Abstract

In the new democratic South Africa the government has been using three levers to steer the higher education system: funding, planning and quality assurance. Even though these have been criticized by some commentators as "external intervention" rather than "the logical outcome of national transition," these levers managed to strike a balance between the principles of autonomy and accountability, while moving towards the realisation of the vision of an equitable, inclusive, responsive, and cooperative higher education system. Of late a number of national policy developments such as amendments to the Higher Education Act and the appointment of an oversight Ministerial Committee on Transformation of Higher Education has rekindled fears among the higher education community of "government intervention." Using policy analysis, this unfolding situation will be analysed and discussed.