all staff members as equity has been met within the student body in South African higher education institutions.