For almost two years, the world has had to adapt to the varying new normals that the COVID-19 pandemic has presented. For the Higher Education Reform Experts South Africa (HERESA) project, this adaptation has strengthened our commitment to reform and revitalise higher education in South Africa.
In the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the media coined a unique term to describe the unprecedented reality facing the world. The “new normal” came to define the strange and uncertain time that characterised the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic when the entire world was faced with the prospect of being homebound for the foreseeable future. However, as we reach the two-year mark since the first cases of the virus emerged, it is clear that the original definition of the new normal has undergone many changes. What seemed odd to us then is now part of our everyday norm as we adapted to the reality of conducting much of our professional and personal lives online.
At Technological Higher Education Network South Africa (THENSA), we have long prided ourselves on being responsive towards the needs of our country. When the proposal for the Higher Education Reform Experts South Africa (HERESA) was drafted, we were inspired by the Higher Education Reform Experts (HERE) in European neighbourhood countries, an initiative that was funded by the European Union (EU). With the support of the Erasmus+ Capacity Building for Higher Education programme, OBREAL Global-Observatory and a partnership with the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), we endeavoured to create dialogue around the opportunities that this pilot programme could offer towards the development of the South African higher education sector and the fostering of South-South-North partnerships.
While Work-Integrated Learning (WIL), Competence-Based Learning (CBL), Teaching for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and Entrepreneurship have long informed the kind of programmes that we have spearheaded at THENSA, we felt that a collaboration with international partner universities would not only help our member institutions meet the challenges that they face in higher education, but assist in revising teaching and learning strategies, fostering deeper networks with the labour market and making a meaningful contribution to curriculum reform.
Like many of our peers in the higher education sector, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to grapple with the very real challenges that continue to affect the role of the university in the 21st century. Some of these concerns include how we ensure that institutions of higher learning equip students with the skills and knowledge to become productive members of the workforce? What are some of the obstacles that academics and instructors face in trying to foster optimum teaching and learning experiences? What are the institutional, technological and infrastructural shortcomings that prevent academics and instructors from preparing students for the impending 4IR? Most importantly, what sort of interventions, suggestions and discussions can HERESA formulate to assist institutions in dealing with these questions and concerns?
For Elizabeth Colucci, who serves as the International Projects Director for OBREAL Global-Observatory, the arrival of the pandemic reinforced the intended goals of the HERESA project. “I think [the] programme in respect of modernisation of curricula, focus on the 4IR and leadership in these unprecedented times is well articulated in its objectives”, Colucci said via email correspondence. “[T]he pandemic and changes in remote and online teaching and learning is also something we can cover as a specific objective and outcome”. While the HERESA proposal was developed well before the pandemic, Colucci emphasised that the “themes on which [the project] will focus, such as competence-based learning and teaching for the 4IR, retain their importance”, adding that “there will now be a sharpened focus on innovation and adaptiveness in teaching and learning [and] leadership development”.
Currently, around half of HERESA consists of Deputy Vice-Chancellors and other high-ranking members of various institutions in South Africa which, according to Colucci, highlights the importance of advocating risk management in higher education. She believes that “the role of HERESA is more important than ever at a time when the sector is suffering from financial constraints”, adding that the partnership with SAQA would be essential in this regard. In terms of the migration to online and remote teaching, Colucci said the “the transversal theme of digitalisation and ICT in education will come out stronger now”, which will provide HERESA the opportunity to “position themselves at the forefront of teaching and learning trends that have emerged from the pandemic”. Moreover, Colucci is adamant that the establishment of the Communities of Practice (CoP) will also create a “robust training programme [in which] participating South African institutions can reposition, review and benchmark their teaching and learning at a strategic level but also in practice through the support of the [HERESA] project”.
However, it is perhaps the promise of higher education reform that makes the HERESA project relevant to some of the debates, discussions and initiatives central to the agenda of the South African government since the dawn of our democracy in 1994. “Higher education reform is the very heart of HERESA”, Colucci said. “The HEREs will offer operational, leading strategy reform at their institutions, while also being networked and connected at the policy level, where they can provide a voice and feedback,” she added. “The HERE will produce policy briefs, participate in national consultations and be an active partner of SAQA and the other higher education stakeholders”.
As for HERESA in the everchanging new normal, Colucci recommends a mixing of practices, methods and gathering that will integrate some of the old with the new. “We will try to enter into a phase of hybrid collaboration. This will entail some physical meetings, most of which will also have virtual components and the possibility to participate virtually”, she said. “We want to kick start travel and face-to-face meetings, which means we have to design activities in a way that no one will be left out”.
Written by: Ms Khanya Mtshali (THENSA Media Liasion)