Hoër onderwys as navorsings- en studiegebied in Suid-Afrika : 'n historiese en tematiese perspektief : navorsings- en oorsigartikel

Hierdie artikel ondersoek veral drie aspekte rakende die hoër onderwys as 'n navorsings- en studiegebied in Suid-Afrika. Eerstens word 'n aantal momente uit die geskiedenis van hoëronderwysstudie geskets - veral voor 1994. Daarna word die studieveld beoordeel teen die agtergrond van bestaande internasionale tematiese karterings van die studieveld buite die Verenigde State van Amerika - meer spesifiek teen dié van Malcolm Tight, 'n gerekende hoëronderwyskundige in die Verenigde Koninkryk. Derdens word 'n aantal aangeleenthede aan die orde gestel met die oog op die uitbreiding en verdere ontwikkeling van hierdie veld van studie en navorsing in Suid-Afrika. Higher education as a field of study and research in South Africa : a historical and thematic perspective This contribution addresses three issues concerning higher education as a field of study and research in South Africa. It starts off by tracing a number of moments in the historical development of higher education studies and research in South Africa - particularly in the period prior to the 1994 transition of political power. Next, the question of what the field of higher education studies and research entails internationally, is explored. The thematic categorisation of Malcolm Tight from the United Kingdom is used to determine international publication trends as derived from his analysis of 406 articles in 17 selective academic journals for the period 2002 - 2003. Tight identified eight major categories or clusters of publications in the field of higher education research. These were: (1) Teaching and learning in higher education; (2) Curriculum planning and design; (3) Student learning experiences; (4) Quality in higher education; (5) Systems and policies in higher education; (6) Institutional management; (7) Academics and academic work; (8) Knowledge and the nature of knowledge in higher education. For the South African position, three different analyses of studies and articles on higher education were explored. The first included an analysis by Muller (1998), who analysed 371 titles of research projects as well as master's and doctoral titles that were registered on the Nexus database of the National Research Foundation for the period 1993 - 1997. A second analysis, by Uys and Frick (2009), comprised the abstracts of 1237 articles which were published in the South African Journal of Higher Education in the period 1987 - 2007. Although not directly comparable to Muller's, this analysis indicated si