Abstract:

Background:
In December 2012, the South African Minister of Higher Education and Training approved a revised Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF - Notice 1040 of 2012; Government Gazette No. 36003 of 14 December 2012). Although this aided in the establishment of a single qualifications framework for higher education in South Africa to enable the articulation between programmes and the transfer of students between different types of higher education institutions, it created a disruptive influence on the qualifications offered by universities of technology, international comparability, and industry expectations.

Purpose:
Phasing out existing qualifications and phasing in new qualifications on a large scale is a costly exercise. Findings made by Higher Education South Africa (HESA) states that the average salary expenditure across South Africa’s universities is on average 62.5% of total income (HESA, Nov 2014). The council of Tshwane University of Technology recently made an announcement that it also intends to align the TUT salary budget, currently above 70%, to 62.5% of total income, where 60% of 62.5% is allocated to academic staff and 40% to the support staff (TUT, 2017). This research seeks to understand how the implementation of the HEQSF impact human resources at UoTs and to develop a tool to manage the phasing-in and phasing-out of qualifications on a large scale in a sustainable way. The Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment (FEBE) at TUT was used as a case study.

Method:
Quantitative data was collected within the realm of the interpretivist paradigm, mainly focusing on document analysis, needs analysis and predicted future requirements: Information gathered from the Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS) office for the FEBE at TUT over the last three years was used to develop a model to estimate the human resources required to implement the new HEQSF and the expected finances to be generated through subsidies and class fees in order to determine the financial and human resources impact of implementation the new HEQSF programmes and the phasing out of existing NATED programmes, for which the DHET communicated December 2019 as deadline. The model takes into consideration the programme qualification mix, the number of students enrolled in each programme, the estimated throughput and graduation figures based on historical data of similar qualifications, and staff qualification requirements to teach at a specified level.

Results:
The developed model (taking into consideration existing human resources (HR) available, additional resources required to implement the HEQSF, income generated, enrolment figures, estimated throughput and graduation figures) shows that during the phase-in / phase-out period, which will last until 2025, more than a 12% workload increase is expected across all programmes on average, with an increase in peak workload during 2019 and 2020 of approximately 22%, Implementing the new HEQSF therefore comes at price. It also shows that unless administrative functions are consolidated, that the 62,5% target will not be reached. The novelty of the developed model is that it accurately shows the time and quantity of additional resources that will be needed during a large scale phase-in/phase-out qualification process. This enables the faculty to plan HR requirements and enrolments to properly aligned with the university’s targeted budget allocation.

Keywords:

Higher Education Qualification Sub-Framework, Department of Education, Higher Education South Africa, Salary expenditure, Universities of Technology, Higher Education Management Information System.