The aim of this thesis is to explore the relationship between research and policymaking in South African higher education, using the Education Policy Unit (recently renamed as the Centre for the Study of Higher Education) at the University of the Western Cape as a case study. The study begins by examining the various models that explain the nature of policymaking in Western democracies, as well as the main theoretical frameworks - namely the "two communities" theory and the enlightenment model of knowledge utilisation - that explain the relationship between the production of knowledge and its utilisation in policymaking. It is argued that, although most of these models were developed to analyse the policymaking process within the context of mature democracies, they nonetheless raise important issues for developing countries like South Africa.

The study proceeds to provide an overview of the process of policy development in South Africa. It is suggested that a better way of understanding the evolution of higher education policy development in South Africa is to see it as having gone through four phases, each of which marks a significant turning point within higher education itself, as well as in the broader political context. The process of the policy development, and in particular the role of (higher education) research within it, is shown as one that is largely driven by political and ideological imperatives.

The study then shifts to a discussion of the UWC-EPU, commencing with an overview of its organisational history, and highlighting the main objectives of its research programme and the changes that occurred with regard to its research orientation. These are examined in relation to external factors, for example the shift from the development of policy frameworks to the focus on implementation, and in terms of the dynamics that were internal to the University of the Western Cape. This discussion also highlights the challenges that were faced by the EPUs and other progressive academics in the early phases of the policy development process, namely that of engaging in a 'reconstructive' agenda on the one hand, while undertaking intellectual/scientific work on the other hand; in the case of the UWC-EPU, there was also the added challenge of contributing to the development of the nascent field of higher education studies.

One of the key issues that emerge in the analysis of the interviews, which form the core source of data collection for this study, is the multifarious understanding of the way in which the research undertaken by the UWC-EPU was to be utilised. The three notions of 'use' that are highlighted - which are also embedded in the objectives of the UWC-EPU as set out in its constitution - are the following:
· Utilisation as generation of ideas, and particularly as a contribution to the debates on social reconstruction
· Utilisation as input into the policymaking process
· Utilisation as contribution to scholarship

The study shows that there is a mixed assessment of the extent to which the UWC-EPU was able to address these competing - and sometimes contradictory - challenges. In the main, its efforts were hamstrung by a confluence of factors, ranging from its inability to recruit or attract experienced researchers, to the orientation of its research towards critique, something which was a feature of the scholarship emanating from the progressive academic community at the time.

Back to top