Following several complaints against the University of South Africa (Unisa), Higher Education Minister, Blade Nzimande, ordered an investigation into the state of affairs at the institution. The report, which was handed over to the Minster back in May, recommended that the institution be placed under administration.
Allegations Against The University
Numerous allegations have been thrown Unisa’s way in recent months, and a good percentage of them seem to be centred around the university’s current Vice-Chancellor (VC), Professor Puleng LenkaBula.
LenkaBula assumed office in January 2021, however, it was discovered that a number of the structural issues originated during the previous VC’s time in office. While the VC is not the only one implicated in this report, improvements have yet to be made since she took over the position.
LenkaBula came under fire following findings that she splurged millions of rands on home upgrades, including R285,000 on sheer curtains and over R3,000 on a mattress protector.
Other findings included an understaffed academic department, assignments being lost or left unmarked, giving massive salary increases to underperforming staff, widespread examination cheating, fraud, corruption and governance issues. However, these challenges all started or continued under her leadership.
The Vice-Chancellor Addresses Issues At The University
In an interview with eNCA, LenkaBula addressed some of the challenges at Unisa. She reveals that her first plan of action when joining Unisa was to conduct an As-is analysis. During this analysis, she identified that the major problems at the institution were centred around student support, student services and student affairs.
In response to these findings, LenkaBula established a joint operations team to work with the registrar to ensure that these issues were dealt with. She states that students are the primary stakeholder at any higher education institution and they need to be served properly.
The second problem that was identified was issues of governance. While the governance architecture appeared to be sufficient, there were some missing elements.
A Student Services Council is a requirement at any tertiary institution as part of the Higher Education Act, but this did not exist at Unisa. However, LenkaBula claims that she did instruct the Registrar to establish one.
A Student Services Council is important as it allows students and the council to engage on any operational matters that need to be addressed.
What Is Being Done About The State Of Affairs At Unisa?
While the Independent Assessor Report recommended that the institution be placed under administration, Minister Nzimande has not followed through on this recommendation.
Unisa’s reputation has been damaged amidst these findings.
Unisa has addressed these report findings, even going so far as to admit to them, but assures that the university is nowhere near collapse.
The institution is due to release a comprehensive response to the report where plans for improvement and rectifying the state of affairs will be revealed.
Unisa’s progress will be closely monitored by the Institutional Audits Committee of the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC). The HEQC is to conduct site visits where necessary to monitor the progress of the implementation of the report.
