The CHE has established a Task Team to investigate the involvement of government and other agencies in South African Higher Education in the context of the principles of Institutional Autonomy, Academic Freedom and Public Accountability. The Task Team has called for and has received numerous submissions, and is currently issuing fresh calls for submissions from any stakeholder body or interest grouping. The Task Team has also commissioned research. As part of stimulating debate and further information gathering, it has held regional fora in six cities to allow members of the higher education community and stakeholders to discuss and debate these important issues.

• Further information on the Task Team and its investigation.


• Terms of reference of the CHE Task Team.


• Bibliography on institutional autonomy and academic freedom.


• Overview of recent and current debates.


• Commissioned report: Overview of Recent and Current Debates in South African Higher Education: Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy and Public Accountability', October 2005

• Draft reports of the regional fora


• Speeches given at the regional fora


• List of written submissions to the HEIAAF Task Team

Should you wish to submit your views to the Task Team, contact the project manager.

Commissioned report:

• Overview of Recent and Current Debates in South African Higher Education: Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy and Public Accountability

October 2005

Research reports:

• Autonomy as a Social Compact
  André du Toit, February 2007


• Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy and Public Accountability in Higher Education: a Framework for Analysis of the 'State-Sector' Relationship in a Democratic South Africa
  Ruth Jonathan, November 2006


• Eternal (and Internal) Tensions? Conceptualising Public Accountability in South African Higher Education
  Steven Friedman and Omano Edigheji, December 2006


• Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy and the Corporatised University in Contemporary South Africa
  Kristina Bentley, Adam Habib and Seán Morrow, December 2006

Additional papers:

• Professionalising Tenure: An Academic Freedom Perspective - Seminar Paper presented at Rhodes University
  André du Toit, 20 October 2006