Reflecting on the experience of the rationalisation and consolidation of the faculties and campuses at Walter Sisulu University: successes and challenges

Abstract

One of six comprehensive universities in South Africa, the Walter Sisulu University (WSU) combines the best academic credentials from universities and technikons in an effort to effectively meet the socio-economic development needs of the nation, in the Eastern Cape Province, and the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, Chris Hani Municipality, King Sabata Dalindyebo Municipality.  An institution of a new generation, the WSU is more than the sum of its parts. Its goal is to improve community potential through quality academic programs, research, and community engagement projects with a strong emphasis on involvement and sustainable development. This article considers the different successes and difficulties associated with the WSU rationalization and consolidation of faculties.  This theoretical article observes that the government started using rationalization and consolidation as a tool to reconfigure and reform the higher education sector. Rationalization and consolidation are nothing new, and several nations have used them to revamp or reorganize their higher education industries. The article provides literature debates and scholarly background on comparing the South African higher education sector's proposed rationalisation and consolidation to those of other nations' higher education sectors, however, would reveal the most ambitious reform program ever launched in recent memory. The conceptual paper adopts a thematic qualitative approach.  The primary wave of the mergers mandated by the government that happened in 2004 and 2005 was preceded by the 2002 merger of Walter Sisulu University.