CHEC is the longest existing regional consortium in South Africa. It was established in 1993 and has continued to expand and thrive where other regional consortia have disappeared.
In 1993, on the eve of South Africa’s democratic revolution, the Councils of the five institutions in the Western Cape formed a legal body called the Western Cape Tertiary Institutions Trust. The three member universities and two technikons were to be the “beneficiaries”’ of the Trust which was established to “facilitate and expand co-operation between the beneficiaries with regard to the sharing of infrastructure, such as libraries, information technology, training of personnel, as well as any other form of co-operation which may be beneficial to any of the parties...” This was their response to the twin challenges of meeting increasing demands with decreasing resources and promoting equity between the partners.
The new body was known as the Adamastor Trust and partners were the Cape Technikon, Peninsula Technikon, Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape. Dr James Leatt, who served until his retirement in 2006, was the first “Executive Consultant”.
By 1997, the Adamastor Trust was pursuing a more systemic approach to regional collaboration that moved beyond infrastructural projects such as library automation, which had been an important first focus. A strategic vision statement was adopted that read:
“Through the establishment of a co-ordinated, cost-effective regional system, to promote quality higher education in the Western Cape which is responsive to historical realities and challenges, with an extended influence beyond the region.”
Early sorties into strategic academic programme collaboration were challenging and largely unsuccessful and required CHEC to examine both its desired goals and its strategies towards attaining them. The lesson learned was that voluntary, regional, inter-institutional organisations are inherently fragile and precarious. They depend for their success on crafting rules and conventions for co-operation between autonomous and competing institutions.
Following this period of reflection, the Vice-Chancellors of the then five institutions signed a revised vision document in the form of a public Compact on 3 December 2001 in which they committed their institutions to implement the vision and to certain principles of behaviour towards each other. The name of Cape Higher Education Consortium (CHEC) was adopted.
(On 1 January 2005, Cape Technikon and Peninsula Technikon merged to form the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, thus reducing the five institutions making up CHEC to four.)
A discussion paper (September 2002) provides a useful overview of policy and thinking on systemic regional collaboration at that time. The direction provided therein has continued to shape CHEC’s thinking.
In its early years, CHEC’s work was largely concerned with academic collaboration. Over the past few years, although its collaborative work continues, CHEC has been developing an interest in triple helix relationships (academia, government and business) and the role of higher education in regional development. It has also been drawn into various initiatives to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the region.
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