Theme: Do Institutions of Higher Learning have a role in supporting the imperative of the Gauteng Vision 2055?
Honoured guests
Director of ceremonies
Distinguished academics and delegates
Ladies and gentlemen.
It is with great pleasure that I stand here today to participate in a discussion looking into the role of academics in a democratic state. I would like to take this opportunity to extend my appreciation for the invitation by the University of South Africa’s School of Business Leadership and the contribution made by the university in shaping the future of our citizens over the past 140 years.
I stand humbly before you today at the largest provider of higher education on the African continent. UNISA has certainly earned its name and place in ensuring that South Africans in both urban centres and rural nodes of our country have access to world-class higher education and research.
Undoubtedly, with enrolment figures standing at almost 400 000, UNISA has been able to attract students from beyond the shores of our country. UNISA is surely pleased that it boasts the highest number of staff holding doctorate qualifications in the country – no easy feat indeed – but a credit to the work you have done.
We are honoured that you too – a giant among institutes of higher learning - call Gauteng your home.
The theme of our discussion - “Do Institutions of Higher Learning have a role in supporting the imperative of Gauteng Vision 2055” - is more relevant today than ever before. In addition, the critical role that academics can play in creating a sustainable future for our country needs to be more thoroughly debated and explored.
Indeed, the invitation to give a public lecture to this august gathering came at the right time when we are beginning to celebrate the 20 years since the birth of our democracy in 1994 and begin to look at what we want our province to look like in the next 40 or so years.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me begin by quoting Global Campaign for Education (2010) which states that: “Education is a prerequisite for tackling poverty and promoting short and long-term economic growth. When individuals have the chance to learn basic life and literacy skills, economies grow faster and poverty rates decline. When people go to school, they are eventually able to earn more money and support their families. No country has achieved continuous and rapid economic growth without at least 40% of adults being able to read and write.”
Director of ceremonies,
There is little doubt in my mind that academics should be at the forefront of the development of long-term planning documents such as the Gauteng Vision 2055 - the vision for the future of the Gauteng City-Region.
This plan goes far enough into the future to allow for fundamental change that we can dream of and create for the future leaders of our country. It is a long term development plan that considers the core issues that we must attend to, in creating an equitable sustainable prosperous Gauteng City-Region (GCR). Importantly, it is a plan that must guide all stakeholders to ensure that the province is prepared to face the challenges presented by urbanisation, migration, poverty, unemployment and climate change, amongst others.
Our position is that institutions of higher learning are a critical component of a future Gauteng that is competitive and can cater for the needs of all its residents in a sustainable manner. This view is based on the fact that internationally, countries where higher education institutions work closely with government and society see incredible change and development.
Silicon Valley in the United States, Cambridge in the United Kingdom and Zhongguancun in Beijing are examples of how business, universities and government have collaborated to enable development in a region – for the upliftment of the people in the area, the advancement of science and technology, as well as, the promotion of business and development. These global case studies show that higher education can stimulate cutting-edge development in cities and regions through different forms of inter-sectoral engagement.
Over the last year and a half we have called on all stakeholders of Gauteng to lend their voice to Vision 2055 and tell us what their aspirations are for the city-region. We engaged stakeholders on the following:
- Growing an equitable, sustainable economy;
- Eliminating intergenerational poverty;
- Reducing structural inequality and exclusion;
- Fostering a long and healthy life for all;
- Growing an educated, skilled and productive Gauteng;
- Building a safe, secure and peaceful GCR;
- Infrastructure acceleration and urban sustainability;
- New housing and transport choices;
- Meaningful state-society engagement for all;
- Reconfiguring the GCR’s governance model; and
- Inter-governmental Relations for an integrated region.
Vision 2055 envisions an educated, skilled and productive Gauteng of the future where all can access quality education facilities at affordable costs. Furthermore the plan works towards the development of a well-educated and highly skilled population which contributes optimally, supporting the chosen economic growth trajectories. Also, there will be strengthened partnerships between places of learning and places of work fostering greater adaptability.
Importantly, Vision 2055 emphasises partnerships with other global city-regions that have achieved radical changes in educational outcomes. In particular, Gauteng Vision 2055 says that to grow our economy we have to improve accessibility of graduates to opportunities for higher education and skills development in order to provide local communities with a chance to uplift themselves through further skill development.
The plan also wants the development of a Master Skills Plan that focuses on the skills that are most in-need and that need to be provided urgently to help with skills shortage in the GCR. We also believe that private-public-partnerships need to be developed in order to fast track skills development as well as focussing on funding that will be required for workshops and incubation processes.
Vision 2055 also calls for the provision of bursaries for graduates in specific skills that are needed as set out in the Master Skills Plan. This will encourage graduates to study or train in a certain skill department that will be beneficial to the public and private sector. Our education and skills development must be aligned to the demands of industry in order to avoid high unemployment among graduates.
The graduates of South Africa's universities and colleges should have the skills and knowledge to meet the present and future needs of the economy and society.
In pursuit of a skilled labour force, Vision 2055 postulates that:
- Research and development should be significantly expanded to contribute towards building an inclusive society, providing equal opportunities and helping all South Africans to realise their full potential.
- There should be clear linkages between schools, FET colleges, universities and other providers of education and training.
- There should also be clear linkages between education and training and the world of work.
- Research institutions and the national science and innovation system must be coordinated and collaborative.
- Increase number of Masters and PhD graduates.
To achieve this vision for both Gauteng 2055 as well as the National Development Plan, it is imperative that key stakeholders work together to realise the vision we desire for both our province and our country.
To enable our economy to grow and flourish where all can access opportunities in the world of work as a result of the skills they possess, it is important that providers of higher education work together, with government and with society as a whole to enable realisation of these goals.
The case for the academia to be more involved in Vision 2055 is a compelling one. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have an important role to play in learning regions such as the Gauteng City-Region where challenges of increasing population and rapid urbanisation compel us to do things differently.
In this connection, education provides a crucial foundation for development, the groundwork on which much of our economic and social well-being is built. Education impacts on development in several ways, through its effect on labour productivity, poverty, trade, technology, health, environmental management, income distribution and family structure.
Through science/research parks, incubators for entrepreneurship and partnership initiatives, new and innovative regional development strategies may be developed. However, it has also been shown that many changes and transformational processes are required within Higher Education Institutions in order to engage successfully with the city-region, promote alignment of their activities with the priorities of the city-region and build long-term strategic relationships with key stakeholders in the region.
In a forthcoming report to be released by the Gauteng City-Region Observatory, Annsilla Nyar and Pundy Pillay consider Higher Education Collaboration for Development in the GCR. This research report serves as a critical reflection on the possibilities for developmental collaboration amongst higher education institutions (HEIs) in the GCR.
Important questions that need to be asked include; how do we, together, keep the knowledge we invest in and nurture within the city-region? What choices must we make as business and government to enable us to keep these graduates here and not contribute towards the brain drain of the country?
In a city-region, such as ours, with a high number of university enrolment - between 2000 and 2010 university enrolment in the GCR increased by 53%. Excluding UNISA, 30% of university enrolment is from within the GCR. The point cannot be emphasised enough that where innovation and the knowledge economy are promoted, is the key space to consider such inter-sectoral engagement?
Continuing to offer economic opportunity means we keep residents with post-graduate qualifications and knowledge in the GCR – using their knowledge further means we equip the next generation with better skills. UNISA has the widest reach to students beyond the GCR and therefore can attract knowledge that resides both within the GCR as well as outside to ensure that this thriving economic hub continues to drive economic growth and development in the country, and the region.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Gauteng’s history with the academia is well-known. In 2008, The Gauteng Provincial Government entered into a partnership with the University of Witwatersrand and the University of Johannesburg in 2008. Through this partnership, the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO) was established and research into a unique space such as the Gauteng City Region began. This partnership has proven to be immensely useful for government, business, researchers, higher education institutions and residents of Gauteng.
The research conducted by the GCRO into the Quality of Life of residents of Gauteng, the state of service delivery around Gauteng and the key concerns in each ward around Gauteng has proven to be immensely valuable to understanding the challenges, achievements and the necessary interventions which must be considered in future plans.
Partnerships such as these prove that through cross-collaboration, higher education institutions through access to knowledge, ability to utilise intellectual capital and insightful research, can indeed inform the choices for meaningful change by both government and business on the lives of ordinary residents.
It is factually incorrect for anyone to state that the Gauteng Provincial Government does not make use of academics within the province to tap into available skills. Maybe, the challenge is the extent to which such collaboration takes place. And today’s engagement offers us that window of opportunity to correct the situation.
The interest by government to ensure that the partnerships with Higher Education Institutions are established and sustained is deep-rooted. In fact, the Gauteng Provincial Government’s Programme of Action for 2013/14 sets out partnership as one of its key pillars for intervention.
Partnerships between governments, universities, industries and communities provide a viable opportunity to contribute towards development. Such partnerships also help in the nurturing of best-practice expertise.
Indeed, one of the successful partnerships involves the collaboration between the University of Johannesburg Institute for Childhood Education (UJICE) and the Funda UJabule School in Soweto and the Gauteng Department of Education. The aspirations that this partnership will achieve for its faculty, staff and students and, above all - for the learners and their parents - in the years ahead is perhaps the most important dimension to be emulated. The partnership will address challenges related to improving reading, writing, and mathematics skills.
In addition, the Gauteng Provincial Government has through the Department of Education also entered into partnership with a number of business schools and these include the Milpark Business School; the University of Western Cape, the University of Pretoria; the Da Vinci Institute of Technology, the Southern Business School, the Gordon Institute of Business Science, the Stellenbosch University, the Durban University of Technology – Business Studies Unit.
The scope of partnerships entered into, includes, among others, conducting research, design, development and the delivery of core management competency based programmes at different management levels as well as public sector core skills in the areas of capacity finance, supply chain, monitoring and evaluation, asset management, policy and legislation such as anti-corruption.
These institutions further played a role in the Professional Development Programme which aims to develop individual, team and organisation leadership, build leadership talent pipeline for the province, improve competence and related proficiency levels to manage service delivery and job performance by ensuring each person has a certain level of competence for the job they are appointed to perform.
Given the historic past where the Higher Education Institutions and government have had little or no strategic collaboration in the interests of development, the Higher Education Institutions in the Gauteng province have formed the Research and Deans’ Forum to facilitate a collaborative approach to planning with various departments.
The HEIs are committed to a partnership with the provincial government to set mutually supported priorities and to find solutions to common problems. These Higher Education Institutions include the University of South Africa, the University of Johannesburg, the Wits University, the University of Pretoria, the Tshwane University of Technology and the Vaal University of Technology and meetings are held quarterly to share latest development in areas of research and teacher development.
The Deans Forum has recently adopted Terms of Reference to guide the engagement process in the context of provincial needs such as up-skilling and re-skilling of our educators in the province to improve their qualifications. The Provincial Government will continue to increase the number of partnerships with skills agencies and organisations on programme development and accreditation of scarce and critical skills.
Let me acknowledge the work that your institution is doing in furthering skills development in the province. The UNISA School of Business Leadership is one of the leading business schools in our country and I am committing the government of Gauteng through various departments to continue working with UNISA in different areas.
In closing, allow me to extend my congratulations and best wishes to everyone associated with UNISA, in general, and the School of Business Leadership in particular. It is my hope that this engagement today will go a long way in giving impetus to the existing partnerships as well as help develop new ones.
Let us all engage in the processes of Vision 2055 with enthusiasm and zeal based on the strategic importance of the project. Vision 2055 does not belong to government, but belong to all of us.
Dankie. Ngiyabonga.
