Academic CS/IS infrastructure in South Africa; an exploratory stakeholder perspective

Abstract

In considering the requirements of an academic infrastructure that might support computer science and information systems education in South Africa, it is easy to be driven solely by the opportunities that innovative information technologies provide. Where this detracts from a proper appreciation of the real-world requirement it is too easy to fail to deliver what is required. Further, the infrastructural requirements in South Africa are not necessarily the same as they may be elsewhere, and it is too easy to assume that ideas and paradigms from elsewhere in the world will work well in the current South African context. This supposition needs to be tested against a proper understanding of the needs of students, researchers and others, who themselves will come from a wide range of backgrounds and bring with them a wide range of competencies and capabilities. Even more complexity is introduced by the current dynamic of change, that shifts the focus of our attention from one year to the next, and requires that we constantly reappraise the requirement and our ability to fulfil it. Too often time does not permit us to give this problem the critical attention that it needs. Using an analysis approach developed for general business use, this paper examines the expectations of the different stakeholders involved in CS and IS education and derives a set of educational processes that will fulfil those expectations. It then proposes a set of measures that will indicate the extent to which stakeholder expectations are being met. These measures provide the basis of an assessment method that will allow the current and desired level of achievement to be investigated and analysed, through surveys and interviews. The outcome of the analysis is illustrative. Whilst it is based on only a limited amount of preliminary data gathering, it shows how a wider survey would lead to a more fulsome understanding of what is needed from current and future infrastructures. It would allow a degree of prioritisation, and an on-going periodic re-analysis that would indicate progress (or a lack of it) in providing infrastructure. The possibility to share certain resources would be made more clear. Tertiary institutions would be able to see more clearly the specialisations and viewpoints that they could adopt in order to further their particular educational mission. Finally, the practicality of embarking on this wider analysis is examined in order that a wider debate can be initiated and brought to a conclusion.