Transformation: five years on

A hum of expectation filled the ZK Matthews Hall on the Muckleneuk campus as Unisa staff and representatives from neighbouring universities gathered on 20 April 2009 for the launch of the publication celebrating the five years of Unisa as a merged institution.

Prof Baijnath officially presents the publication to Prof Pityana

The editorial team of the five-year publication

Judith Sephuma in concert...oh what a celebration!

The year 2009 marks an important milestone in the development of Unisa and it is only fitting that the university should pause, take stock, acknowledge and celebrate what has been accomplished. In the relentless tide of institutional change fostered from within the institution and energised by developments from outside, it is all too easy to lose sight of the many and remarkable achievements that have marked its journey thus far, as Unisa moves inexorably to becoming a dynamic open distance learning institution.

The National Plan for Higher Education (2001) set out an ambitious agenda for the restructuring of higher education in South Africa through a highly contested and quite fraught process of policy development. The first indelible imprint on the new higher education landscape was a series of mergers that reduced the number of higher education institutions from 36 to 23, the main aims being to ensure a more equitable distribution of higher education facilities and resources, to create a greater critical mass of personnel and capacities, and to introduce a new institutional type --- comprehensives. On 1 January 2004, the new University of South Africa was established as the single dedicated distance education and comprehensive institution in South Africa.

Speaking at the function, Prof Narend Baijnath, Vice-Principal: Strategy, Planning and Partnerships, visualised the tapestry of Unisa crafted as a work in progress by the aggregated efforts of the governing Council, management team, staff cohort and students. "Each, from their vantage points, is weaving rich and colourful threads into its design," he said. "The pattern that has been laid down is already conspicuous and remarkably attractive. We work assiduously now and into the future to weave in the detail."

Prof Barney Pityana, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, evoked a cycle of change and renewal when he stated: "Those of us who are contemporaries at this time are creating a university that speaks to our own minds and creativity and visions and thinking, but we are also building on the past of all of the constituent institutions that come to make up the University of South Africa from 1873 when the original University of the Cape of Good Hope was established. We stand on that foundation but future generations will also be standing on the foundation that was laid down during this five-year period and they will construct for themselves and for the future perhaps a different kind of Unisa."

Prof Mandla Makhanya, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, thanked the editorial team responsible for the publication: Prof. Narend Baijnath, Editor; Ms Jeanette Botha, Project Manager and Coordinating Editor; and Project Advisors Dr Marié Ferreira, Mr Gerard Grobler and Ms Nancy-Anne Anderson from the Department of Corporate Communication and Marketing.

The event ended with a selection of mellow songs both old and new from acclaimed jazz musician Ms Judith Sephuma that had the audience cheering and dancing in the aisles. As Mr Gerard Grobler, Director: Communications and Programme Director, noted, "Ms Sephuma is not only a South African icon but a good friend of Unisa."