South Africa: Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, appointed an Independent Assessor to investigate and establish the veracity of several Unisa (University of South Africa), and this decision by Nzimande was welcomed and accepted by the Unisa.
The appointment of the Independent Assessor, which has been made in terms of the requirements of the Higher Education Act of 1997 (as amended), follows the submission and recommendations of the Ministerial Task Team (MTT) on the Strategic Review of Unisa as well as written and face-to-face engagements between the Minister and the Unisa Council.
In the same way that it supported and cooperated with the work of the MTT, the university once again promised and committed that it would provide its full support and co-operation to the Independent Assessor in fulfilling the mandate outlined by the Minister.
At the same time, the university believes that this is the correct platform and approach to address the hurdles and blames besetting Unisa once and for all. To this end, the university will engage directly and only with the processes outlined by the Independent Assessor.
The Principal and Vice-Chancellor and the Management Committee (ManCom) of the university are committed to transparency and will update the university’s knowledge communities on all the processes to be entailed and as they unfold, as communicated by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET).
Unisa also posted on their official Twitter account about their welcoming decisions. They clearly stated, “Unisa welcomes the decision by the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Dr Blade Nzimande, to appoint an Independent Assessor.”
LenkaBula, Vice-chancellor of Unisa, also retweeted one of the tweets of Unisa’s official page.
