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Observations and Conclusions: 

The Process  
Defining the Mission 
Implementation and Monitoring  
Requirements for Successful Strategic Planning  
Recommendations  
  

1. Schedule of Meetings 
2. Participants at the Workshop in Johannesburg 
3. Universities’ Mission Statements:  

University of Botswana 
University of Ghana 
University of the North 
University of Pretoria 
University of Western Cape 
University of Zambia 

The focus of this study centered on whether or not Strategic Planning had provided significant benefits to representative African universities that had engaged in the process. To that end, six institutions were visited: the University of Botswana, the University of Ghana, the University of the North, the University of Pretoria, the University of Western Cape, and the University of Zambia. 

The most striking repetitive elements that ran through the discussions on all six campuses were the vigor with which Strategic Planning was defended and the fervor with which it was praised even where the exercise had begun with considerable resistance and had ended some distance from the stated goals. While Strategic Planning took on the shadings and contours of the different prevailing academic, political and fiscal conditions at each university, the following advantages, among others, were frequently identified everywhere as worthy of note:  
 

1. It had directed an institution's eye to the future instead of the past. It spoke of hope instead of nostalgia. 
2. It had decentralized responsibility for the efficient use of resources. Academics and staff had been given an increased awareness that if money is spent in one place, it cannot be spent in another. The husbanding of funds was not "their" task; it was "our" task. The result had been a wiser use of resources. 
3. It had given arguments in the setting of priorities a solid base of data and facts while, in the wisest instances, it had not asked figures to do more than they were ever intended to do, and had allowed space for shared hopes. However, it had also taken the shine off the notion that to the articulate go the spoils. Talking a good game was no longer enough; you now had to play a good game as well. 
4. It had rendered decision making more accountable. Managerial actions, especially those that affected individuals adversely, were expected to be transparent and supported by reasons. 
5. While the above benefits have been traced in all universities visited, they have, predictably, been writ larger on some campuses than on others. The causes for the levels of success were many, but it became clear that those universities blessed with a leadership committed to Strategic Planning and with an Institutional Research and Planning Unit staffed with technically knowledgeable officers were far better poised for success than were those operating without the benefit of one or the other or both of these advantages.  

Recommendations:  
 

1. That Strategic Planning continue to be advocated and supported as an effective manage-ment tool. That all funds contributed to develop a university that has engaged in Strategic Planning be demonstrably linked to that university's stated Mission and goals. 
2. That Strategic Planning be encouraged as an effective management tool in those universities that have not yet engaged in the process especially if there is in the university: 
• An internal leadership committed to Strategic Planning and to the involvement of all the stakeholders in the process ; and  
• A skilled planning staff and technical support for systems analysis.
The process is facilitated if the institution is also able to set aside from its budget or obtain from other sources a minimum of funding to initiate Strategic Planning, including institutional data collection and analysis, and for the implementation and subsequent monitoring of its consequences. In the discussions, a figure of $100,000 over three years was suggested for a planner/analyst, data-gatherer, computer, and computer software. 
 
Furthermore, it is suggested that other conditions, such as the following, which are usually also regarded as necessary for engaging in strategic planning, could in fact be attained or successfully negotiated as a result of the strategic planning process itself: 
 

• a stable university environment that is not at the mercy of frequent crises and extreme/unhealthy conflicts; 
• an appropriate degree of institutional autonomy; and
• a governmental leadership that is supportive of university planning and innovation and appropriate autonomy.
3. That Strategic Planning be advanced by practical means such as: 

The study presented in this report was carried out at the instance of the Association for the Development of African Education / Working Group on Higher Education (DAE/WGHE) to assess what the accomplishments of strategic planning have been in the African universities that have engaged in the exercise.  

For the assignment, six representative universities were selected : The University of Botswana, The University of Ghana, The University of the North, The University of Pretoria, The University of the Western Cape, and the University of Zambia.  

The University of Botswana which was founded in 1982 by an Act of the Parliament of Botswana grew out of the former University of Botswana and Swaziland and the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. It offers programmes in the faculties of Humanities, Social Sciences, Education, and Science. The Faculty of Engineering and Technology was established by incorporating the former Botswana Polytechnic in 1996. The University has approximately 7,000 students, about 4,000 of whom are accommodated on campus. It is envisaged that it will support some 10,000 students by 2002/3 at the end of the current plan period. 
 

The University of Ghana started in 1948 as The University College of the Gold Coast under a Special Relationship arrangement with the University of London which supervised the academic programmes of the college and awarded the qualifications of the university to successful students of the college until the college attained the status of a full fledged University in 1961. It is the largest of the Universities in Ghana and currently has faculties of Arts, Agriculture, Law, Social Studies, Science and the Schools of Medicine and Administration. In addition there are five research institutes: Institute of Adult Education, Institute of African Studies, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, and Regional Institute for Population Studies. During the 1994/95 academic year full-time student enrolment was nearly 7,000. 

Established in 1959 under the apartheid regime of the former government of South Africa, the University of the North was meant to serve only the Black ethnic groups concentrated largely in what is now the Northern Province of South Africa. Because of its refusal to be associated with the apartheid policies of the then government, including the homeland policy, the university accepted Black students from all over the country resulting in overcrowding which is today one of the most serious threats to the institution. The official number of students currently enrolled stands at approximately 15,000 in a facility meant for about 7,000 students. The impact of this on strategic planning cannot be ignored.  
 

The University of Pretoria was established in 1908 and became an Afrikaans medium University in 1932. Presently the university is the largest of the 19 residential universities in South Africa and has more than 26,000 students with about 6,000 studying on a part time basis. More than 7,000 students are enrolled for postgraduates studies. The university offers study programmes in eleven faculties i.e. Arts, Natural Sciences, Agriculture, Law, Theology, Economics and Business Sciences, Veterinary Science, Education, Medicine, Dentistry and Engineering. A total number of 5,500 students graduated in 1995 of which 600 were at the masters level and 114 doctorates. The university offers a large number of courses and study programmes in English to accommodate an increasing number of students from the non-Afrikaans speaking community. In 1995, the university also embarked on a distance education programme for students wishing to study for a further Diploma in Education. More than 5,000 students were enrolled for this programme in 1995. An extension in distance education programmes is envisaged by the university in the near future. 

The University of the Western Cape (UWC) was established in 1960 as the University College of the Western Cape for ‘coloured’ (mixed race) people as an extension of the government’s policy of apartheid. From 1973 on, the student community at UWC began to challenge the system. The appointment of the first black rector (Prof. van der Ross) saw the beginning of a power struggle between a group of white conservatives in Senate and Administration on the one hand and the junior (mostly black) staff and a growing core of senior staff on the other hand. By 1982, the latter grouping was able to win support in Senate and Council for a statement of goals and objectives -- subsequently referred to as the Mission Statement -- which repudiated the politico-ideological grounds on which UWC had been based; defined the co-existence of First and Third World lifestyles as an insistent fact of South African Society, and committed the university to broadening access to university education and to the service of Third World communities in South Africa. In 1984, the University achieved full autonomy and in 1987 Prof. Jakes Gerwel was appointed Rector and added further momentum to the process of transformation within the university. Prof. Gerwel resigned in May 1994 to take up the position of Director General in the President’s office. The current Rector was appointed in September 1995. 
 

The University of Zambia was founded by Act of Parliament in 1965, and enrolled its first students in March 1966 in the three schools of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Natural Sciences. Six other schools were subsequently established: Law, Engineering, Medicine, Agricultural Sciences, Mines, and Veterinary Medicine. The university also established several research institutes, bureaux and centres. A School of Graduate Studies was established in 1990. The university has a full time undergraduate student enrolment of about 4,500, which number is projected to reduce to around 3,500 by 1998, in view of the current decisions to reduce enrolment. It is one of two universities in Zambia, the other being the Copperbelt University. which used to form part of the University of Zambia as a constituent campus for Business, Environmental Studies and Technology, until it was given full university status in 1979. Following reorganisation, the school of Graduate Studies has been transformed into a Directorate of Research and Graduate Studies. 

Before they embarked on strategic planning in the strict sense, the universities had engaged in various forms of development planning which guided their physical and academic development especially in the early years of their establishment. Thus in the University of Ghana as in other universities which were set up in similar models in Anglophone Africa, there were 5-yearly development plans with 3-year rolling funding projections. Government subventions were largely in accordance with the approved plan projections and were paid quarterly in advance. By 1975 an Academic Planning Committee was set up with an Academic Planning Unit to service it. With the declining economic fortunes of the country in the 1980’s and decreasing Government revenues, grants to the University not only declined but became  

unpredictable and were paid monthly in arrears. They often were barely more than what was needed to pay salaries and provide student welfare services. Planning could not be sustained under these circumstances. There was a similar scenario in the University of Zambia. 

Strategic planning is not primarily concerned with setting out what an organisation proposes to do or the activities which it wishes to engage in and how it intends to carry them out. Rather it is conceptualised as a tool for the management of an organisation, especially in circumstances when there are "unknowns, opportunities, and threats." It came into prominence through its widespread application by private sector companies in the United States of America (USA) from where it spread to other countries. Only relatively recently has its application been extended to the management of higher education institutions. This too was pioneered in the USA and was subsequently widely experimented with, adopted, and accepted in universities in other parts of the world. Two essential features of strategic planning are: 

Towards the close of the decade of the 1980’s the Government of Ghana embarked on major reforms of the country’s education system. This included reform of tertiary education, the framework and direction of which were embodied in a Government White Paper on Reform of the Tertiary Education System published in 1991. It was in the midst of the implementation of these reforms that on the initiative of the Vice-Chancellor, the University decided in 1992 to embark on Strategic Planning. A major input to the exercise was the framework and objectives set out in the Government White Paper.  

Similarly in the University of Zambia the economic crisis of the 1980’s which resulted in drastic cuts in Government financial support and "the austerity measures associated with the economic structural adjustment programme for the country" created special hardships for the University. These included resultant staff losses, and deterioration of physical facilities and the academic environment, as well as threats to the quality of education and the range of services which the University could offer. The University was said to be drifting with no clear sense of direction. It was in this environment "characterised by inadequate resources and unpredictable funding" that the University decided to seek external assistance to review its operations. The consultants for the exercise recommended a strategic plan that would review the University’s mission, re-focus its objectives, and set new targets within the overall Government policy on higher education, a policy which however at the time does not seem to have been clearly articulated, in order to effectively utilise available resources. 

Among the obstacles to strategic planning in the two institutions, perhaps the most important was scepticism among their staff, about planning in circumstances of unpredictable funding. Another obstacle was inadequate management information and planning data. It is a tribute to the leadership of the Vice-Chancellors of the two institutions, their senior colleagues and members of their strategic planning task groups, and a credit to their faith in strategic planning, that in spite of these obstacles the process was successfully carried out and strategic plans of credible quality produced. The most significant achievement of the process seems to have been to restore to their institutions a sense of direction and a vision for the future which is shared by their constituents including especially their governments. Other than the inability of their governments, for economic reasons, to assure resources to fund the plan, there is no evidence of government obstruction of the strategic plan or desire to control or steer the process in any of the two institutions. 

In Botswana, which has not suffered the trauma of economic collapse and a structural adjustment programme, there has been no interruption in its 5-6 yearly national planning process. Since its establishment, the University of Botswana has prepared periodic University plans which are considered as a component of and are incorporated into the government’s 5-6 year National Development Plans (NDP). This has been a government requirement for all organisations (parastatals) receiving government subvention. The University plan is formulated within the framework of the Macro-economic Outline provided by the government for the purpose of the preparation of the NDP. 

Prior to the current plan for the NDP 7, the University plan was largely for growth and expansion, with a clear mandate to produce more human resources in more fields for the country. While funding continues to be on the whole adequate, government "generosity" to the University seems to have begun to decline. Apparently concerned to avoid the conditions and calamity in universities elsewhere in Africa, the University began for its current plan to approach its planning in strategic planning terms -- asking questions in terms of mission, priorities, and focus. 

The context of strategic planning in South Africa has been the transformation of the country since the end of apartheid. Each university in the country has set up what is known as a Broad Transformation Forum or Committee comprising representatives of statutory bodies and identified stakeholders and constituents, to negotiate and oversee the transformation of the institution from its previous apartheid structure. In some of the universities, including some whose strategic planning is reviewed in this study, there seems to be confusion and conflict of roles between the broad transformation process and the traditional functions of such structures as Senate and Council, whereby some stakeholders (notably sections of the student body) have challenged the legitimacy and primacy of the statutory university bodies. The situation has affected and disrupted almost all aspects of university life especially the strategic planning process. In the University of the North, the conflict seems to have been satisfactorily managed, even if not totally resolved, and the separate and complementary roles and mandates of the Broad Transformation Committee vis-à-vis the statutory structures of the University appear to have been agreed upon and mutually recognised. This has enabled the strategic planning process to proceed towards approval and adoption of the plan by Senate and Council. 

The University of Western Cape has had a history of academic and physical planning dating back to 1984 and involving various initiatives and phases. Despite a record of intense planning activities between 1984 and 1994 and the major advances which were made, these were followed by a loss of impetus. The delay in consolidating these earlier efforts into a coherent product seems to have been due to the departure of the previous Rector and the length of time that it took to replace him. The process has also been further disrupted in part by the current conflicts over the Broad Transformation process. 

The University of Pretoria has similarly had a record of strategic planning which has however been unbroken since 1984. It was concerned with improving efficiency and effectiveness and initially involved only the Rectorate, Deans and senior managers. The current Strategic Planning Document 1993-1997 is the first to result from "systematic planning and consultation in which the various faculties and support services were involved." Consequently a strong planning infrastructure was already built up and by the time that the demand for transformation came, the framework was there which, with visionary leadership, seemed to have enabled the University to manage the change smoothly. 

  
The central question to be answered at the end of this assignment was whether or not Strategic Planning had provided significant benefits to representative universities that had engaged in the process. To that end, six African universities were visited: The University of Botswana, The University of Ghana, The University of the North, The University of Pretoria, The University of Western Cape, and The University of Zambia. The following questions served as guideline in the framing and directing of discussions held with the administrators, faculty, and students who were interviewed during the site visits. (For a schedule of meetings at all universities, see Appendix 1.)  

A. DESIGNING A PROCESS 

The effectiveness of transformation is often in direct proportion to the number of persons who see themselves as agents of that transformation. The purpose of the following questions is to assess the degree to which all members of the university community were invited to participate in the process of strategic planning; were provided with the information needed to arrive at reasoned conclusions; and were changed as a consequence of the exercise.  

A Mission Statement is a clear and honest expression of a university's unifying vision. If it is well written, it points to those features that give an institution its character, its identity. In short, what a good Mission Statement does is make the university's end manifest. It works as a standard against which the relevance and significance of all programs and projects and proposals are weighed and measured. The purpose of the following questions is to determine the extent to which the university community understands and endorses the Mission Statement.  

Those who advocate strategic planning believe it extremely unlikely that we will revisit a time when any one university can aspire to be all things to all people. Hence, it behooves each academic institution to establish priorities and to do only those things that are most needed in the community it serves, and only those things that it stands a chance of doing well. For intellectual mediocrity serves no one; in the world of academe, a half loaf is not better than none. The purpose of the following questions is to judge whether universities have, indeed, set priorities, and whether they do, indeed, honor them. 

Accountability, once the burden only of those who answered to authority, is now viewed as the responsibility of all individuals and institutions. The "droit de seigneur" is a very obscure right these days. Hence, all universities and those who share in the governance of them, are expected to demonstrate that they are worthy of the trust placed in them. "How do you know you know?" is the often vexing question that can no longer be answered with a simple authoritative demeanor. Some institutions have resisted this new state of affairs with more vigor than others, but all have had to consider it. The following questions are meant to draw responses that should show whether or not a university has seriously thought of self- assessment with regard to strategic planning.  

  
THE PROCESS 

To examine the consequences of planning at any one university is to be reminded that Strategic Planning is a tool. It does not confer skills on its users; but it does provide them with suggested structures and practices that are likely to enhance their ability to analyze conditions, to express a vision, to formulate goals, and to persuade a campus community to promote the advancement of its institution in a clearly enunciated and systematically programmed manner. In the hands of the creative and the committed, it is a powerful tool; in the hands of the unimaginative and the uncommitted, it can turn into a cumbersome, awkward tool that works only by fits and by starts before sputtering to a halt.  
 

Among the lessons related to the skills of leadership reinforced during the course of this study were the following:  

One of the significant advantages to a strategic plan which has been approved by the majority within an institution is that it most likely will survive the upheaval of leadership change. For a good plan to which the majority has subscribed resembles in one way what biologists call an "evolutionarily stable strategy" :it is to every individual's advantage to maintain it -- unless it can be bettered by an alternative strategy. An environmental change can bring about short-term instability, but once strategic planning is achieved little but external catastrophic events is apt to destroy it. The reason is simple: everyone's success is maximized by the effort of working together toward mutually desirable goals. And since by its very nature strategic planning allows, indeed calls for, constant vigilance, analysis, and adjustment, the possibility of introducing ever more creative efforts is encouraged while the concept of planning as opposed to not planning is maintained. All analogies over-simplify, and this one is no exception. However, they do provide us with fresh ways of approaching ideas that have perhaps begun to show their age. 
 

While the purpose of this study was not to examine the success of strategic planning at each of the targeted universities, it is important to point out that Strategic Planning in these institutions took on the shadings and contours of their contexts. The expected revealed itself from the start: the process of Strategic Planning ran more smoothly here than there; was less contentious there than here; provided a direct flight in one place and a number of bumpy take-offs and landings in another. And these different experiences were due in no small part to the different prevailing academic, political and fiscal conditions that led to an understanding of the differentiating cultures of each of the campuses visited. 
 

For instance, at the University of Botswana with its established practice of linking its own visions of the future with those of the government's five-year renewable efforts, the habit of planning was already well rooted before the advent of Strategic Planning. Even its traditional mid-five-year term review supported the Strategic Planning conviction that flexibility and assessment are essentials of progress. There the planning process proceeds systematically from individual academic departments to all-university coordinating groups to the national planning agencies. Thus a culture of planning informs data gathering and decision-making, and what Strategic Planning has done is refined the methodologies and distributed the responsibility for effective management. When a university's planning process begins with a government's report on the state of the economy, and when a university's plan is actually debated before being approved by government, one can without much ado convince a campus community of the importance of planning, and, just as importantly, persuade it that to defer an ambition is not to deny it.  
 

This is not to say that Strategic Planning in this instance will soon solve the University of Botswana's problem with continuity due to its over-dependence on rotating expatriate faculty; nor is it to say that dining with scarcity is as pleasant as dining with plenty; but it is to state that a well-conceived and united effort is far superior to a slipshod divided one. 
 

It is important to note that few, if any, institutions have the luxury of deciding whether to initiate strategic planning by dealing first with the internal or the external obstacles to its development. To determine to focus on one to the neglect of the other is to fail to see how the two are intertwined. The external community is not likely to loosen the constraints to the full development of an institution that is without a well-conceived plan for its own advancement; and the internal community is not likely to show much enthusiasm for cooperative efforts with external agencies when it is without the conviction that the institution itself knows precisely what it would like its future to look like. The battle must be waged on both fronts simultaneously and a good strategic plan will engage both communities in understanding the relationship of one to the other. 
 

The context at the University of Western Cape is vividly, even dramatically, of a different hue. Long years of struggle against a discriminatory government has inculcated in some certain habits of opposition and stances of resistance that add depths of complexity to any effort at reaching consensus on the formulation and achievement of goals. The University of Western Cape may be among the universities in South Africa that best illustrate the urgent need to link the purposes of Broad Transformation Forums to those of Strategic Planning. For both efforts, after all, speak to change, to shared decision-making, and to the widest possible dissemination of information about all aspects of a campus community.  
 

At the very core of successful Strategic Planning lies a fundamental conviction: the good of the whole exceeds in importance the good of any of its parts. It is an approach that is significantly optimistic in that it asserts the possibility of creating a culture where priorities are agreed upon, and of encouraging a climate within which colleagues rejoice, not only in their own accomplishments, but in the accomplishments of others in the belief that the success of one redounds to the success of all. Hence, as it stands, Strategic Planning is hampered, if not crippled, by an opposing spirit on the part of some engaged in transformation who view the struggle for change as the struggle for power of one stakeholder against another. The first might describe sacrifice as noble; the second as weakness. The clash between these two perspectives should not be dismissed as some passing moment of sound and fury in the history of an institution, for even if it most assuredly will end -- for all things do -- while it lasts it all too often leads to any number of distractions and false starts and diversions away from the main charge of higher learning, namely, higher learning.  
 

To the University of Western Cape, as to other universities in South Africa, has been assigned the daunting task of dealing with both of these diverging philosophical approaches simultaneously to the great good end of reducing their tensions in the short term and harmonizing their objectives in the long term. It is only within this context, and with the knowledge that the university was without an appointed Rector for nearly two years, that one can begin to appreciate fully the University of Western Cape's refusal to be deterred from Strategic Planning. While it continues to be without a document called, Strategic Planning, and while its revised Mission Statement is still in draft form, it has engaged in serious planning since 1984, and in 1992 established an Academic Planning Unit which, among other things, has provided valuable research in support of decision making. Furthermore, without waiting for the formal all-university plan, the vast majority of academic departments and support units have engaged in strategic planning exercises of their own and have tied their plans to informal understandings that continue to drive the university in its determination to serve the underprivileged members of its community and its nation. Indeed, this concept of enfranchising the previously disenfranchised through knowledge may well end up being the force that will lead to a unifying end. Conditions do often call for unorthodox modes and this university has been creative and courageous in pursuing them. 
 

As yet another example of the significance of context in Strategic Planning, the University of Pretoria is as far removed from the University of Botswana as the University of Botswana is from the University of Western Cape. However, if good Strategic Planning calls for a perpetual awareness that allows an institution to respond quickly and appropriately to environmental changes, the University of Pretoria can be described as a paradigm of strategic alertness. Since 1984 when Coopers and Lybrand drew attention to the university's excessive centralization, and since 1986 when a SWOT analysis revealed the university's isolation in serving primarily one segment of the nation's population, the leadership has worked toward instituting a culture of planning. Hence, the university was well prepared to respond to the new South Africa; and respond it has. Action plans, detailed and circulated as white papers, are in place for the entire university and for each of its units. Progress reports targeting each item in the Strategic Plan are brought before the Vice Rector and his Executives on a regularly assigned basis. A professionally run office for institutional research and planning is admirably active. The Strategic Plan is reexamined every year at a retreat for central administration. Units have been combined; programs eliminated. And all of this for one purpose only: to improve the university in its service to the country. The question raised over and over again centers on how things are done and how things might be improved. Management is convinced that the source of this forward looking attitude is the habits instilled by Strategic Planning which lead staff to examine assumptions that would otherwise remain undisturbed. 
 

Regardless of differentiating contexts, one can state unequivocally that Strategic Planning at all the universities visited has brought with it advantages that were not present before its advent. However smooth or bumpy, exhilarating or dull the journey toward planning has been, it has made converts of even the most skeptical. Among the many goods that the process has wrought to varying degrees everywhere, the following were most frequently identified as worthy of note. 

Additionally, one very specific obstacle to effective planning was isolated and its tell-tale residues detected here and there and, to some degree, virtually everywhere: the failure to prepare adequately the university community for its formal introduction; and the failure to involve a large enough representation of its members in the early stages of discussion. One, however, should handle this complaint with caution: in intense intellectual settings someone is always not being consulted. For instance, in one university where the complaint seemed most frequently lodged, the administrators claim to have worked hard to encourage many to participate in the opening efforts at serious planning, but had succeeded in dissipating apathy only after the campus began to see that decisions were, indeed, going to be linked to a Strategic Plan. The truth may lie, as it often does, somewhere in the folds of these opposing claims, but it is nevertheless true that those leaders who involved a broad segment of academics and staff and students at the birth of the process were more quickly successful than those who did not.  
 

Explicitly or implicitly an effective strategic plan accepts the premise that the whole matters more than any of its parts and that the parts must contribute to the whole. Advocates of strategic planning do not maintain that curricula could not be improved without it or that research could not be enhanced in solitary splendor. What they do maintain is that an institution that strives for inner consistency in all its divisions for the good of the whole is apt to be a better institution than one that does not. It is apt to use its resources more efficiently and apt to avert false starts and apt to profit from the talent of all its members. So the underlying value of strategic planning is linked to the HOW of change every bit as much as it is linked to the WHAT of change. Indeed, to arrive at the WHAT before visiting the HOW is to misunderstand strategic planning. And while the methods of consultation and participation will depend in part on the culture and traditions of governance in each institution, one should not hesitate to claim that more communication is better than less communication and that more participation is better than less participation. For if the aim is the advancement of the institution what possible viable objections could any leader put forth against the gathering of ALL ideas from ALL quarters for the improvement of the whole. Strategic planning calls for decision making -- at times, difficult decision-making -- but wise and successful strategic planning involves as many of those who will be affected by the decisions as possible. 
 

It is equally true that Strategic Planning is time consuming and time will be spent one way or the other: before or after the fact. The wise do it before. And part of the challenge is to persuade the members of the academic staff that planning is not an "add on" -- not something that they devote themselves to in addition to their other responsibilities, but something that they devote themselves to as part of their responsibilities. 
 

However, after all was said and done, all six campuses visited revealed a positive attitude toward Strategic Planning that apparently transcended procedures that may have been flawed; efforts that may have been half-hearted; timing or machinations that may have accounted in part for initial resistance. And while some quite clearly arrived at planning in response to command invitations from donor agencies, they remained because they became intellectually persuaded of its many advantages. 
 

DEFINING THE MISSION  

  
A good Mission Statement allows a university to establish a triage of efforts: this is essential to the mission of the institution; this is most valuable; this is desirable. I must have this; I would very much like to have this; wouldn't it be nice to have this. No wonder that the knowledgeable take the Mission Statement seriously and care greatly about its wording. And no wonder that reaching consensus on its form and texture is a major event. For all things flow from it. 

Five of the six universities visited had succeeded in rallying the community to the acceptance of a Mission Statement, and the sixth had a draft of one that it was confident was well on the road to approval. The contours of each document quite rightly reflected the culture of the campus in much the same way as had other elements of Strategic Planning. For while the principles of good practice in planning do not change significantly from setting to setting, certain purposes and methodologies will and should. The Mission Statement is a case in point.  

Anyone who lived through the academic senate debates on Mission Statements in the early stages of Strategic Planning in American universities has memories of its accompanying tensions and anxieties and frustrations tattooed on his/her consciousness. The visceral resistance to defining a university's purposes in that formal and precise a fashion was not due simply to the conviction that those who did not know the mission of a university had no business being in one; nor was it prompted solely by the notion that universities did not take pages from General Motors' book, but that General Motors read from the university's tome -- though it most assuredly had some link to both of these views. No, what the universities (especially the public ones) intuitively sensed was that the step that follows a Mission Statement is a curb on the duplication of programs and research. And, in point of fact, after the second world war American universities had spread across the land in a quite haphazard fashion; had grown in size to surprising proportions; and had lived through the golden age in a fairly cavalier manner. Excessive duplication as an unwise use of resources preoccupied very few administrators. As George Keller and others have pointed out, even behind the heavy oak doors of the largest and most prestigious universities one found no other plans but next year's budget -- always larger than this year's -- and a couple of architectural models for construction on the next building site. For many academics accepting the notion that the future did not perhaps promise an even more glorious present was as comfortable as sitting on burrs.  

However, Africa finds itself at its own and special moment in history -- not at the moment of any other country's history. The present needs of the people of Africa for higher education in a knowledge-intensive age are so great and the universities so few that the central purpose of a Mission Statement can but rarely be the elimination of duplicative efforts. The University of Botswana is the only university in Botswana; the University of Ghana at Legon and the University of the North in South Africa are long distances from other universities; the University of Zambia is the only comprehensive university in Zambia etc. Though one could argue that the main rewards of well conceived Mission Statements in African universities may in the long term include the prevention of unnecessary duplication, in the short term, the Mission Statements serve to unify all members of a campus community in a common and clear cause and act to establish a reference document for the setting of priorities. 
 

For instance, at the University of the North, which, as all other South African universities, has been seared by the fallout of apartheid (distracting struggles with the many forms of unrest within unions, militant student groups, and others), discussions surrounding the mission of the university has given structure to its transformation efforts. While the campus has to date completed but the first part of its "Strategic Plan", it has overcome all obstacles in reaching a unified vision that calls for a rededication to academic excellence and that details the goals by which it will assess its success. This accomplishment now allows it to proceed to the creation of action plans as a united team instead of competing factions.  
 

The danger on this campus, however, is that the worthy emotional reverberations that this chord has sounded may dissipate for lack of resources to keep playing it. Over and over again one heard the fear that the university might not be in a position to seize the day, for the planning's momentum depended far too heavily upon a leadership that needed additional support from technical expertise. The university is at present without a planning officer (though a search is underway); well-intended academic and non-academic units have nowhere to go for day to day assistance in planning; and though committed to planning for change, the respected Vice-Chancellor, by his own admission, could not respond to all the many demands placed upon him even were he given the gift of bi-location. The real danger in this instance, as in others, is that the enthusiastic support for a strongly articulated and specific Mission Statement and the Action Plans that follow might go the way of previous efforts: nowhere. Formal planning at the University of the North had been first introduced in 1983, but it went the way of all efforts that are not sustained. A second attempt two years ago met a different, but equally unfortunate fate due to unbearably high political tensions. A severe blow from which the university is quite clearly recovering. And everyone understands that the success of this third try is crucial. 
 

The University of the North attempted to assure that the Mission Statement of the university reflected the hopes and aspirations of its many constituents by opening preliminary discussions at a three-day summit for 100 representative stakeholders. This approach in re-thinking the central purposes of the university has served it well, for the campus community and the friends of the university outside its walls are all very sensitive to the principles of transparency and shared governance. The many stakeholders now appear to be committed to the university's mission, for the ownership is broad and deep, and the statement reflects shared values. The lesson is there for everyone to read: people will commit themselves only to a mission that speaks to their beliefs, their convictions, their dreams.  
 

In yet another instance, what drove the clear articulation of a Mission Statement at the University of Zambia was a familiar one in many countries: a serious funding crisis that spotlighted years of drifting in calm waters with no threats from shore. As a first line of defense, the university's broad vision of itself provides a guide to its main purposes, and the campus seems to subscribe both to its spirit and to its rhetoric. What is less clear, however, is whether the Statement meant to drive a detailed, systematic plan for the entire university does, indeed, do so. As one academic put it, "It's a pail of words" from which one fishes out what is needed to guide funds toward this or that project. Ironically, that may be precisely one of the main purposes of a Mission Statement. Nevertheless, after the talk and the tea, one is left with the impression that rank and file academics at the University have some distance to run before becoming convinced that Mission Statements have a dual function: contraction as well as expansion. 
 

The pace of the progress in this regard would accelerate were the University able to put in place a central Planning Office and to appoint a professional Planning Officer. However, resources are exceedingly scarce, e.g., the Library has been without a book budget for the past six years; the budget for the entire enterprise is allotted on a monthly basis. To support Mission Statements under such conditions calls for a high leap of faith. 
 

Having said that, one should quickly add that the University has demonstrated that faith in a dramatic move. It has shown great determination in adhering to that portion of the Mission Statement that refers to "the pursuit of excellence." Having concluded that the size of its entering class exceeded the institution's capacity to maintain academic quality, it dramatically lowered its enrollment. The move has restored the confidence of donors and the public; created class sizes that are within the acceptable range; allowed for the installation of a monitoring program that is meant to assess the student retention rate. All are agreed: none of this would have taken place without discussions centering on the Mission of the University. 
 

No institution long survives without some modicum of planning. But it may be fair to say that for many years universities favored loose reins and dull spurs. Take, for example, the University of Ghana. It had, in fact, engaged in some form of "looking ahead" since 1975 when its Academic Board established a Planning Unit to guide the future development of the University. Yet many will admit that the "planning" had for years been of the informal kind. Indeed, in the minds of some, planning was seen as a compilation of wish lists for government or donor agencies.  
 

In 1992 the informality of this process was recognized for what it was: inadequate to the task of managing resources wisely in a time of scarcity. At the urging of its Vice Chancellor, and on the heels of the Government's white paper on Tertiary Education Reforms, the University committed itself in earnest to its first Strategic Planning Exercise -- not, however, without serious skepticism and even some derision in many quarters. Nevertheless, the Vice-Chancellor and those who supported planning stayed the course, and SWOT studies led to a Mission Statement and the University's progress toward systematic analysis and the articulation of its vision and mission in a document called, VISION 2000 PLUS. Even hardened skeptics now seem to be approaching an acceptance of the value of a Mission Statement that has, with its focus on the establishment of Centers of Excellence, encouraged cost-saving creativity and cooperative endeavors among departments that had heretofore existed in self-imposed isolation.  

  
In sum, the Mission Statements of the six African Universities visited (including the draft Mission Statement at the University of Western Cape) were crafted in accordance with the practices that are generally accepted as effective. That is, they were written by joint committees that included representatives of most, if not all, stakeholders; they took care that the rhetoric led to action; their aims were within reasonable reach -- even if they exceeded their present easy grasp; and they reflected the aspirations and convictions of the campus' culture. 
 

With some luck, some political stability, and some reasonable resources, these Mission Statements should lead to decision-making where: 

IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING 

In all the universities whose strategic planning experience was reviewed, it was emphasised that strategic planning was not an end in itself. Especially in institutions where there had been widespread scepticism about its value, implementation is going to be crucial for assuring the credibility of the process. In the University of Zambia, the view was that "the real value of the plan will be measured by the extent to which, in an increasingly difficult economic environment, the institution is able to justify itself as being relevant and essential to national development." And in the University of Pretoria the Rector said that the process took so much effort that it should not be embarked upon unless there was the will to implement its outcome. In fact, there were wide differences in the extent to which the plans were implemented in the different universities visited. The different dates of completion and adoption of the plans need also to be taken into account:  

Botswana - 1991 

Pretoria - 1992 

Ghana - 1993 

Zambia - 1993 

University of the North - yet to be formally adopted. 

University of the Western Cape - yet to be formally adopted. 

No attempt was made in the study to carry out a detailed census of what was proposed in each plan and what was implemented. Instead the process of implementation was examined from the viewpoint of whether there are: 
 

• set targets and a time table;
• structures for monitoring implementation; and
• how the plan impacts on the budget process and resource allocation.

In the University of Botswana, where the approved plan seems to provide the guidelines for government subventions, the budget appears generally to be according to the proposals in the plan. The need was however acknowledged for bench marks towards evaluation and more rigorous, monitoring of programme implementation, and for needs assessment in the budget cycle, especially as the university was moving from developmental to strategic planning. The recently set up Division of Planning is expected to play a role in promoting this development. There are otherwise mid-term reviews of the plan in the middle of the plan period which inform allocations in the subsequent half of the plan period. 
 

On the other hand, the Ghana and Zambia plans prepared in an environment of inadequate and unpredictable funding, seemed to focus on attracting external resources to support on-going and new programme priorities. In the circumstance, even if an action plan with targets and a time table for implementation were prepared, as was done in the University of Ghana, these were hardly followed and no structures for monitoring of implementation have been put in place. There also seems to be little impact on allocation of regular budget resources. Nevertheless, the Zambia plan does seem to have created an institutional vision which is guiding the University in broad dimensions if not in detailed operational terms. It formed the basis on which enrolment has been successfully managed since the 1993/4 academic year, and a rationalisation of research institutes and bureaux was carried out. However, although the plan prescribes the minimum size for academic departments, no faculty has yet addressed the issue of non-viable departments. The process of devolving budget control to faculties has also been slow in taking off. 
 

The Ghana plan has mainly provided a focus for fund raising through increased awareness of the needs and priorities of the University. Besides targeting the support of the government and international donors, the strategic plan has been used to engage the support of alumni and other potential internal donors. It has given a new impetus to graduate work in the University, and driven an improvement in the level of enrolment of women students. Importantly, devolution of budget control to faculties has begun and is already making some impact in the faculties by encouraging savings which faculties are free to use to meet minor critical needs. 
 

When applied to the allocation of resources, the central goal of Strategic Planning is to establish priorities within the confines of the allocated budget and to remain poised to respond quickly and decisively to unexpected additional funding. It will come as no surprise, that institutions are, by and large, far more comfortable in dealing with the second of the twin ends than the first. Once a Mission Statement is agreed upon, a campus can ultimately differentiate between the essential and the desired, and in those instances, often referred to by advocates of Strategic Planning, a sound plan is of incalculable help. Where Strategic Planning may be arguably less useful, however, are in cases where universities must choose between the essential and the essential. If, for example, due to a lack of funds an institution is forced to select between a first rate engineering program and no agricultural program, as opposed to mediocre programs in both engineering and in agriculture, when it is the only university in the country offering the programs and its country is in dire need of both engineers and agriculturalists, Strategic Planning is mute. 

Though in very poor universities the visible connection between planning and the allocation of resources is often faint, the fault may lie in poverty itself. When there are no discretionary funds within the operating budget, the establishing of priorities as a sine qua non of Strategic Planning understandably resembles day dreaming. What is impressive, even touching, in the poorest of the universities is the seriousness with which they have taken to the application of management principles encouraged by Strategic Planning and the benefits (as described above)-- aside from those related to the allocation of resources -- that they have accrued from it. One is left, therefore, not decrying the fact that some of the oft-called "hard" choices have yet to be made, but imagining how effectively they might be made were the budget to permit the bare essentials for the massification of education. 

Hence, as has already been made clear, under conditions that can only be described as those of serious poverty, Strategic Planning can, and already has, brought about many of the advantages that a unified and articulate and decisive plan can bring. It can even promote among academics a sense of their being in charge of their own destiny in allowing for small decisions in the directing of small change. However, without adequate essential funds, whether it can truly allow a university to determine its own future in a meaningful way is problematic. There are pre-conditions to effective Strategic Planning, and funds essential undertake to the Mission is one of them. 

In the University of the North, although at the time of the visit to the institution for the study the plan was only being finalised for consideration by the Senate and the Council, the draft was already to be used as the framework for drafting the next budget and as a basis for the budget negotiations by the deans and senior management. It was also recognised that following the adoption of the plan, further work was necessary to prepare an Action Plan with goals and targets identification and a time frame, together with a structure to monitor implementation. There was also an increased awareness of the need for more professionalism and technical support in the plan preparation as well as implementation and monitoring processes. The University was expected to move shortly to hire the staff for such professional and technical support. The principal gain for the University in the exercise seems to have been a move from an environment of struggle and protest to "reclaim a culture of learning, debate, innovativeness and creativity." 

Although the University of the Western Cape still did not have a consolidated draft strategic plan at the time of the study, as earlier noted, there was in fact strategic "thinking" and considerable planning activity going on in the University. It was through strategic "thinking" that by 1982 the University adopted a statement of goals and objectives which rejected the apartheid basis on which it was founded and asserted its mission as that of broadening access to university education and "service to the Third World Communities in South Africa," resulting for instance in a new emphasis on academic development programmes, curriculum redesign, and significant increase in research productivity. This also led to the establishment of such units as the Educational Policy Unit (EPU), School of Government, Public Health Programme, Community Law Centre, and the Science and Mathematics Education Programme. What was lacking was a monitoring device that might have shown the University that in spite of the constraints under which it was operating, it was more successful than was generally realised and recognised, even within the institution, in facilitating learning and enhancing its quality. 

It is in the University of Pretoria where there is an Action Plan with targets and a time frame for the implementation of its Strategic Planning Framework. Goals are set for each year and a structure for monitoring is also in place supported by a highly professional Bureau of Institutional Research and Planning. The budget process is also driven by the plan and by the evaluation of progress in its implementation. The Bureau of Institutional Research and Planning collects and analyses management information and data towards a continuous assessment of the efficiency and effectiveness of each programme and unit. Strategic planning is an item on the agenda of every meeting of the senior management which is held weekly. Once a month senior management are provided with a list of action steps that have to be considered in that month in order to meet the goals and objectives set out in the framework document for strategic planning. Decisions are noted and conveyed to the persons who are identified and made responsible for pursuing the decisions. Senior management receives and reviews the reports on the action steps according to the time table in the plan. The budget process has also been restructured to be on the basis of real need and performance, linking resource allocation to output and need. Particular attention is being given to self assessment by the faculties and departments, focusing on questions such as: 
  

• What do we want to accomplish in respect of the fulfilment of the mission of the university?

• Which strategies are we applying in order to achieve each objective, and how can these be improved upon to increase efficiency and effectiveness? 

Preparatory work is going on towards eventual external evaluation of the self assessment of each unit. 
 

With this systematic and purposeful approach to its plan implementation and monitoring, and in response to the challenge of its changing external environment, some 32 academic departments have been merged or closed down and 9 research institutes as well as some degree programmes have been phased out. Examples are programmes in pharmacy, and in land surveying and mapping, which had become non-viable as a result of declining enrolment, and the Institute for Seed Research. New focal points have been identified resulting in the establishment of new units and interdisciplinary groups such as the Centre for Nutrition, the Veterinary Wildlife Unit, School for Information Technology, and Centre for Reconstruction and Development. Such restructuring has clearly demanded a high level of creative leadership and management. The University has also relocated itself from being an institution restricted to the Afrikaans-speaking community to one that seeks to serve not only its traditional support community but all of South Africa, and is vigorously reaching out to other communities in the country, as well as to southern Africa and to Africa as a whole. Importantly, the University has enhanced its ranking in the South African academic community in terms of research output and the quality and impact of its training. 

REQUIREMENTS FOR SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIC PLANNING 

From the experience of these and other universities, the requirements for successful strategic planning seem to be : 
 

• An internal leadership committed to Strategic Planning and to the involvement of all the stakeholders in the process ; and 

• A skilled planning staff and technical support for systems analysis.

Furthermore, it is suggested that other conditions, such as the following, which are usually also regarded as necessary for engaging in strategic planning, could in fact be attained or successfully negotiated as a result of the strategic planning process itself : 

• a stable university environment that is not at the mercy of frequent crises and extreme/unhealthy conflicts;
• an appropriate degree of institutional autonomy; and
• a governmental leadership that is supportive of university planning and innovation and appropriate autonomy.

It is recommended: 

1. That Strategic Planning continue to be advocated and supported as an effective management tool; that all funds contributed for the advancement of a university by donor agencies be demonstrably linked to that university's stated Mission and goals. 
 

2. That Strategic Planning be encouraged as an effective management tool in those universities that have not yet engaged in the process, especially if there is in the university : 

Furthermore, it is suggested that other conditions, such as the following, which are usually also regarded as necessary for engaging in strategic planning, could in fact be attained or successfully negotiated as a result of the strategic planning process itself: 
  

• a stable university environment that is not at the mercy of frequent crises and extreme/unhealthy conflicts;
• an appropriate degree of institutional autonomy; and
• a governmental leadership that is supportive of university planning and innovation and appropriate autonomy.

(a) Support for Institutional Research and Planning units. 

(b) Seminars for senior management on the role of leadership in Strategic Planning. 

Aug. 1, 2& 5 : Johannesburg  
- Consultations on Methodology 

Aug. 6 & 7 : University of the North  
Meetings with : 
- Academic Planning Officer and Dean of Management Science 
- Physical Planning Officer 
- Dean of Science, Dean of Agriculture and Dean of Theology 
- Vice-Chancellor 
- Dean of Education and Dean of Arts 
- President and Vice-President, Student Representative Council 

Aug. 7 - 9 : University of Botswana  
Meetings with : 
- Vice-Chancellor and Senior Administration Staff 
- Dean and staff of Engineering and Technology 
- Dean of Science 
- Dean of Education, Dean of Humanities, Dean of Social Sciences, and Dr B S Mguni (former Dean of Social Sciences) 
- University Librarian, Director of Continuing Education, and Director of Counselling 
- Dean of Graduate Studies 
- Director, National Institute of Development Research and Documentation who is also Secretary of the University Planning  Committee 

Aug. 12 : University of Pretoria  
Meetings with : 
- Principal 
- Vice-Principals, Registrar, and Directors of Support Services 
- Principal and Director of Information Technology 
 

Aug. 13 : Johannesburg  
- Preliminary review of findings and methodology. 

Aug. 14 - 16 : University of Zambia  
Meetings with : 
- Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Acting Vice-Chancellor) 
- Members of the Strategic Plan Task Team 
- Head of ZAMNET ( Computer Network ) 
- Head of Computer Centre 
- Dean and staff of School of Natural Sciences  
- University Librarian and senior staff of the University Library 
- Dean and department heads of School of Engineering 
- Prof M J Kelly, School of Education 

Aug. 18 - 20 : University of the Western Cape 
Meetings with : 
- Prof Renfrew Christie, Dean of Research 
- Prof Wally Morrow, Dean of Education 
- Prof Colin Bundy, Vice-Rector (Academic) and Chairperson of Academic Planning Committee 
- Prof Colin Johnson, Dean of Science 
- Prof Stan Ridge, Director of Public Affairs and Development 
- Prof C Abrahams, Rector 
- Dr Julian Smith, Registrar. 

Aug. 21 - 25 : University of Ghana 
Meetings with : 
- Registrar 
- Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Acting Vice-Chancellor) and members of the Strategic Planning Committee 
- J M Budu, Deputy Registrar (Planning) 

University of Botswana - Thabo T. Fako, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) 
University of Ghana - J. K. Amuzu, Department of Physics 
University of the North - M. A. Rampedi, Dean of Education 
University of Pretoria - P. J. Vermeulen, Director of Bureau for Institutional Research and Planning  
University of the Western Cape - Suraya Jawoodeen, Academic Planning Unit 
University of Zambia - D. Theo, Dean of Science 
Observer: - Richard Fehnel, Ford Foundation 
Facilitators: - Patricia R Plante 
- Donald Ekong 

The University of Botswana 
 
 

The University of Botswana is a young institution in a comparatively small developing country. It would not be feasible or cost-effective for it to teach all the required disciplines at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Although some training will continue to be done abroad, the University should be enabled to teach as many programmes as possible at Post-graduate and undergraduate levels bearing in mind of course the limiting factor of cost-effectiveness. Various strategies can be employed to enable the University to do this, among them, joint teaching with more established institutions and various forms of regional co-operation in teaching specialised and rather costly programmes. 

The University should aim at becoming a centre of excellence within the region by selecting from among its offerings a few programmes at undergraduate and post-graduate levels, and developing these to the extent that they attract students from the neighbouring countries and beyond. The Department of Library and Information Studies and the Department of Nursing Education are examples of such programmes. The World Health Organisation has recently designated our Department of Nursing Education a WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing Development for Anglophone Africa -- a regional centre of excellence. 

Operating in the context briefly sketched above, the University has set the following objectives for NDP V11 and they are not necessarily listed in priority order: 

Vision Statement: VISION 2000 PLUS 

The University seeks to become a centre of excellence in research, teaching and delivery of extension services and a world class institution of higher learning. Its programmes will have unique appeal to students and scholars world-wide in search of Africa’s creative and innovative approach to scholarship. 

Mission Statement 

The mission of the University of Ghana is to provide a congenial learning environment, accessible especially to the people of Ghana and of Africa. Such an environment should facilitate the nurturing of the men and women who may be expected to provide critical leadership in government and the public service, commerce, industry, agriculture and the sciences and the performing arts, for the betterment of the condition of Ghana and Africa. 

This mission will be achieved through: 
  

• Creation of Centres of Excellence;
• Development, utilisation and retention of a high calibre faculty,
• Efficient Utilisation of the University’s resources:
• Promotion of Ghana’s rich cultural heritage,
• Sensitivity and appropriate response to changes in the global environment.

Objectives 
 

The University’s Vision and Mission Statements derive in part from the set of national objectives articulated in the Government White Paper, 191 on the "Reforms to the Tertiary Education System." 
 

As one of the major institutions on which the Government relies for the implementation of national programmes, the University of Ghana has set out the following as its aims and objectives for the period covered by the Plan. These are to: 

1. Provide greater access to programmes in the University through the most cost effective methods.
2. Promote access of women to all Faculties in the University.
3. Improve the output of students in Science and Technology-related courses.
4. Develop graduate programmes for the training of academic staff and for enhancing research.
5. Attract and retain a well-motivated and highly skilled faculty.
6. Strengthen development-related research and teaching through the establishment of multi-disciplinary Centres.
7. Promote dissemination of knowledge through extension and consultancy services.
8. Achieve agreed staffing norms and staff : student ratios by 1995/96.
9. Make urgent and adequate provision for receiving Senior Secondary School (S.S.S.) students alongside the University’s normal intake of "A" level and mature students form 1994.
10. Undertake cost-recovery and cost-saving measures as a means of reducing direct cost of Government spending on the University.
11. Promote income-generating and fund-raising activities to supplement funds provided by Government.
12. Improve the internal administration of the administration of the University through appropriate staff development schemes.
13. Develop and improve campus facilities for sports, entertainment and other extra-curricular activities.
14. Enhance the general well-being of all members of the University Community. 

The University of the North strives to be a quality institution of higher learning and critical reflection, which is innovative, responsive to change, is rooted in the issues of society in which it is located, and is recognised world-wide as the centre for relevant theory and practice of people - centred development. 
  

Mission 
 

• Good governance and effective management
• Financial sustainability
• Creation of a culture of work, teaching, research, learning and service through adaptability and innovativeness.
• Appropriate campuses, educational policies, and infrastructural and physical development.
• A development orientation that is rooted in the community in which we operate.

Goals of the University 

To produce students with strong leadership skills, who are knowledgeable, articulate, sensitive, creative and thoughtful, and who are committed to serving their society. 

To achieve these goals there is need for provision of the following: 
 

1. A holistic, participative, efficient, and cost-effective environment which integrates academic, administrative, and service functions.
2. A teaching and learning environment.
3. A highly competent teaching, research, administrative, and support staff who are motivated and inspired by the link between student development and successful and sustainable society:
4. An integrated communication and information system linking the university within as well as with the world outside:
5. A continuous link between past and present students of the university:
6. Vigorous research programmes which recognise and are energised by the link between new knowledge and social development:
7. The development of sustainable postgraduate programmes.

Values 

Council has accepted values to which the University community should be committed. Such values to attest to the fact that the transformation of structures of governance and administration is not enough, it should be accompanied by the transformation of human conduct. The following therefore has been identified as the strategic priority areas whereto resources will be directed in the future: 
 

Programme Focus 

- Management, Entrepreneuship, Business and Social Sciences 

- Science and Technology (Natural Science) 

- Health 

- Education of Science, Agriculture and Health 

- Humanities and Communication 

Academic and Management Focus 

- Staff Development  

- Curriculum development and reconfiguration of Faculties 

- Administration and Management of the Institution 

- Facilities 

- Funding 

Keeping the vision, mission and values in mind as guidelines to our actions, we will now be able to move in the same direction as a coherent entity. 

The University of Pretoria is a national institution for advanced study with international stature.  

The University: 

• is an autonomous institution supported financially by the government as well as the public,
• operates in a comprehensive academic and scientific field,
• is an Afrikaans language institution which also provides for an increasing number of persons who are not Afrikaans speaking,
• subscribes to Christian values and acknowledges the right of religious freedom,
• maintains a value system rejects discrimination on the grounds of race, creed and gender, and 
• is open to everyone who fulfils its admission requirements on the grounds of academic merit.

The University serves its own community, the Republic of South Africa, the subcontinent of Southern Africa and international science by: 

• presenting training programmes with a view to the provision of high-level person power,
• doing basic scientific and relevant research by means of which new knowledge is generated and distributed,
• rendering community service ,and
• implementing a balanced education programme.

By means of excellence on all levels the University strives to promote the intellectual, cultural, and personal development of its students by: 

• presenting enrichment programmes and activities; and
• developing leadership as well as preparing the student body for responsible citizenship and meaningful participation in society.

• purposefully pursuing excellence in all spheres;
• concluding partnerships and co-operative agreements with the private and public sectors, other universities and scientific institutions as well as the international science community,
• continuously evaluating its own progress,
• developing its identity as a dynamic, future-oriented institution, and
• ensuring that acquired knowledge is applied by implementing a problem-oriented approach in training, research and community service.

Draft Mission Statement  
  

The University of the Western Cape is committed to being a centre of educational and research excellence. From its engagement with the struggle for liberation, it is dedicated to national development and reconstruction, and to equipping primarily the historically marginalised for full participation in the national life. The University aims: 

The purposes of the University of Zambia: 

The central goal of the strategic plan for 1994 - 1998 is the restoration and improvement of high quality in teaching, research, and scholarship as they pertain to the current scope of activities. Therefore the University aims to:  

• consolidate undergraduate education and to strengthen and develop the capacity for postgraduate studies and research;
• promote learning by offering opportunuties for advanced education to all suitably qualified persons, without distinction;
• advance national development through the application of learning and research;
• enhance Zambia’s potential to promote the goals of the wider African and international communities;
• continue to press for adequate funding from the Government while striving to increase its income from other sources; and will improve the effectiveness of the management and planning of all its resources.