Established through the Higher Education Act primarily to assure quality in the South African higher education sector and to advise the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation on aspects of higher education, the Council on Higher Education (CHE) has identified a need to do full audits of all Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in South Africa.  

A full audit of an institution determines whether, and to what extent, an institution's internal quality assurance (IQA) systems, policies and procedures ensure the effective provisioning of good quality higher education that enhances the likelihood of student success through quality learning and teaching, research opportunities and integrated community engagement. 

Accordingly, the CHE conducted a full audit at Unisa in April 2022 and submitted its findings to the university in June 2023. Prof Puleng LenkaBula, Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor, expresses her sentiments as follows: "The audit report indicates that the academic project at Unisa is still on track and that the university has a significant role in providing access to those who would not ordinarily find opportunities in conventional universities." She adds: "Moreover, it acknowledges that the university is now an institution of first choice for adult learners, professionals, and first-time entering students in higher education." 

Unparalleled contributions to the higher education landscape 

Unisa was established in 1873 as an examination centre and later evolved into a fully distance-education institution in 1946, primarily at the time, to provide education opportunities to employed adults who could not attend face-to-face classes at traditional contact universities in South Africa.  

In this regard, the CHE reports that Unisa has played an important role in widening access to higher education to South Africans who, for reasons of racial exclusion, unaffordability, unavailability of seat space in local contact institutions, or out of choice and personal circumstances, would otherwise not have been able to obtain higher level academic qualifications.  

Unisa later became attractive to international students, particularly on the African continent, but more broadly including the South African diaspora living and working abroad. The CHE reports: "The past 20 years have seen a significant growth in student enrolments at Unisa."  

The university has continued recording inexorable growth in many focus areas. In its research activities, Unisa supports eight research chairs and ten research institutes. Furthermore, there are 231 academic staff with National Research Foundation (NRF) ratings. As with all of its areas of institutional operation, the university has made good progress with the gender and race transformation of academics involved in research activities. In 2019, the university graduated 737 master’s and 304 doctoral students.  

The CHE says: "Two high-level observations stand out in this regard; Unisa achieved the near-impossible in managing to continue successful teaching and learning in 2020/2022 despite Covid-19." The report adds: "The university has successfully catapulted itself almost overnight from a distance learning institution to a distance e-Learning institution. We commend Unisa for good practice."  

Governance and institutional quality management systems

Unisa has positioned itself as a university whose vision, mission and strategic goals align with national priorities such as creating a skilled labour force, developing scarce skills areas and a critical citizenry, and contributing to the fulfilment of national objectives as informed by the National Development Plan (NDP) including sectoral, regional, continental and global imperatives such as Africa Vision 2063 and the Sustainable Development Goals. 

Following its audit, the CHE reports that Unisa's vision, mission and strategic goals align well with national priorities. "A range of institutional planning and academic departments showed evidence of good and thorough engagement with important strategic priority documents such as the Sustainable Development Goals, the South African NDP, and Agenda 2063," says the CHE. It adds: "An essential feature of this alignment is Unisa's significant contribution to South Africa's annual cohort of teacher education graduates." 

The CHE continues: "There is demonstrable strategic alignment between the institution's quality management system for core academic activities across all sites and modes of provision, its vision, mission and strategic goals, and its governance and management processes. The quality management system is well articulated in the strategic plan as part of the strategic goals. The operational plans are realistic and subject to regular reviews." 

To support its core academic function, Unisa collaborates with municipalities and higher education institutions near their regional centres for shared library facilities offered to students. The CHE says: "We commend Unisa for the quality of its library resources and services offered to students. We further commend the institution for developing collaborative agreements with other higher education institutions in providing shared library services to students at its regional centres." 

Student success  

To bolster curriculum development, learning, teaching support and the likelihood of student success, Unisa boasts an effective institutional system for programme design, approval, delivery, management and review. The university's aspiration to be a comprehensive, open distance e-Learning (ODeL) institution marks Unisa as a pioneer in using open and distance learning methods for programme design, development and delivery. 

Unisa has also conveyed that it is no longer an alternative institution previously ideal for adult or mature-age learners, but an institution of choice for adults and first-time entry tertiary education students. In this regard, the CHE found that the university's plans and contributions are ground-breaking and different from those of other South African public tertiary education institutions. 

Furthermore, the CHE commends Unisa for its disruptive innovations: "We applaud Unisa for its inventions to sustain its teaching and assessment activities despite the Covid-19 restrictions. The commitment of students and staff to ensuring the functionality of the process is acclaimed." 

In its conclusion, the CHE audit panel notes: "Unisa has not lost sight of its long tradition of providing opportunities for higher education studies to people, young and old, who do not have resources such as time, money, and access to full-time contact study. Without the access opportunities that the university provides, people with the will to learn further would be structurally excluded from higher education study opportunities. This is not a small task."  

* By Tshimangadzo Mphaphuli, Acting Editor: Internal Communications