The impact of university incorporation on college lecturers
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Date
Authors
Becker, L.R.
Beukes, Lukas D.
Botha, Antoinette
Botha, A.C.
Botha, Jan Jakobus
Botha, M.
Cloete, Dina J.
Cloete, Johann L.
Coetzee, Corene
De Beer, L.J.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer Verlag (Germany)
Abstract
In South Africa, recent government plans to change the institutional landscape of higher education have resulted in mergers of colleges into universities or technikons. The research reported in this article focuses solely on the impact of a "college-into-university" incorporation as manifested in the personal, emotional and career experiences of these college staff members. It traces the changes in their perceptions and emotions during and after the incorporation process. It also identifies recurring themes and issues evident in the personal lives of those affected by this incorporation. A unique research methodology was engaged: The College staff who had been appointed to the university after the merger, identified seven critical themes and then designed and conducted 30 semi-structured interviews among themselves. This article thus documents the impact of incorporation into a university on the individual and collective lives of the researchers themselves. The data suggest that the emotional impact of incorporation was intense and that the uncertainty, especially, led to considerable trauma. The most important concern emanating from this joint research project is that while a certain degree of distress is unavoidable in any institutional merger, inattention to the management of human resources, emotions and aspirations could linger on, possibly having a negative effect on the ambitions for the transformation of the new entity.
Description
The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com
Keywords
Higher education, Personnel management, Universities & colleges - Employees, Universities & colleges - Mergers, South Africa, College mergers, University mergers, Emotional impact, Traumatic career experiences, Research methodology
Sustainable Development Goals
Citation
Becker, LR et al. 2004, ‘The impact of university incorporation on college lecturers’, Higher Education, vol. 48, issue 2, pp.153-172. [http://www.springerlink.com/content/1573-174X/]
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Research Articles (Humanities Education)
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Research Articles (Early Childhood Education)
Research Articles (Education Management and Policy Studies)
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