Pre-empting the challenges of transformation and marketisation of higher education: A case study of the Rand Afrikaans University

With the advent of the marketisation of higher education and the change to a democratic dispensation, South African universities find themselves facing budgetary constraints that need to be reconciled with the transformation of previous bastions of elitism into institutions accommodating and representing all South Africans. The Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) was founded in 1967 to provide Christian National education for white working-class Afrikaans-speaking students and its first vice-chancellor was a leading member of the Broederbond. Although this ethos tended to dominate university policy and practices until fairly recently, the university has at the same time been involved in innovations with regard to teaching since its inception. This paper focuses on recent changes that have taken place at RAU. It analyses the role of marketisation in facilitating changes in the student composition and forms of delivery in particular and evaluates the extent to which these trends contributed to promoting transformation at the university.