ATC130627: Report of the Portfolio Committee On Higher Education and Training on the Strategic and Annual Performance Plans 2013/14 Of The Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) and Council On Higher Education (CHE), dated 19 June 2013
Higher Education, Science and Innovation
REPORT
OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HIGHER EDUCATION AND TRAINING ON THE STRATEGIC
AND ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLANS 2013/14 OF THE QUALITY COUNCIL FOR TRADES AND
OCCUPATIONS (QCTO) AND COUNCIL ON HIGHER EDUCATION (CHE), DATED 19 JUNE 2013
The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training, having
considered the Strategic and Annual Performance Plan (APP) 2013/14 of the
Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO) and Council on Higher
Education (CHE) reports as follows:
1. Introduction
The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and
Training considered the Annual Performance Plan and (Medium Term Expenditure
Framework) MTEF Budget 2013/14 of the QCTO and CHE on 22 May 2013. This report
captures a summary of the presentations made by both Councils to the Committee,
focusing essentially on the Annual Performance Plans 2013/14 which were
presented in conjunction with the Strategic Plans that were tabled in
Parliament on 08 April 2013 for consideration and reporting by the Committee.
The report further recaptures observations and recommendations made by the
Committee during deliberations on some of the key aspects of the presentations.
2. Background
The Strategic and Annual
Performance Plans of public entities were extremely valuable sets of
information to the Committee in exercising its oversight role. Engaging with
public entities on these documents was very critical in scrutinising
allocations of public funds and monitoring their utilisation. The annual
performance targets of the entities were also scrutinised to ensure that they
were in line with the Departments mandate of expanding access to post school
education and training opportunities for the young people of the country.
Moreover, effective oversight and transparency were requirements for effective
accountability which was the responsibility of the Committee. This was the
overarching role of the Committee to invite public entities to account before
it.
Portfolio Committee on Higher Education & Training:
Present:
Ms N Gina (ANC),
Mr S
Makhubele
(ANC), Adv I
Malale
(ANC) (Chairperson), Prof S
Mayatula
(ANC), Mr C
Moni
(ANC), Ms D
Sibiya
(ANC),
Dr L Bosman (DA), Prof A
Lotriet
(DA), Mr A Mpontshane (IFP) and Mr J
Dikobo
(AZAPO).
Apologies:
Ms D
Chili
(ANC) and Mr S Radebe (ANC).
Support Staff:
Mr A
Kabingesi (Committee Secretary), Ms M Modiba (Content Adviser),
Mr
L
Komle
(Researcher), Ms T
Majone
: Committee Assistant and Mr F Mohale: Media Officer.
The following were present:
Quality Council for Trades and Occupations:
Ms N
Madilonga
:
Chief Financial Officer and Mr T
Lata
: Chief
Director.
Council on Higher Education:
Mr A
Essop
:
Chief Executive Officer, Ms B
Shongwe
: Chief
Financial Officer and Prof B
Taaver
: Council Member.
Department of Higher Education and Training:
Mr T
Tredoux
:
Chief Financial Officer, Mr F
Toefy
: Chief Director
Strategic Planning, Mr M
Lumka
: Chief Director SETA
Coordination, Ms M
Erra
: Director, Ms P Whittle:
Director, Ms N
Nqaba
: Parliamentary Liaison Officer
Ministers Office, Mr S
Zondi
: Parliamentary Liaison
Officer Deputy Ministers Office, Ms P
Sekgobela
:
Assistant Director
Director
Generals Office and Mr B
Bingwa
: Intern.
3. Summary of presentations
3.1 Quality Council for Trades and Occupations (QCTO)
·
Ms N
Madilonga
: Chief Financial Officer informed the Committee of
the apologies submitted by the Chief Executive Officer who was due to arrive in
the country the following day and the Chairperson who was admitted in hospital
for surgical procedures.
·
The Committee
raised concern regarding the format of the presentation submitted by the QCTO
in that, it did not articulate on specific targets and programme of action as
required by the Committee. Subsequent to this concern, the Committee was not
prepared to proceed with the presentation without the accounting authority of the
QCTO present. It was proposed that the QCTO should revise the presentation so
that it can articulate to specific requirements of the Committee.
·
The QCTO welcomed
the proposal of the Committee and indicated that it would liaise with the
Department to improve the layout of the presentation. It was further noted that
the QCTO was undergoing a very difficult transitional trajectory in determining
its mandate. It was agreed that a new date for the meeting with the QCTO would
be set and communicated accordingly.
3.2 Council on Higher Education
Mr A
Essop
:
Chief Executive Officer led the presentation which highlighted the following
key issues:
·
The Committee was
informed that the CHE did not have a Council Chairperson and the process of
appointment of the new Chairperson was spearheaded by the Department. The
Deputy Chairperson also submitted an apology for the meeting owing to other
commitments.
·
The core
functions of the CHE included: providing advice to the Minister on any aspect
of higher education; quality assurance; qualifications framework and to publish
information and reports on state of higher education.
·
Proactive advice
on the role of public higher education colleges (Agriculture and Nursing) was
provided to the Minister.
·
Based on
monitoring the state of higher education; it emerged that 50% of young people
in higher education drop-out without completing their degrees and only 30% of
students from all backgrounds completed their degrees in regulation time. The
Council held a view that there may be a gap between schooling and higher
education and thus established a task team to investigate the causes of
dropout.
·
The CHE planned
to conduct research on: 20 years review of the state of higher education;
institutional governance and management investigating whether the current tools
(independent assessment and placing institutions under administration) were
effective in improving governance and management; the state of provision of
private higher education; role of National Benchmark Tests (
NBTs
)
in partnership with the Council for Quality Assurance in General and Further
Education and Training (Umalusi); changing nature of the academic profession
and funding formula which would be different from the one commissioned by the
Minister.
·
The CHE requested
higher education institutions to work together on sharing of best practices to
improve student success in higher education. Deputy Vice-Chancellors of
Academic Learning and Research in universities were engaged on this matter and
it would be concluded in July 2013. However, the main challenge was that
currently universities operated in a competitive way and were not keen to
collaborate. The CHE planned to convene a Seminar on higher education in
September 2013 and the Committee would be invited.
·
The challenges of
monitoring and evaluation including administration had since been addressed and
capacity had improved.
·
The Council
completed a cycle of institutional audits and in December 2012, it approved the
Framework for Quality Enhancement.
·
The Council
anticipated a request from the Department for accreditation of programmes for
the two new universities in
·
The process for
the review of Bachelor of Social Work (B.SW) degree was underway and would be
completed by mid 2014.
·
Budget 2013/14:
The total allocation for CHE in 2013/14 was R46 million and majority of the
allocation R41 million came from the Departmental grant. The total personnel
cost for the year under review was R25.8 million and goods and services
amounted to R19.8 million. The CHE required additional funding to
fulfill
its mandate and it would utilise its surplus to
complement the shortage.
4. Observations
4.1. The Committee noted the
following progress made by CHE:
·
The Council
provided proactive advice to the Minister given that it had research capacity
to do so.
·
Monitoring and
Evaluation Directorate had been fully capacitated to conduct monitoring and
evaluation activities.
4.2 The Committee identified the
following concerns:
·
There were delays
by the Department in the appointment of the new Chairperson of the CHE Council.
·
The programmes to
be offered by the two new universities in
·
The Further
Education and Training (FET) college lecturer qualification had not yet been
submitted to the CHE for accreditation.
·
The mismatch in
the financial statements of the CHE presented to the Committee and requested
that they be corrected to reflect the full budget that includes roll over of
surplus funds.
4.3 The Committee commended the
proposal by University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in making
isiZulu
compulsory for all students and proposed that other higher education
institutions should consider the promotion of African languages.
5. Recommendations:
The Committee recommends that the
Minister should:
·
Finalise the
process of appointing the Chairperson of the CHE without further delays.
·
Ensure that the
programmes of the two new universities are submitted to the CHE for
accreditation to be ready for 2014.
In addition, the Committee further
recommends that:
·
Accreditation of
Further Education and Training (FET) college lecturer qualification
be
prioritised.
6. Conclusion
It can be noted that the APP
presented by CHE reflected an improvement in the entitys evaluation and
monitoring role which was a serious concern for the Committee in the previous
years. The entitys capacity had been augmented in order to fulfil its mandate
with the limited funding it had. The CHE was robustly advised to move towards
providing more pro-active advisory role to the Minister. The financial
statements presented by CHE reflected reasonable financial management although
there were reported cases of under spending in the previous financial year
which remained a concern for the Committee.
Report to be considered
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