Located in the former Northern Province (now Limpopo) of South Africa, the University of the North was built to serve the needs of five ethnic African groups (Southern Sotho, Northern Sotho, Tswana, Venda and Tsonga) located in the homelands in "Lebowa" during the rule of the Apartheid government. The University of the North, like many other historically disadvantaged universities in South Africa, was designed to suit the needs of an Apartheid government while keeping the citizens in the homeland quiet by providing them with a post secondary institution. Since its inception in 1959, the University of the North has operated under the haunting cloud of apartheid.
When looking at the complex and dynamic processes that explode on the modern campus today, we don't see just the formal aspects of bureaucracy, but the decision making of the ruling elite, and the influence of groups inside and outside the organization. If student riots cripple the campus, if professors and administrators form unions and strike, and if external interest groups and irate governments invade the academic halls, all these acts must be seen as having an effect on the policy formulation process. The interests of various groups are reflected in conflict, changes and compromise to the final point when legislative action is taken. Policy is the official resolution of often conflicting processes and represents an authoritative, binding decision to commit the university to a particular set of actions, goals and values. The resulting policy is generally turned over to bureaucrats for routine execution.
This study examines how a higher education institution in turmoil shaped policy formulation managed to set long-range goals, and arranged basic decision structures during a period of serious conflicts over institutional change. This research was constructed using the political model outlined by Baldridge (1971) that focuses on policy formulating processes committing an organization to definite goals (both long and short term) and setting the strategies for reaching those goals.
Using the political model, transition of the University of the North is viewed as a complex process in which a complex social structure generates multiple pressures while many forms of power and pressure impinge on the decision makers, a legislative stage translates these pressures into policy, and a policy execution phase finally generates feedback in the form of new policies that can lead to new conflicts. Results are interpreted with respect to their implications for understanding institutional transformation in higher education under conditions of rapid social and political change.
