HELM

Higher Education Leadership and Management Programme

As early as 2000, South African Universities Vice Chancellors Association (HESA’s predecessor organisation) recognised that there was a critical need for leadership and management development in South African institutions, where capacity was currently limited. To this end, SAUVCA members supported the development and implementation of a leadership and management capacity building programme.

The overarching objective of the programme is to provide training in leadership and management to middle level and senior executives of the 23 public universities:

To improve the quality of leadership of South African Universities in the light of the rapidly changing landscape of the higher education system and in the context of diminishing resources;
To keep abreast of the changing policy environment of the higher education system;
To inculcate policies and procedures that will ensure the production of high quality of graduates to meet the high level human resource needs of the country;
To implement a culture of continuous quality improvement;
To ensure effective and efficient operations of the university for optimum outcomes with diminishing resources;
To ensure transparency, accountability and reliability in decision making;
Top increase the output of postgraduates and the quantum of research;
To ensure that graduates in addition to acquiring skills and knowledge are broadly trained as critical citizens in a post-Apartheid democratic society;
To embrace a broad programme of transformation in an endeavour to reverse the disabilities of the Apartheid era instilled in the majority of the population;
To connect the university to local, national and international partnerships in order to leverage global skills, knowledge and expertise; and
To ensure that the university is embedded in its local context and to utilise the expertise and resources for the development of the community.