94 Ethics in Higher Education: Values-driven Leaders for the Future
university is dehumanised in the interests of the new ideals of techno-
economic progress (Venter, 2006b).
In South Africa post-1994 higher education transformation currently
reflects these global trends as well as local imperatives (Mapesela &
Hay, 2005). The Higher Education Act, No.101 of 1997 (Republic of
South Africa [RSA], 1997) created a unitary, state-steered and quality-
assured system of higher education, further shaped by institutional
closures and mergers (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2001). A National
Qualifications Framework (RSA, 2008) linked to an outcomes-based
philosophy steered curricula into an outcomes-based format. New
funding mechanisms re-orientated university offerings to address
national, regional and local education and training priorities (MoE,
2003). Universities have also seen radical change in student and staff
composition caused by the massive increase in black students, many of
whom are underprepared for the demands of higher education (Du Toit,
2010) and the redress of racial imbalances throughout the ranks of
university employees through equity policies (Hall, 2010).
Organizational processes, partly in the wake of global trends and partly
as a tool to control and regulate institutional change, are managed
according to a managerial-corporate style by an increasing corps of
university bureaucrats (Mapesela & Hay, 2005).
In sum, these developments, local and international, constitute a new
crisis for the very idea of the university (Barnett, 2000) and have far-
reaching challenges for ethical behaviour in academe. Decision-making
based on moral principles is raised to new levels of complexity and the
intensity of temptations to compromise, if not ignore, moral principles
under high-stakes pressures particularly the financial, is increased
(Wagner, 2011). By way of illustration, institutions may lower
admission standards to enroll large numbers of students with a view to
obtaining tuition fees which will increase university revenue. As Barnett
(2004:v) observes, “The contemporary climate of ‘performativity’, with