The Synergy between the SAAIR Conference Events and South African Higher Education Policy Initiatives during 1994-2015
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
SUN PRESS
Abstract
Introduction: The focus areas of Institutional Research (IR) practitioners in South Africa and an analysis of the synergy between these focus areas and the major higher education policy developments
during the first two decades of the democratic dispensation in South Africa are the concerns
of this chapter. To what extent did these policy developments determine the priorities of IR
practitioners, or, to what extent did the results of the work of IR practitioners provide the
evidence on which these policies were based? Or, is this a complex, dynamic relationship and
that plays out in both directions at different times and in different contexts? Despite various
voices arguing for multiple new roles for IR, for example, Swing (2009), and Calderon and
Webber (2015), Saupe’s (1981) and Dressel’s (1981) classic definition that IR is conducted
to support institutional management, and by implication, to provide evidence on which
(policy) decisions can be based, remains a valid expression of what institutional leaders and
policy makers expect from IR. On the other hand, the extent to which higher education
policy makers actually base their decisions on the information provided by IR practitioners,
is not easy to demonstrate definitively with empirical evidence. Therefore no assertions will
be made in this chapter regarding any possible causal link between higher education policy
developments and the work of IR practitioners, and consequently the softer term “synergy”
was chosen to characterise the aim of the study.
Description
CITATION: Botha, J. 2016. The Synergy between the SAAIR Conference Events and South African Higher Education Policy Initiatives during 1994-2015, in J. Botha & N.J. Muller (eds.). Institutional Research in South African Higher Education: Intersecting Contexts and Practices. Stellenboach: SUN PRESS. 43-56. doi:10.18820/9781928357186/03.
The original publication is available from AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, Stellenbosch: South Africa.
The original publication is available from AFRICAN SUN MeDIA, Stellenbosch: South Africa.
Keywords
Institutional Research (IR), Universities and colleges -- Research -- South Africa -- Case studies, Education, Higher -- South Africa, Educational planning -- South Africa, Universities and colleges -- South Africa -- Planning
Citation
Botha, J. 2016. The Synergy between the SAAIR Conference Events and South African Higher Education Policy Initiatives during 1994-2015, in J. Botha & N.J. Muller (eds.). Institutional Research in South African Higher Education: Intersecting Contexts and Practices. Stellenboach: SUN PRESS. 43-56. doi:10.18820/9781928357186/03.