This chapter provides a brief discussion of some of the complexities that relate to the South African higher education curriculum. Firstly, the concept of 'curriculum' is theoretically defined, with the purpose of embedding the section to follow, in a theoretical context.
Hence six interrelated clusters of current curriculum issues are outlined, namely that of vocational and liberal education
INTRODUCTIONIn the arena of higher education studies and research across the world, the curriculum debate and inquiry are increasingly drawing more attention from various parties. In
PART THREE • TEACHING, LEARNING AND THE CURRICULUM'other' universities, as well as by indicating that there will be only one distance education university (DoE 1999(DoE , 2002(DoE , 2007a(DoE , 2007b RSA 1997 RSA , 2008SAQA 1997).Prospective students and their funders (e.g. students themselves, parents, financial institutions, providers of bursaries and scholarships, employers) pay attention to the higher education curriculum to determine to what extent it will provide in their education and training needs within their particular contextual constraints. The curriculum of a South African university will therefore often be the deciding factor in students' choice of institution. Employers also expect from higher education institutions to provide them with human resources with appropriately specialised training ( In the context outlined above, a number of curriculum issues emerge from the debates in South African higher education; a selection of these issues is presented in this chapter. They are clustered together in an effort to deal with the complexity of their interrelatedness and enmeshment. Each cluster therefore consists of more than one curriculum issue -in many cases the issues are theoretically separate, but in reality they occur inseparably. Due to the nature of the interrelatedness, it would be possible to cluster them together in several ways -the clusters as presented in this chapter are therefore not a unique categorisation. The six clusters that are discussed in this chapter deal with vocational and liberal education, progression from certificate to diploma to degree, mass education compared to selective education, contact and distance education, internationalisation and localisation, as well as diffusion between disciplinary borders.The intention is not to suggest ways of dealing with the challenges associated with each cluster of issues, but rather to stimulate awareness of the complexity of these challenges, as well as to highlight the need for further investigation into the enmeshed manifestation of the issues and clusters in particular institutions. This chapter is therefore an attempt to paint the landscape of South African curriculum debates and issues that are currently under the magnifying glass in certain sectors of the higher education arena. In some cases, reference is made to a possible connection between a cluster