Regional development
CHEC’s partnerships with the Western Cape Government (WCG), the City of Cape Town (CCT), Accelerate Cape Town (ACT) and the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Colleges in the Western Cape contribute to the development of the Western Cape as a learning region. These strategic partnerships constitute an integral part of the so-called third mission of our regional universities, namely, to be responsive institutions with a systematic approach to transformative social impact.
To date, the partnerships with the WCG and the CCT have focused on small research projects where academic researchers “partner” with government staff on projects that contribute to government priorities. While the government partner sets the agenda for the research calls, academics have considerable autonomy in shaping their responses to the call. Interdisciplinary and multi-institutional projects are encouraged.
The Western Cape Government
Origins and purpose of the partnership
Following a summit with the Cabinet and Premier of the then WCG held on 16 October 2006 (view the report on CHEC – Provincial Government Summit 2006), a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed. Its key objectives are to:
- establish structures that enable the Western Cape institutions and the Provincial Government to develop and implement shared strategies for advancing social and economic development;
- promote the Western Cape as a ‘Learning Region’, which can be used to attract people to the region to study and contribute to growth and development in the Western Cape province;
- facilitate the regular sharing of information on the plans of higher education institutions and the Provincial Government;
- develop a three-year plan to address the mutually agreed strategic initiatives; and
- strengthen the contribution of higher education to the provincial economy.
Members of the WCG joined CHEC representatives on the Barcelona leg of a study tour to the North-West and North-east of England and Barcelona in 2009. The tour enabled the group to study best practice with regard to higher education partnerships with government, business and civil society (Report to the CHEC Board: Preliminary visit to Barcelona, 2009).
The Joint Task Team
CHEC’s partnership with the WCG is coordinated by the Joint Task Team (JTT), co-chaired by Dr Hildegard Fast in the Department of the Premier and Mr Mawethu Nyakatya of Stellenbosch University. The JTT consists of a representative from each of the universities, the CHEC CEO and representatives from relevant provincial departments.
Meetings are held every six weeks and include discussions on the government’s Vision-Inspired Priorities (find out more), the research grants and other partnership events (such as workshops, projects and roundtables).
The Innovation Grants and Annual Research Grants
For the past decade, the JTT has awarded grants to the value of R500 000 to several small research projects each year. In the past six years, an amount of R100 000 has also been set aside for an annual Innovation Grant. In 2021, it was agreed that the full amount of R 500 000 would be awarded to one larger project on Regional Innovation Systems (RISs). This decision was in line with the JTT’s adoption of a more strategic approach to the partnership.
The 2021 CHEC / WCG grant was awarded to Dr J. Becker and his team from UWC and SU for a multiphase project that will investigate global and local RISs, develop a model for the WCG for further review by experts, and consider the RIS sectors with the highest potential in the provincial economy.
CHEC is in the process of developing a repository for project reports.
The After-School Game Changer Grant and Symposium
In addition to the general WCG research grants, CHEC also collaborates with the After-School Game Changer Programme of the Western Cape’s Education Department, through the administration of a research programme that aims to support practitioners and researchers to collate and share existing data on good practice related to after-school programmes or extended education.
This collaboration has led to the development of various research reports, as well as an After-School Game Change Symposium that was hosted by Stellenbosch University in October 2020. The Symposium provided a valuable opportunity to bring together actors in the ASP sector with academics and researchers and policy makers, to reflect on research findings and their implications for a more equitable education ecosystem. One of the envisaged outcomes of the Symposium was to build a community of practice of researchers interested in the sector in order to stimulate new research.
Symposium on Gender-Based Violence
On 15 September 2020, the WCG partnered with CHEC to host a virtual Gender Symposium. The objective of the event was to bring together the Western Cape universities’ researchers, government officials and practitioners to build on the existing knowledge and evidence-base on gender issues with the goal to mainstream approaches to gender-based violence in the Western Cape. The event built on previous recent engagements in the WCG to strengthen the whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach to gender-based violence (GBV). The event was opened by Minister Sharna Fernandez, who is the WCG lead on GBV, while CHEC Board Member and University of Cape Town Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Transformation, Prof Loretta Feris, provided a welcome address on behalf of CHEC.
Speakers from both academia and practice included Prof Thuli Madonsela (University of Stellenbosch), Bridgette Mdangayi (National Business Initiative), Shehnaz Cassim Moosa (City of Cape Town) and Sixolile Ncobo (Commission on Gender Equality) to name but a few.
The City of Cape Town
Origins and purpose of the partnership
Following a successful colloquium with the City of Cape Town in November 2007, a committee was constituted to take this partnership forward through the identification of strategic projects between CHEC and the City of Cape Town. Proposals for projects were developed in the fields of human resources, ICT and the physical environment.
These areas were endorsed at a follow-up meeting with the leadership of the City and the universities on 20 October 2008, at which a Collaboration Protocol was signed. (View the Collaboration Protocol.)
The purpose of the Collaboration Protocol is to:
- Achieve growth and development related to social, economic and environmental goals within the city’s boundaries and to realise the full potential of the city;
- Build a more skilled and skilful citizenry, equipped to contribute effectively to the development of our democracy and the growth of the economy;
- Consolidate Cape Town’s status as a ‘rising urban star’ and the prime centre for higher education in Africa.
While the original Collaboration Protocol has been extended on a three-yearly basis since 2013, the intention of the partnership remains the same, as listed above.
The Standing Committee
This partnership is co-ordinated by a Standing Committee which is jointly chaired by Professor Dina Burger of CPUT for CHEC and Ms Carol Wright, Manager: Development Information, for the City of Cape Town. Representatives from each of the universities sit on the Standing Committee.
Joint Research Programme
The Standing Committee oversees the Joint Annual Research Programme which funds research projects from researchers at the four public universities within the framework of the Programme of Action between CHEC and the CCT. The Standing Committee introduced the first three-year cycle of research grant funding for projects that are aligned to the CCT strategic priorities in 2015/6. As with the CHEC – WCG partnership, both single institutional and multi-institutional projects are funded.
In 2021, and then again in 2022, the CHEC / CCT Joint Standing Committee circulated a research call in line with the current context of the global pandemic and response and recovery imperatives. While the over-arching theme is that of building resilience, university researchers were asked to consider this in terms of the following focus areas:
The 2022 CHEC – CCT research call and the application forms can be found here. Please note that the closing date for submissions is 15 July 2022.
Accelerate Cape Town (ACT)
CHEC has been a member of Accelerate Cape Town since October 2014. During 2020, the process of developing a closer relationship between CHEC and Accelerate Cape Town has focused on collaboration around a specific project, namely the CHEC Dual Higher Education project. On 12 March 2020, Accelerate Cape Town held a workshop with CHEC where the DHEP was introduced to a well-attended business and university audience. Prof Josef Gochermann, DHEP German partner and expert in dual higher education from Osnabrück University in Germany delivered the keynote on the European model of Dual Higher Education followed by an introduction of CHEC and the DHEP by Prof Martin Oosthuizen and Dr Sharman Wickham respectively. Pursuant to the workshop, Accelerate Cape Town and CHEC held a follow-up webinar with the same audience on 8 July 2020. The aim of the webinar was to provide an opportunity for a follow-up discussion between business and academia, in order to catalyse the engagement by the formal business community in the Western Cape around the DHEP.
Due to the close relationship between the CHEC Dual Higher Education Project and ACT, Dr Antoinette Smith-Tolken currently represents CHEC on the ACT Council. The ACT Council oversees workstreams relating to Government Engagement, Transformation, Leadership Practice, Talent, and the Western Cape Economic Ecosystem. The workstream on the Western Cape Economic Ecosystem is significant for CHEC’s vision of supporting the creation of the Western Cape as a learning region, and provides an enabling mechanism for supporting innovative collaborative projects between CHEC, the regional public and business sectors.
TVET Colleges
Following a meeting on 30 August 2021, CHEC and the DHET Regional Office currently are exploring the following areas of collaboration:
- Capacity development of senior management at TVET Colleges.
- Collaborative provision of higher education qualifications, especially Higher Certificates.
- The development of articulation pathways in specified qualification pathways.
- The possible sharing of resources.
