Department of Higher Education and Training on its 2015 Strategic and Annual Plans, with Minister present

Meeting report

Department of Higher Education and Training 2015 Strategic and Annual Performance Plans
Minister of Higher Education and Training: Introduction
Dr Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education and Training, noted that the Strategic Plan and Annual Performance Plans (APPs) aimed to implement the post-school education and training priorities for the fifth Parliament. These were important plans for the realisation of the imperatives of the National Development Plan (NDP) and the Medium Term Strategic Framework.

He outlined the five outcomes-oriented goals the Department of Higher Education and Training (the Department or DHET) had identified for the next five years,with the objective of providing a sound post school and training legislative framework, together with the Sector Education Training Authorities (SETAs), to build capacity and work with strong stakeholders to ensure continuing service delivery excellence. In the MTSF more focus would be placed on:

- National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS)
- Youth development programmes
- Career Development Programme Services
- Improving access to post-school education and training for people with disabilities

He gave an overview on Higher Education. There are currently 20 general academic/research oriented universities, six universities of Technology and nine comprehensive universities. Some of the interventions anticipated during the five-year period of the Strategic Plan and this year's APP included

- Rollout of the pilot plan for the NSFAS, which he had outlined as one of the key issues. A forensic investigation was due to start, due to a lot of corruption in the student financial aid sector.
- Changing the manner in which the system had been operating. The DHET would be piloting a new operation, where NSFAS funding would be managed by itself directly, rather than it being managed by institutions where the students were based
- Implementation of comprehensive training for teachers. This included Early Childhood Development (ECD) teachers, Grade R Foundation and Primary School teachers and also Technical Vocational education and training (TVET) College lecturers and Community College teachers
- Leveraging of more resources for student accommodation
- Increasing the number of artisans in the country

He also noted that the changing of the names of some colleges to TVET was not only a name change alone, for it was also to do with re-conceptualisation and transformation of these institutions to become vocational colleges, with close relations to employers, and lecturers who were well informed about the workplace. The objective was to expand them, along with community colleges.

Other interventions designed to improve the functionality of the post-school education and training included:

- Enrolment issues in TVET Colleges, with more focus on quality interventions
- Ensuring consolidation of existing institutions rather than growth
- Improving certification rates and success rates in order to facilitate effectiveness and implementation of Government Outcome 5.

Departmental presentation
Mr Gwebinkundla Qonde, Director-General, Department of Higher Education and Training, indicated that the DHET was responsible for all post school education and training in South Africa, and the coordination of Outcome 5 within Government's 14 Outcomes. He reminded Members that Outcome 5 aimed to have a skilled and capable workforce to support an inclusive growth path. In 2014 DHET had released the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training (PSET), with a framework that defined the Department's vision and focused on prioritising a number of key strategic carriers. The current strategic plan covered the period 2015-2020 and was informed by the vision of the National Development Plan (NDP) as well as the 2014-2019 Medium Term Framework and imperatives of the White Paper.

The main pillars of the DHET strategy were:

- Providing a post-school education and training legislative framework

- Providing post-school education and training services

- Providing post-school education and training  capacity

- Facilitating a strong stakeholder network   

- Ensuring continuous business excellency in the DHET

In line with these goals, a review of legislative frameworks would be done, and this was aimed at steering post school education and training in line with imperatives of the White Paper. The DHET would also strive to improve the quality of post-school education and training by introducing appropriate teaching and learning support interventions in universities and TVET Colleges. It would prioritise artisan development, including community education and training colleges. It aimed to establish and develop a new institutional type of Community Colleges, which would primarily promote education for young people and adults who could not access universities or TVET Colleges, and improve the capacity and infrastructural system for technical and vocational education and training. It aimed to build and maintain good stakeholder relations and support. It would ensure effective and strong cooperative governance, including efficient recourse management, in the Department and its entities.

He outlined the DHET's focus in the next five years. He specifically noted the need to:

- Substantially expand access to education and training for youth and adults, regardless of completion of schooling
- Improve the alignment between universities, TVET Colleges and Quality , in an effort to improve student mobility across institutions and qualifications
- Expand the availability of opportunities for workplace training of students in colleges and universities
- Expand other forms of workplace training, such as learnerships and apprenticeships
- Ensure that the system prioritised funding of the marginalised, enabling them to access training and institutions, and fulfil their career dreams
- Develop post-school and graduate studies even further, and ensure expansion of the academic profession and development of high level knowledge
- Diversify provision based on open learning and principles to improve learning opportunities across the post school education and training sector, by expansion and strengthening of institutions
- Integrate disability into the broader arena, by introducing a national policy to guide education and training institutions in the post school domain
- Integrate Recognition of Prior Learning into the post school education and training system as a whole.

Budget
Mr Theuns Tredoux, Chief Financial Officer, DHET continued the presentation, and tabled the Department's budget and expenditure trends and the allocations for each of the five programmes: Administration, HOD and Training, University Education, Skills Development and Training, and SETAs.

He noted that the budget included direct charges, which were those specifically allocated through legislative requirements, and which were the SARS levies collected for the SETAs and the National Skills Fund (NSF). The budget for the DHET, for the years 2015/16-2017/18, was set to see an average annual increase of about 5.9%; from about R39 billion last year to about R46.3 billion in 2017/18. For the current financial year the budget was R41 billion, a R2.9 billion increase on the previous year, excluding the direct charges. The direct charges would increase from R13.2 billion last year to R17.4 billion in 2017/18.

Mr Tredoux explained that Programme 3: Universities dominated the budget, comprising about 17.5% of the budget. This was mainly because of transfer payments to universities and the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. Other departmental services, such as payments to other organisations and other earmarked funding, constituted 18.6% of the budget. Compensation of employees was at R7.3 billion, due to TVET colleges and Adult Education and Training College functions which were moved to the Department from 1st April. Remaining funds for normal operations comprised around R555 million, or about 1.2% of the budget, and this was fairly in line with the norm for management of projects.

The additional allocations received by the Department over the MTEF came to around R15.9 billion. The funding for TVET and Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges for the current financial year was around R8.4 billion, of which R6.9 billion was made up of compensation of employees, with the remaining amount going to goods and services, and some machinery and equipment expenditure. The subsidy was R1.2 million.

DHET noted that the country was faced with physical constraints and challenges around budget. However, the funding had a serious impact on the services that were to be delivered by the DHET. There were huge pressures and growth requirements, including requirements in terms of enrollment, infrastructure development, increase in operations, student support services and other services, but the DHET simply could not perform this without adequate budget. It was already limited in terms of its operations. Part of the cost containment measures by government included a cap on compensation of employees, making it very difficult to fill additional posts. The area of institutional evaluation and monitoring, which was mandatory, was limited. To fulfil the tertiary institutions regulation requirements, the Department would have to make sure that it performed proper monitoring and evaluation of the institutions, but it was limited at this point in how far it could do so, despite the fact that the institutions had expressed that they were impressed with how the Department was doing things.

Mr Tredoux noted also that the DHET was reliant on support from the NSF projects - for instance, the National Moderation Body, and one of the immediate pressures was the management of the Adult Education and Training (AET) function shift. This put a huge pressure on the Department and there were cost implications that could not have been foreseen that could not be fully accommodated within the existing funds. That included examination services. There was another issue around trying to split the TVET and AET functions in order to create a separate AET branch, to ensure that this function would be managed properly. Negotiations were under way with the DPSA and National Treasury on this issue.

Programme outlines
Programme 1: Administration
Ms Lulama Mbobo, Deputy Director General, DHET,highlighted the three strategic objectives for Programme 1 in the Strategic Plan. The purpose of Programme 1 was to provide strategic leadership, management and support services to the Department. The first strategic objective was to ensure effective human resource management within the Department by filling 90% of vacant funded positions and the implementation of effective performance management systems. The three performance indicators were to fill 90% of funded posts, leaving a vacancy rate of just 10%; to resolve all disciplinary cases within 90 days; and to limit the lead time for recruitments, between requisition and approval of appointment, to 180 days. These would be in line with Outcome 12 of the Government Programme of Action.

The second strategic objective was to ensure effective financial management though the application of good financial management systems, including management accounting, financial accounting and supply chain management in line with the requirements of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). Performance indicators were to ensure that all audit issues raised by the Auditor-General were responded to, and to pay all creditors within 30 days.

The last strategic objective was to improve efficiency through the development of an approved annual ICT procurement plan for the implementation of the necessary ICT infrastructure and systems. The aim was to have this approved procurement plan submitted to National Treasury by 30 April

Programme 2: Human Resource Development, Planning and Monitoring Coordination
Mr Firoz Patel, Deputy Director General, DHET, spoke on Programme 2; Planning and Monitoring Coordination, whose purpose was to provide a strategic direction in the development, implementation and monitoring of departmental policies and HRD strategy. Most of the work done by the Department, depended on ensuring that these policies and legislation were set up and drove the system. The four strategic objectives for this programme were:

- To develop eight policies and a new piece of legislation, including the division of the National Qualifications Framework Act and the General and Further Education and Training Act,  which will include the division of National Qualification Framework Act as well as the General and Further Education and Training Act, in order to ensure a sound post-school education and training (PSET) system by 31 March
- To develop a Sector Monitoring and Evaluation Framework for effective implementation of oversight of the PSET system, and produce annual monitoring reports. Work had not started on this yet, but the delivery date was to be 31 March 2020
- To develop and implement three teaching and learning support programmes aimed at improving quality of teaching and learning, by 31 March 2020. For this year the performance indicator was to draw support plans for teaching and learning, with flexible models such as ICT, e-education and e-learning being used
- To develop management information system for colleges and SETAs and private post school institutions. In this current year, information systems would be developed and improved, so that by October, the registration for work integrated learning web base systems would be up and running, so that any learners seeking work experience and work exposure would be able to access the system. The second performance indicator related to the statistical reports, which were important tools for planning. The Annual Report on Supply and Demand was being introduced, and the DHET would also continue to produce the Annual Post Statistical Report, which had been published since 2010.

Programme 3: University Education
Mr M Mabizela, Chief Director, DHET said the purpose of this programme was to develop and coordinate policy and regulatory frameworks for an effective university system. It would also provide financial support to universities, NSFAS and the National Institute for Higher Education. This programme had seven strategic objectives (see attached document for full details) which were, briefly:

- To develop thirteen new policies and review 6, by March 2020, to ensure sound provision of university education. The focus in the current year was on a new higher education steering mechanism that had been developed. One policy concerned provision of student housing. The Higher Education Act was being revised, with a target to promulgate it by March 2016.
- To develop two integrated plans to enable collaboration between University education and other PSET sectors by March 2020
- To monitor the 13th Annual Report Oversight report
- To develop and implement a teaching and learning development capacity development programme
- To improve support to current and prospective students in higher education Institutions by March 2020I, including a central application system. In the current year, there would be a student leadership capacity development strategy and programme development, to be implemented by October 2015
- To produce an annual First-Time Cohort analysis, to determine drop out rates and retention of students from their first degrees to post graduate studies. In this year, the Department would be looking at 2005 - 2008 new students, and this report would be published by March 2016 on the DHET website
- To facilitate a stakeholder network through the establishment of the BRICS think tank and Participative Academic Forum, and to report progress on partnerships annually.

Programme 4: Vocational and Continuing Educational and Training
Dr Bheki Mahlobo, Acting Deputy Director General: Vocational and Continuing Education and Training, DHET, noted that this programme was to maintain and evaluate national policy and programmes, assessment practice and systems for vocational and continuing education and training, including the TVET and Community Colleges. The strategic objectives included:
- to develop six pieces of legislation and guiding frameworks aimed at steering education and vocational training, by March 2020
- to standardise institutions' governance and monitor intake and problems
- to develop and implement six teaching and learning support plans for VCET institutions, by 31 March 2020
- to improve the success rate by developing and implementing appropriate student support services, to 31 March 2020
- to ensure geographic spread through the establishment of 21 additional sites of delivery for VCET institutions (12 TVET college campuses and 9 CETCs) by 31 March 2020
- To establish a coordinating structure for support and research in the VCET sector

Programme 5: Skills Development
Mr Zukile Mvalo, Acting Deputy Director General, DHET, said this branch promoted and monitored the National Skills Strategy, and intended to develop a skills development policy and regulatory framework, Its strategic objectives included:
- To steer and support skills development institutions to implement the National Skills Strategy, through the development of four new and six revised policies
- To standardise the level of governance across SETAs, compile and monitor quarterly and annual reports and take actions where deficiencies were identified
- To effectively manage artisan development assessment services, including Recognition of Prior Learning, to produce qualified artisans each year
- To enhance the National Information System to improve collation of artisan information and skills development levies information, for monitoring, evaluation and reporting

Discussion
Mr H Groenewald (DA, North West), thanked the Minister and delegation and congratulated them for undertaking investigations into NSFAS. He wanted to find out what the Department was investing in institutions that were in rural areas and added that since many students were struggling to find housing and accommodation in institutions in the urban areas, it would be useful to invest in rural areas so that students could remain there to study, instead of having to move.

Mr Groenewald asked if, in switching between basic and higher education, there were bridging courses still in place, and, if so, what the success rate of these was. He asked how DHET's plans for job creation had been incorporated into the National Development Plan.

Mr Groenewald asked how many students were in higher education, how many were currently receiving financial support and how many financially needy students could be assisted at this stage. He asked about the relationship between the DHET and major companies.

Mr Groenewald congratulated the DHET on the unqualified audit report.

Mr M Khawula (IFP, KwaZulu Natal), wanted to know if the function shift had been completed. He asked what the vacancy rate would be if the TVET vacancies were excluded. He noted, when visiting one place, that two large buildings had been left incomplete by the Department and unable to be used therefore for student accommodation, and asked for an explanation. He noted that many of the strategic plans noted achievements to be made by March 2020, but wanted more immediate time lines for the Committee to follow during oversight. He asked if there was a dedicated fund for research in universities at the Department.

Mr D Stock (ANC, Western Cape) asked about the Department's progress with the tabling of the Higher Education Bill as proposed in the presentation last year. He also enquired what the progress was on filling the two Deputy Director General posts? He also asked for a progress report on assessment audits to ensure that colleges were ready to remain autonomous. He was pleased to note the progress made on some points, and congratulated the Department on progressing post-apartheid universities.

Ms T Mampuru (ANC, Limpopo) firstly congratulated the Minister for handing over the IntabaZimbi TVET Colleges. She wanted to know what contributions  the mining houses were giving to ensure that Limpopo became a better-developed society. She noted there was a lot of corruption around the NSFAS funding, and noted that the Department should fast track  this matter.

Ms L Mathys (EFF, Gauteng) wanted to know how far the process of name changes for universities had gone, noting the importance of having names that represented the transition and developments in the country.

The Chairperson wanted to know if, in the migration process, the qualifications or the post levels were changed, or if people had moved across with their post levels as they were prior to migration. She asked whether the budget for the infrastructure of the National Office was included in the figures presented. She asked which universities were offering TVET lecturer education, and if none were offering it yet, when it was likely to be offered. She asked for progress reports on the construction of the recent campuses. Finally, she congratulated the Minister for the attempts to address the corruption in student funding.

Mr Qonde noted that in respect of investment in rural areas, the Department had done mapping to locate facilities of Higher Education and training (HET) throughout the entire country, and had established these facilities that would be concentrated within urban centres, taking into account how far those from rural communities would have to travel to access post-school training facilities. Twelve new TVETS had then been established in the rural areas. The Department had partnerships with the SETAs to establish skills centres in TVET colleges, with priority given to the rural areas. The policy on transport and accommodation was well-biased towards rural areas, as only those students whose homes were at least 40 km away from campus could be considered for university accommodation. However, for those between 10 and 40 km away, the DHET would consider providing transport. This all meant that the DHET was taking into account and gearing its programmes for expansion of facilities in the rural areas. This also included the establishment of the new universities in the Northern Cape and Mpumalanga. All of the efforts, including under-graduate and post-graduate programmes, and expansion of the infrastructure capacity of the system and scarce skills, was informed by the National Development Plan.

Mr Qonde noted that all institutions would receive research development grants. The Department had engaged with the Auditor-General on audits and the Auditor-General South Africa would be undertaking a thorough audit process for all the TVET Colleges. A phased-in approach had to be adopted, due to limited capacity, starting with 15 colleges, but more would be added in the upcoming years, until all 50 were included.

Mr Patel informed Members that the function shift was complete, save for one or two things still being done in terms of the Labour Relations Act, and all systems had been brought over intact. Any inequalities that were in place already in terms of the posts would remain for the moment, but the Department would be looking at all provincial comparisons over the next twelve months and harmonising where necessary. Matters would no longer be handled at provincial level, but at the regional offices of the DHET. The Minister had been in touch with the MECs to try to find accommodation facilities, and all the provinces were cooperating. He asked for further details about the incomplete residences that one Member identified, and pointed out that the DHET had only taken over responsibility with effect from 1 April 2015, but would be able to follow up on previous authorities.

Mr Patel noted that Slide 20 outlined the full road-map for the 2015 Annual Performance Plan, but the Department could break down the five year plans still further, to indicate what would be done in each year, which would assist Members in their oversight.

Mr Patel noted that the Higher Education Bill was expected to be tabled in Parliament this year.

Dr Mahlobo said that the strategy was structured in such a way that the DHET hoped to cover one million students at least by 2020. For the current year, the DHET was targeting covering 200 000 in the TVET system, and this appeared in the Plan. There was no audited data for 2014/15 and 2015/16. The fact that building at KSD were not completed arose through complications between the Department of Public Works in Eastern Cape,the service provider and the provincial Department of Education. The DHET was now intervening in the issue, and had set aside an allocation of R46 million, together with technical support,  to assist the college to complete this infrastructure. In regard to progress on construction at the TVET campuses, he indicated that there was progress at ThabaZimbi, Bambanani and Inkandla sites. The next campuses to be addressed would be one in Balfour and refurbishment of two campuses in KwaZulu Natal - the KwaNongoma Area, KwaGqizaz and Old KwaNongoma technical college. Work was also due to be implemented In Ngqungqushe and Sterkspruit in the 2015/16 financial year. The monitoring targets were set out in the slides.

He noted that the success rates for bridging interventions were assessed by institution, because each institution had its own programme and number of students. This was also dependent on the uptake of this course by students. In some institutions the uptake was very low, due to stigmatisation of this programme. The targets for this year for NSFAS support were set out in the slides, and this represented about 21% from all universities. R2.5 billion was dedicated to research for all universities. In addition, all universities could access the Research and Development Grant, for which around R200 million was allocated.

He explained that the name changes were decided upon by the Council of the universities, in terms of clause 65, and the Council would submit the request to the Minister, for further consultation and endorsement. The DHET was establishing a sub-unit to monitor and support transformation in universities, and an oversight committee was in place.

Ms Mbobo stated that, including the posts that had been transferred to the DHET, there were 38 397 posts, and of these, 3405 posts were regarded as vacant. However, these may not be funded vacancies. She explained that because there had not been proper post-provisioning norms for colleges, colleges may have created posts, even when these were not strictly speaking needed or funded. Knowing this, the DHET would now be working on post-provisioning norms, with a view to providing guidelines on staffing of TVET Colleges and Community Colleges.

She noted that one Deputy Director General, Dr Diane Parker, had already been appointed by the Minister for the University branch. The Minister had given a commitment to appoint to the other vacant posts.

She added that the Department had received a transfer of R12 million for regional offices, but currently the Department's officials were in the Provincial Department of Education Offices.

Minister's closing remarks
The Minister said, in closing, that the DHET had completed an investigation into the establishment of Maths and Science Foundation Programmes, specifically targeted at Matric students who had achieved between 40% and 49%, because it knew that there were many who should have achieved above this figure. It might be that some had not had teachers consistently enough to achieve the required percentages. The Foundation Programme was aimed at assisting these students to access higher education, through a one year programme, and it would be piloted through the TVET Colleges, not necessarily through universities.

He added that the relationships with BRICS countries were at the ministerial level; for instance, there was a BRICS Ministers of Education Forum, which identified issues that needed work - one of these was mutual recognition of qualifications, to facilitate students' and academics' mobility amongst the BRICS countries, for comparable qualifications. Another area of cooperation related to the sharing of experiences on TVET. South Africa was quite instrumental in bringing this matter to the agenda of BRICS.

The Minister agreed that some of the vacant posts needed to be filled soon, as they had existed for quite some time.

The Minister said that the DHET had no immediate plans to change names of any universities, but would be guided by the stakeholders if there was a need. DHET was reviewing the Committee Summit and he urged the Select Committee to be active, and perhaps it might even wish to summons some of the institutions to come and explain why certain things were not happening. Parliament did have a very important oversight role, and was sometimes even able to pick up matters that DHET had not identified.

The meeting was adjourned.