Implikasies van die prosesse van transformasie vir die universiteitswese in Suid-Afrika

Abstract

This article addresses a contentious political and policy issue: the implications which the process of change currently taking place in South Africa hold for traditional 'white’ universities. It is argued that this issue should be addressed, on the one hand, from the perspective of sociopolitical transformation and, on the other hand, from the perspective of modernizing development. These two major transformational processes determine the context in which universities need to restructure and position themselves. The implications of these processes for traditional ‘white' universities in general and Afrikaans universities in particular are analysed in terms of three distinctive categories or levels of issues:

• The nature, function and mission of the university as an academic institution.
• The organizational structure of the university.
• The organizational culture, social structure and value system of the university as a community of people.

It is concluded that the desegregation of traditional 'white ’ universities has been but the first step in the complicated process of transforming South African universities.