ABSTRACT
The past 12 years have seen a number of sweeping changes in South African higher education, both in response to global trends, and also as part of the restructuring processes needed to remedy the multiple problems created by apartheid. In 1994, when South Africa had its first democratic election, the higher education system was highly fragmented, segregated and differentiated. The new government inherited a three-tier system of universities, technikons and colleges, with different institutions within each tier catering separately for different racial groupings: Indian and coloured, African and white. These institutions had been funded differentially. The geographical locations of African institutions further isolated them and created particular difficulties. In addition, students entering the system came from a much more varied educational background than previously, many from schools which were part of the under-resourced Bantu education system and who were thus underprepared for higher education in many ways. At this time of transition there came a flurry of higher education policy and discussion documents. This chapter looks at some of these texts and asks questions about the ways in which teaching excellence is positioned through the documents.
