The welcome speech discusses the trends and challenges facing South African universities at the start of the new millennium. It notes the diversity of institutions in South Africa, from established research universities to newer universities struggling with increasing competition. It emphasizes the importance of international linkages for South African universities, not only with traditional partners in Europe and North America but also with universities in the global South to foster new collaborations. The speech positions Durban as a symbolic crossroads of Africa, Asia, and Europe and welcomes attendees to the conference on behalf of SAUVCA.

1. IAU Durban Conference, August 20-25, 2000
11th General Conference: Universities as Gateway to the Future
Welcome Speech
Welcome Speech
by
Prof Andreas van Wijk, Rector and Vice Chancellor, University of Stellenbosch., Deputy Chairman
of SAUVCA, South Africa
Introduction.
It is an agreeable task to welcome you all here this morning on behalf of SAUVCA (the South African
University Vice-Chancellors' Association). 1 must apologise for our chair, Prof Cecil Abrahams of the
University of the Western Cape, who cannot be here. You will therefore have to make do with me as
his neighbour from the University of Stellenbosch and as chair elect of SAUVCA.
Origins.
The world in one country" has long been a favourite slogan of our tourism promoters, and it is true
also for the South African Higher Education scene. Our universities range from established ones, with
their roots going back to the 1860's, which are renowned for their scholarship and research, to
institutions established, sometimes in impoverished rural areas in the 1960's and 1970, which are
struggling to find their niches in a system marked by increasing competition, both internal and from
abroad, and based on the most recent information technology.
Trends and Challenges.
These are trends of which you will all be aware, but here they exist cheek by jowl, even in one city.
South Africa is indeed a laboratory for higher education at the start of the new Millennium. We are
not daunted by these challenges. SAUVCA has put its divisions of the past behind it to a great extent
and is facing the demands with a joint point of departure, via ensuring the development of a well co-
ordinated but differentiated higher education system responsive to the needs of South Africa,
especially as far as the need for human resource development of the majority of our people is
concerned. The Minister of Education will surely have more to say on the progress already made in
this regard tomorrow.
The international dimension of all this is not a secondary, but a primary issue.
Higher education has always been international. This feature goes back to the very first universities:
AI Azhar in Cairo, La Karouine in Fez, and Bologna. Until 1990 we South Africans did not enjoy the
full benefits of this, but fortunately it has changed dramatically, as this conference proves. Apart from
its function as the mouthpiece of the South African university system, SAUVCA also acts as a
clearinghouse and initiator of international links for its member institutions.
For South Africa's universities international linkages are not merely the flavour of the month, but a
necessity for survival. This includes all aspects of such links: staff and student exchanges as well as
research collaboration
Internationalisation.
Pour les universités sud-africaines l'établissement de relations de co-opération avec les instituts
étrangers et les organisations internationales est très important. Bien que nous autres Sud-africains
ayons subi une influence anglo-saxonne forte au cours de notre histoire tumultueuse, nous sommes
convaincus que la diversification de nos liens vers les pays francophones et lusophones et les pays de
langue espagnole est une priorité, surtout quand il s'agit de l’hémisphère méridional, c’est-à-dire du
"Sud".
Je ne nie point l’importance des axes traditionnels avec les métropoles d'antan à Paris, Lisbonne ou
Londres ou des centres culturels et technologiques modernes comme New York ou Sydney. Mais les
universités et les organisations scientifiques du Sud doivent se connaître. Et voilà un rôle capital pour
I'Association internationale des Universités et pour l'Association des Universités africaines.
Des Liens stratégiques.
Pourquoi? Les universités du Nord ont beaucoup plus à nous offrir : une infrastructure établie, la
technologie moderne, des professeurs an niveau mondial. Tout cela est vrai. Néanmoins, à mon avis il
ne s’agit pas d'un choix entre l'un et l'autre, mais d'un enrichissement en faisant tous les deux.

2. Retenons nos amitiés traditionnelles, mais développons les amitiés nouvelles, les co-opérations des
universités en voie de développement. Il y a tant de pays au Sud qui peuvent offrir beaucoup, bien qu'
ils ne se rangent pas encore parmi les pays développés: les pays d’Amérique latine, les Indes, la Chine,
et 1'Afrique du Sud.
Durban est à la fois, comme vous l'avez vu, une ville d'Afrique, d’Asie et d'Europe. Pour l’Association
sud-africaine des Recteurs d’universités c'est un honneur de vous recevoir à ce carrefour symbolique
du monde du nouveau siècle, un monde globalisant, croissant et fondé sur le pouvoir de la
connaissance, donc un monde universitaire!
Thank you to all, on behalf of SAUVCA, who have made this conference possible.