THE Top South African University

Re: University of Cape Town

I would agree with this assertion. At one point back in the 1990s, I remember seeing Cape Town ranked on a reputable list of the 50 top universities in the world. It was the only South African university to appear on that list at the time.

 

Re: Cape Town

I'm fairly certain that the University of Stellenbosch also participates in the US financial aid system. When I was accepted into a doctoral program there, I was able to confirm that they had been granted an institutional code by the US financial aid system.

 

Yes, I'm kicking myself for not enrolling in U. of Cape Town's Master's in Creative Writng when it could still be done by thesis alone; now it's a coursework degree with required campus residency.

I still hope someone will respond to the questions about the utility of SA university degrees in the U.S.

 

I have not encountered any limitations in the utility of South African university degrees here in the US. In fact, my perception is that such degrees, particularly those from some of the more reputable SA institutions, are quite well received here in the states.

I know of numerous South Africans who have emigrated here to the US and encountered no difficulty in having their credentials recognized.

 

The London Times Higher Education Supplement puts out a list of the top universities in the world each November, coming soon for 2005. Shanghai Jiao Tong University continues the lists for schools after #200 alphabetically within their cohort of 100. For 2004, Cape Town ranked in the 200's, Witswaterand in the 300's, and KwaZulu-Natal and Pretoria in the 400's. No other African universities were ranked at all, a point which generated some bitter discussion. I like this list because it incorporates how often research from that university is cited as well as peer review, money in the bank, and the other usual ranking ingredients. Lost the link but copied the stats for those interested:

203-300 Univ Cape Town Africas 1 South Africa 1 25.1 0.0 11.1 11.1 30.3 16.3

301-400 Univ Witwatersrand Africas 2 South Africa 2 25.1 0.0 0.0 7.5 26.1 13.8

401-500 Univ KwaZulu-Natal Africas 3-4 South Africa 3-4 0.0 0.0 7.9 8.9 23.1 11.0

401-500 Univ Pretoria Africas 3-4 South Africa 3-4 0.0 0.0 0.0 9.4 25.4 11.5

 

As a starting point, I think we should pay attention to Peter French's comments that institutional accreditation (as familiar to those of us in the U.S.) is unknown in most countries. Thus it's generally nonsense to suggest that prospective students should check that a foreign university is "accredited." And I also think that most of the discussions about putative equivalents to accreditation for foreign universities are also nonsense.

That being said, a few remarks about the South African situation ...

Traditionally, expectations and practices were leveled largely by the external examiner processes. Even undergraduate courses used external examiners. And some universities required that doctoral dissertations be read by an external examiner from an established foreign university. These mechanisms provided a common level of quality on a fine-grained (course, thesis, maybe program) basis, but there was really no institutional quality assurance mechanism.

In the mid-90's, the first attempt at institutional quality audits was initiated through the establishment of the Quality Promotion Unit. The QPU intended to audit all of the universities, but had only completed a few by the time it was disbanded in the late-90's. In the meantime, the 1997 Higher Education Act had passed into law. This Act assigned responsibility for quality assurance of higher education institutions to the Higher Education Quality Committee (within the Council for Higher Education). The HEQC was established in 1999-2000. The HEQC is responsible for accreditation of tertiary education within the hierarchy of qualifications known as the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) -- itself the responsibility of the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA), established through the 1995 SAQA Act. SAQA and the NQF and the various Standards Generating Bodies (SGBs) and Educational and Training Quality Assurance organizations (ETQAs) are amazingly complicated, and provide absolute proof that the South Africans lead the world in the development of advanced bureaucratic processes. Suffice it to say for now that the HEQC is the EQTA for higher education.

The HEQC has gradually been phasing in its accreditation activities. The document to which I provided a link above shows the calendar for rolling out full audits. Briefly, here's what is happening:

Up to 2004: Existing departments and programs evaluated by the institutions themselves, new programs accredited by the HEQC based on the recommendations of an interim committee (official accreditation system not yet in place). Pilot institutional audits.

2005-6: New programs accredited by process that may involve site visits (i.e. official program accreditation process phased in). Full-scale audits begin at non-merged institutions (i.e. official institutional accreditation process starts to be phased in). Merged institutions have a 3-year "settling down" period, but are supposed to get an interim advisory visit in the first year.

2007: Program accreditation continues as before. Full institutional audits at merged institutions begin. Universities can apply for self-accreditation status.

2008 and onward: As before, but universities granted self-accreditation status can accredit existing programs by themselves.

 

Hi Corey - I'm glad to hear that you've encountered no problems. The only thing I've heard is that some people who earn research oriented grad degrees might have some difficulty with obtaining teaching jobs because they can not really produce transcripts of the sort that American employers have become accustomed. I'm unsure how such difficulties are overcome.
Jack
(by the way, I like your website.)

 

Jack,

I certainly can appreciate the potential for this. I have been fortunate to gain a position at an institution where the academic dean also earned his degree overseas in a research-only doctoral program. His experience as a graduate of an essentially "non-transcripted" doctoral program enabled him to be quite understanding of my situation.

Certainly, not everyone is quite so fortunate as I have been.

 

Inj addition to that concern, I remain concerned about community colleges accepting degrees which do not have semester hours.

 

University of South Africa and Pretoria University.