Programme on Innovation, Higher Education and Research for Development IHERD
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1 Programme on Innovation, Higher Education and Research for Development IHERD December 2013 This report is authored by Nico Cloete and Ian Bunting, as part of the Programme on Innovation, Higher Education and Research for Development (IHERD) hosted at the OECD and funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official views of the OECD or Sida or of the governments of the OECD member countries. 2 Contents Introduction: Strengthening knowledge production ............................................................................. 7 Selecting the SA case studies ........................................................................................................................... 9 Analysing the case studies ............................................................................................................................ 10 Institutional reports ............................................................................................................................... 10 University of Cape Town (UCT) ......................................................................................................... 11 University of Fort Hare (UFH) ............................................................................................................ 26 Nelson Mandela University (NMMU) ............................................................................................... 31 Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) .................................................................................... 38 Synthesis: The professionalisation of research management ......................................................... 43 Similar functions, but different emphases..................................................................................... 43 Different profiles, but similar structures ....................................................................................... 45 Strengthening research output while advancing professional interests ........................... 46 Reference list ...................................................................................................................................................... 49 Appendix 1: Case study institutional contacts ...................................................................................... 51 3 Acronyms and abbreviations NMMU Nelson Mandela University TUT Tshwane University of Technology UCT University of Cape Town UFH University of Fort Hare UKZN University of KwaZulu-Natal 4 Abstract Internationally, there is growing consensus among national policymakers and other central socio-economic actors that universities are important drivers for economic growth and development. They contribute to the creation of a highly skilled and competent labour force, and also produce new knowledge. Properly equipped, universities can play an important role in creating the innovation and development that will support a national economy in a competitive world. However, how cans this process by stimulated? The OCED Programme on Innovation, Higher Education and Research for Development (IHERD) focused on a range of national and institutional polices and strategies to improve knowledge production. This study provides empirical and analytical information about institution specific strategies and practices that strengthen research management. This study could also be useful for capacity building in future research management training programmes This study1[1], which is part of a larger project on knowledge production in South African universities, examines a selected group of universities with different historical and institutional backgrounds that all have proven evidence of growth of high-level knowledge inputs and outputs. The selected universities represent three institutional categories used in South Africa´s higher education planning, including the traditional universities, the comprehensive universities, and the universities of technology. Five universities have been selected from a total of 23 institutions in South Africa, including three traditional universities (University of Cape Town, University of KwaZulu- Natal and University of Fort Hare), one comprehensive university (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University) and one university of technology (Tshwane University of Technology). The University of Cape Town is a historically white university and the University of Fort Hare is a historically black university. Neither of them was affected by mergers. In contrast, the other three institutions have all been restructured and merged as a result of the reform of South Africa´s higher education system. The case studies which the universities submitted to the research team towards the end of 2012, as well as data from the South African Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS) are the primary documents used to analyse the situation in the five universities. A first major observation is that all of the institutions have become part of the global and national policy context of increasing knowledge production, as partially described at the Innovation, Higher Education and Research for Development (IHERD) group meeting in Marseille (July 2013). The seven key functions of the research and management offices could be clustered into three broad categories: development, support and incentives. The development function deals, on the one hand, with policies that promote research culture and, on the other hand, with broader capacity building, such as further studies and academic advancement. Support is mainly concerned with specific skills, often legal and financial assistance for 1 This report is partially supported by Carnegie Corporation and Ford Foundation 5 commercialisation, grant applications and funds management among others. The functions focusing on direct incentives are predominantly output orientated, while indirect incentives are more oriented towards career development and high-status awards. Institutions focussed on different combinations of the three approaches to strengthen research output, based on their academic and managerial capacity. The five selected institutions have all increased their research output over the last five years. They also mirror an international trend where the ‘managerial professional’ strata in universities has expanded and consolidated. 6 Introduction: Strengthening knowledge production In the knowledge economy/society, universities have gained political and economic importance as institutions that produce and transfer knowledge. While it is certainly so that many other institutions form an important part of any national innovation landscape, universities are the only specialised institutions whose core business is the production, reproduction and dissemination of knowledge, including the education of the next knowledgeable or suitably qualified generation. Internationally, there is growing consensus among national policymakers and other central socio-economic actors that the university as a driver for economic growth/development. This has to do with the role of the university in producing a highly skilled and competent labour force, and in producing new knowledge. Both are essential to the creation of innovation and development of a national economy that is globally competitive. This is well summed up by Kearney (2013) in Olsson and Cooke: Top research universities in industrialised countries (often referred to as the Super RUs) usually dominate the global ranking tables. In contrast, their counterparts in middle and low-income countries have, if anything, more important missions because they are the engines of local knowledge development and natural leaders of their own evolving academic systems. As these systems become increasingly complex and the need to nurture knowledge networks for research grows ever more essential, the success of these institutions becomes even more crucial for national development policy (2013: 18). At the national level there are three critical aspects that affect the response of national states to globalisation and the need to have a globally competitive or at least globally involved economy. The first is the notion of a pact or agreement amongst key political, socio-economic and academic leaders that knowledge is an important driver of development. When such agreement starts emerging, a second issue is the need for national policies and strategies that enable the country to respond adequately. These will usually be a mixture of policies borrowing from international best practices and national, contextual factors. Thirdly, associated with the increased importance of higher education is the fact that more actors, including departments, become interested in higher education policymaking. This level of interest raises the need for coordinated knowledge policies (Braun 2008; Cloete et al. 2011). In South Africa, the recent National Development Plan 2030 of the National Planning Commission (2012), the Green Paper of the Department of Higher Education and Training (2012) and the 2011 budget speech to Parliament by the Minister of Science and Technology all show significant policy shifts towards strengthening doctoral education and research capacity, albeit in an as yet uncoordinated manner. Although none of these are final policy documents, they are signals that originate from different departments in the national government and, as such,