No institution of higher education in the world can make valid claims that it is immune to the effects of change and transformation. An array of trends such as the massification of higher education, widened access, response to new demands of technology, globalisation, internationalisation, increased accountability, the use of new modes of delivery and materials, as well as dwindling higher education resources, are placing enormous pressure on staff (Green and Hayward, Transforming Higher Education. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1997). Not only are traditional academic roles changing, but -in certain instances -working conditions have become unfavourable and unsupportive of staff's efforts to pursue the mission of higher education. The article presents the outcome of a case study that was undertaken in a historically White Afrikaans university to investigate the implications of change and transformation on academic staff. Although the case study was conducted within a localised boundary of space and time of one institution, the authors are of the opinion that enough evidence exists that, given the dominating ruling culture of the apartheid's regime, to which no university in South Africa was immune, it is most likely that other institutions will relate with the findings of the research. The study was emancipatory in that it sought to inform the university management about how transformation was affecting academics and their job satisfaction and to establish which strategies the University had in place or hoped to put in place to make the environment favourable for change. Academics were also involved in making recommendations on how the areas of dissatisfaction could best be addressed.
This article provides a descriptive theoretical analysis of the most important higher education policies and initiatives which were developed by the democratically elected government of South Africa after 1994 to transform the South African higher education system. The article sheds light on the rationale for the policies under scrutiny; how they take cognisance of academics' diverse needs; as well as how their implementation is bound to affect academics and possibly influence job satisfaction. The article argues that the South African higher education fraternity, currently overwhelmed by mammoth change initiatives, is simultaneously faced with two processes, namely transforming the socio-political state of the country, as well as transformation to respond to national higher education policy imperatives. Seemingly South African policy-makers, in their attempts to break away from the past, are oblivious of the realities of thorough policy implementation and do not take the voluminous nature of policies into consideration as an inhibiting factor. Undoubtedly this could have adverse effects for academic staff who are expected to propel change and transformation, but who are oftentimes confronted with the complexities of implementation which entail among others, dealing with cumbersome procedures, processes, bureaucratic structures as well as increasing workloads.
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