Abstract:
The global higher education landscape is rapidly changing as it re-organises itself to
keep up with the demands and challenges of the 21st century. The corporatisation of higher
education institutions, the emergence of managerialism, economic restructuring, and the
incorporation of information and communication technologies (ICT) into educational teaching
and learning environments are significant shifts occurring currently. In addition to these
challenges, South African higher education institutions also grapple with social inequalities
inherited from apartheid, economic stratification, and the challenge of reaching their
transformation goals. These changes challenged the existing ideological beliefs of
academia, with its long-standing traditions such as professional autonomy, academic
freedom, intellectual discourse, and knowledge production.
The study aimed to explore how lecturers working at South African higher education
institutions experienced, responded to and coped with the changes. A cross-sectional,
qualitative approach was employed. Individual face-to-face interviews were conducted with
twenty participants from various private and higher education institutions. Interpretative
phenomenological analysis was employed to analyse the semi-structured interviews. The
analysis of the data was aligned with phenomenological, hermeneutic and idiographic
principles, and both inductive and deductive approaches were used.
The findings were structured in terms of three key considerations: (1) participants'
experiences of the changes in higher education, (2) how they responded to the changes and
(3) how they coped with the changes. Four concerns reflected academics’ experiences of
change, namely a shift in governance, intensification and extensification of administrative
workload, a change in student profile and the integration of information and communication
technologies (ICT) in higher education learning environments. Academics’ responses to
these concerns played out as resistance or acceptance. Resistance was reflected in preferences for the status quo (i.e., a collegial culture of decision-making, having autonomy
and freedom), relying on self-interest (i.e., personal valence) and silence to discreetly
maintain some level or feeling of control. Accepting the changes in higher education were
justified ideologically, such as respect for authority. Academics’ ideological orientations
offered interpretations through which they could make sense of the changes in their work
environment and, as such, reduce feelings of uncertainty. The ways academics coped with
changes in higher education centred on social support, active coping, distraction coping,
interpersonal communication, and turning to religion.
The study concluded that the changes in higher education institutions in South Africa
directly impacted academics’ work environments. Academics highlighted the shift in the
governance of higher education institutions and the rise of new managerialist approaches
(i.e., an auditing culture) as key changes. They perceived the increase in institutional control
as a threat to academic professionalism and status. They experienced being marginalised
and excluded. They had to rely on various strategies to cope with a changing student profile
and the impact of integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) into higher
learning environments. The study concludes with the recommendation that the unique
history of higher education in South Africa justifies the establishment of mechanisms that
encourage authentic engagement between academics and management to sustain change
through redesigning institutions for change.
