Educor Holdings, Southern Africa’s largest private education group recently held the inaugural meeting of its first Senate.
Internationally, the Senate forms an essential component of University governance and wields significant power and influence. Public universities in South Africa are required to have a Senate as prescribed by section 28 of the Higher Education Act of 1997. Whilst not compulsory for private higher education institutions, Educor is joining many international private providers in a sector that is increasingly recognising the value of having a Senate.
At Educor, the Senate is the foremost advisory and consultative body for academic matters and plays a vital role in academic quality assurance as well as determining and preserving the core academic values of all Educor brands. These include Damelin, a multi-award winning brand, which has been in operation for more than 70 years, CityVarsity, a specialised school in the media and creative fields, Central Technical College, focusing on engineering and management studies, ICESA, a KZN brand with a full bouquet of courses and INTEC College, Damelin Correspondence College (DCC) and Lyceum College specialising in distance learning.
The Educor Senate, will serve to promote, oversee and regulate all academic matter for these brands, thus ensuring that the highest academic standards are set and maintained across the Group.
Professor Henriette Hay-Swemmer who is Educor’s Chief Academic Head and also Chairperson of the Senate explained, “The Senate within Educor Holdings will make decisions on behalf of the Group as a whole to ensure good academic governance.” She added that parents and students registered in any of the brands should feel reassured that they are investing in an education provider that is serious about high quality teaching and learning, ensuring regulatory compliance, and which is constantly looking for innovative ways to educate”.
To achieve its objectives the Senate has a number of sub-committees including an Academic Advisory Board, Teaching, Learning and Academic Staff Development, Research and Innovation, Quality Assurance and Enhancement, Programme Development, and Student Academic Affairs.
The Senate includes Professor Henriette Hay-Swemmer (Group Chief Academic Officer), Charles Reeves (Group CEO),Professor Adolf Lowies (Academic Strategist) and Dr Annatjie Erasmus (Group Head of Academic Quality Assurance), as well as other representatives of the academic faculty at Educor.