Unbundling education: Mapping the changing nature of Higher Education in South Africa

南非高等教育的性质正在迅速演变。教育技术、公私合作伙伴关系和雇主期望的转变正在导致高等教育迅速和前所未有的“分拆”和市场化。例如，在过去几年里，我们目睹了许多灵活的在线课程和资格证书、短期课程和mooc的出现，这些课程通常是由大学和私人组织合作提供的。“分拆”指的是将课程分解为独立单元的过程，这些单元通常以灵活的在线模式提供，使大学能够通过将课程分配给几个独立的、更具成本效益的组成部分，来应对更广泛的访问、学生人数增加、来自其他供应商的竞争和技术变革的压力。市场化指的是与大学一起提供高等教育的替代（私人）提供者的增加，通常是通过在线方式和较低的成本，以及大学和私人提供者之间新兴的伙伴关系，以提供广泛层次的认证学习。特别是，南非高等教育环境似乎准备从基于市场的创新中受益，这些创新可能有助于增加南非社会各部门之间的平等和机会。虽然这些变化可能为更多的学习者提供接受教育的机会，从而促进经济繁荣，但关于非洲或发达国家高等教育市场化的过程和影响的实证研究很少。在实践中，我们观察到基于不同“分拆”风格的未明确商业模式的出现，这反过来又导致大学与私人合作伙伴或供应商之间的关系不明确。为了使非捆绑技术增强教育或公私伙伴关系对非洲的可持续经济增长产生积极影响，迫切需要对这一领域进行系统研究，这也是本及时而创新的建议的主题。因此，我们提出以下首要问题：分离和市场化如何改变南非高等教育提供的性质，这将对扩大机会、教育成就、就业能力以及经济发展的潜力产生什么影响？我们将通过关注“教育做市”的过程来探讨这个研究问题。我们的目标是研究高等教育中的市场化和分拆作为具有“构成”功能的谈判和操作的结果。我们的核心假设是，市场不是自然出现的，而是通过日益网络化的互动“制造”出来的，这些互动涉及个人决策、集体话语、技术专长和关键“对象”的部署：教育技术、数据分析技术和创新的商业模式。我们的研究将依赖于通过与“专家”的访谈收集的主要证据，以及对现有数据集、文件和其他人工制品的分析，最重要的是，通过与广泛的利益相关者的系统接触。该项目的结果将直接影响南非、其他非洲国家和英国高等教育的未来发展，通过提供证据证明课程分类的有效性，以及提供高等教育的替代提供者在教育成果、获得高等教育和就业能力方面的有效性。该项目将通过批判性地评估南非经济发展的“分拆”和市场化趋势，产生直接影响。该研究将为教育技术的有效性提供证据，以支持新兴的高等教育市场，直接影响教育技术部门、技术供应商和替代高等教育供应商。

The nature of Higher Education is rapidly evolving in South Africa. Educational technologies, public-private partnerships and shifting employer expectations are resulting in rapid and unprecedented 'unbundling' and marketization of Higher Education. For example, over the past few years we have witnessed the appearance of many flexible online courses and qualifications, short courses and MOOCs, often delivered in partnerships between universities and private organisations. Unbundling refers to the process of disaggregating curricula into standalone units often available in flexible online modes, allowing universities to respond to the pressures of widening access, increasing student numbers, competition from alternative providers and technological change, by distributing provision across several individual, more cost-effective components. Marketization refers to the increasing presence of alternative (private) providers offering HE provision alongside universities, often through online means and at lower costs, and the emerging partnerships between universities and private providers to offer accredited learning at a wide range of levels. In particular, the South African higher education context seems poised to benefit from market-based innovations that may assist with the need to increase equality and access across the diverse sectors of South African society. Whilst these changes may offer opportunities for increased numbers of learners to access education and thus contribute to economic prosperity, there is very little empirical research about the process and impact of unbundling, or the marketization of Higher Education in Africa, or developed countries. In practice, we are observing the emergence of unspecified business models based on different flavours of 'unbundling', which in turn are leading to unclear relationships between universities and private partners or providers. For unbundled technology enhanced education or public-private partnerships to impact positively on sustainable economic growth in Africa, there is an urgent need for systematic research in this area, which is the topic of this timely and innovative proposal. Therefore, we ask the following overarching question: How are unbundling and marketization changing the nature of higher education provision in South Africa, and what impact will this have on widening access, educational achievement, employability and thus the potential for economic development? We will explore this research question through a focus on the process of 'educational market making'. We aim to examine marketization and unbundling in HE as the outcomes of negotiations and manoeuvres which have a 'constitutive' function. Our central assumption is that markets do not appear naturally, but are 'made' through increasingly networked interactions that involve individual decision-making, collective discourse, technical expertise and the deployment of key 'objects': educational technologies, data analysis techniques, and innovative business models. Our study will rely on primary evidence collected through interviews with 'experts', and on the analysis of available datasets, documents and other artefacts and, crucially, through systematic engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. The outcomes of this project will directly impact the future development of HE in South Africa, other African countries and in the UK, through providing evidence of the effectiveness of disaggregation of curricula and alternative providers offering HE on educational outcomes, access to HE and employability. The project will have direct impact through critically evaluating the on-going trends of 'unbundling' and marketization on South Africa's economic development. The research will provide evidence of the effectiveness of educational technology to support the emerging HE market, directly impacting the educational technology sector, technology suppliers and alternative HE providers.