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The past two decades have seen many changes in higher education both worldwide and in South Africa. Significant among these myriad changes have been those affecting the financing of higher education.
These include; declining public subsidies (‘First Stream Income’) to universities; the concomitant pressure to limit increases to and income from tuition fees (‘Second Stream Income’) in the face of its implications for access and social equity; and the resulting need to increase ‘Third Stream Income’ (John Duncan 2009). These were the opening remarks of a research report commissioned by The Kresge Foundation to form the basis for the discussion on third stream income for universities at a two-day conference held in Pretoria on 18 & 19 March this year. The conference was designed to use recent research on Third Stream Income in South Africa as a catalyst for examining in detail both South African and international higher education perspectives. The conference was a joint initiative between The Kresge Foundation, Higher Education South Africa and Inyathelo. The conference was oversubscribed with 103 delegates in attendance over the two days. All 23 South African universities were represented and, in addition, the Partnership for Higher Education in Africa supported the participation of higher education representatives from Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana. The report generated substantial debate as did the many speakers who shared their thoughts on short and long-term financing, endowment and reserves management, commercialisation, the role of the Vice-Chancellor in fundraising, and public and private partnerships.
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The conference ended with a thought provoking session titled “Next Steps” which highlighted the need for:
- A differentiated approach to 3rd stream income with attention to each institution’s specific
context and requirements;
- Frameworks for assessing for the indirect costs of research and the suggestion that this should be pursued by Higher Education South Africa (HESA) and the Department of Education (DOE);
- Improved monitoring in the DOE to sharpen data on 3rd stream income;
- A close examination of what is represented by 3rd stream income. It was clear from the discussions that it comprised many types of income and that each of these required specific skills and expertise to manage;
- Thoughtful and engaged tackling of the notion of ‘exceptionalism’. It was pointed out that South African higher education does not face challenges entirely unique in the world;
- Comparative studies and examples to go beyond the US and Europe and to include, for example, India, Malaysia and other African countries.
The hope was that by the end of the conference participants would have heard real world applications, insights and challenges of Third Stream Income that could be applied to their own institutions. A full conference report will be made available in the next few weeks.
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