The potential financial impact and influence of black economic empowerment (BEE) on private higher education institutions in South Africa: management alert
-
Author(s)Riaan Dirkse van SchalkwykLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8511-5648
,
Louis P. KrügerLink to ORCID Index: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3632-427X
-
DOIhttp://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.17(3).2019.04
-
Article InfoVolume 17 2019, Issue #3, pp. 45-56
- 657 Views
-
121 Downloads
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Education is considered an important pillar of economic development and a vital factor for nation building in post-1994 South Africa. Higher education (HE) is offered by government-subsidized universities and colleges, while there has been an increase in the number of private higher education institutions (PHEIs), which offer more expensive, unsubsidized tertiary education. While all state bodies and public entities are required to apply the provisions of the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Act, this is not (yet) seemingly a requirement for PHEIs. This study used an adapted version of the “5 Star” research methodology to explore the potential financial impact and influence of the African National Congress’s (ANC’s) black economic empowerment (BEE) policy on PHEIs. The research shows that the BEE policy has the potential to financially impact and influence most of the components of the total quality service (TQS) framework for PHEIs in terms of preferential procurement from suppliers, company ownership, appointment of executive, middle and junior managers, employment of academic and administrative staff, and throughput of black student graduates. Management at PHEIs should be alerted to the fact that it is probably not merely a matter of IF, but rather WHEN the policy will start impacting on the financial stability and viability of PHEIs as BEE compliance becomes mandatory.
- Keywords
-
JEL Classification (Paper profile tab)M14, M21
-
References25
-
Tables4
-
Figures1
-
- Figure 1. The TQS framework with superimposed BEE scorecard elements
-
- Table 1. Number of available first-year enrollments and number of applications received at five selected HE institutions in 2015
- Table 2. Number of students enrolled in PHEIs by gender from 2010 to 2015
- Table 3. The number of students enrolled in PHEIs by South African population group and nationality from 2010 to 2015
- Table 4. TQS framework process component with BEE scorecard elements
-
- Cohen, L., Manion, L., & Morrison, K. (2005). Research methods in education (5th ed.). London, UK: Taylor and Francis e-Library.
- Department of Higher Education and Training (2017a). Statistics on post-school education and training in South Africa: 2015. Pretoria, South Africa: Department of Higher Education and Training.
- Department of Higher Education and Training (2017b). Annual monitoring report on the compliance of private higher education institutions (PHEIs). Pretoria, South Africa: Department of Higher Education and Training.
- Department of Trade and Industry. (2012). Ecoomic empowerment.
- Department of Trade and Industry. (2016). Economic empowerment. (accessed on January 26, 2017).
- Dirkse van Schalkwyk, R., & Steenkamp, R. J. (2016). A top management perspective of total quality service dimensions for private higher education institutions in South Africa.Southern African Business Review, 20, 577-599.
- Fourie, M. (2009). Institutional governance in SA higher education: For the common good or political power play? In E. Bitzer (Ed.), Higher education in South Africa: A scholarly look behind the scenes. Stellenbosch, South Africa: SUN Media.
- GuptaLeaks (2017). Why you should care about the Gupta leaks: An international view.
- Jeffery, A. (2014). BEE: Helping or hurting? Cape Town, South Africa: Tafelberg.
- Krüger, L. P. (2018). The impact of black economic empowerment (BEE) on the macro-environments of South Africa – time to stop the rot, deterioration, distrust and dysfunctionality. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 16(1), 361-380.
- Leedy, P. D., & Ormrod, J. E. (2015). Practical research: Planning and design (11th ed.). Harlow, UK: Pearson Education.
- Levy, D. C. (2002). Commercial private higher education: South Africa as a stark example. Perspectives in Education, 20(4), 29-39.
- Mackenzie, N., & Knipe, S. (2006). Research dilemmas: Paradigms, methods and methodology. Issues in Educational Research, 16, 1-10.
- Marais, A. (2014, December 8). ‘n Matrieksertikaat is nie meer genoeg nie’. Translated into English as “A senior certificate is no longer sufficient”.
- Nel, C. (2015). Eerstejaars: UJ kry 111200 aansoeke, laat net 10500 toe. Translated into English as “First years: UJ receives 111 200 applications, only accepts 10 500”.
- News24 (2017a). SA: Drawing parallels between 1985 and now. (accessed on August 14, 2017).
- News24 (2017b). Youth vulnerable as unemployment stays at highest rate since 2003. (accessed on August 15, 2017).
- Prominent People (2013). Presidents of South Africa (accessed on May 31, 2017).
- Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A., & Johnston, R. (2013). Operations management (7th ed.). London, UK: Pearson.
- Statistics SA (2017). More than 50 percent of SA’s population is living in poverty.
- Vega School (2017). Lack of space at public universities needn’t spell end of degree dreams.
- Visagie, R. (2012). Methodological rigour and ethics of accountability within a qualitative framework. Emoyeni Research Collaborations, 8-12.
- Visagie, R. (2013). Choosing among the three paradigms. Emoyeni Research Collaborations, 19.
- Washington Post (2013, December 5). Nelson Mandela’s famous quote on education. (accessed on August 4, 2017).
- Welman, C., Kruger, F., & Mitchell, B. (2005). Research methodology (3rd ed.). Cape Town, South Africa: Oxford University Press.
