Minister meets leadership of former Afrikaans universities

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Pretoria - Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande today met with the leadership of the four former Afrikaans only universities as part of a process of cluster engagement on transformation within the higher education sector.

This was to ensure that he engages effectively within the differentiated system, which has diverse transformation challenges.  

Following the meeting, the minister will engage with the leadership of other clusters of institutions with shared historical backgrounds.

At the meeting, a wide range of issues were discussed in a constructive dialogue, for example, social inclusion and cohesion, language policies, and admissions policies.

The institutions shared their current experiences and exchanged ideas and plans to advance transformation. 

The institutional leadership valued the opportunity to learn from one another’s experiences and to engage with the Minister and the department.

The Minister expressed his appreciation and he said: “It is evident that there is commitment to demographic change and a particular strength of this cluster of universities is their responsiveness to meeting the scarce and critical skills needs of the country.

“The main challenges going forward are to effectively monitor the implementation of policies”. – SAnews.gov.za