ABSTRACT
The Republic of South Africa clearly faces monumental challenges in transforming its system of higher education to provide equitable opportunities for members of all groups. Aside from initiatives propagated by educational planners, previously marginalized groups are demanding a variety of changes in the configuration and modus operandi of historically White universities (HWUs). Many of the demands center on the problem of integrating the knowledge and experiences of diverse cultural, ethnic, and national groups into historically monocultural institutions. Areas targeted by change agents range from the composition of faculties and administrations to the structure and content of curricula. In some sense, there are parallels to pressures faced by higher education institutions in the United States over the past three decades associated with the modern civil rights movement and subsequent challenges to the status quo. The limited progress achieved in realizing the goal of equal educational opportunity in U.S. higher education constitutes a potentially useful object lesson for South Africa, where the issues are, arguably, more complex.
