Zealous Zyl's call for change in Pretoria

He may be a white Afrikaner male, but there will be no "business as usual" at the University of Pretoria when vice chancellor elect, Johan van Zyl, takes over the reins of South Africa's largest residential university early next year.

"Not to change would mean a slow but certain death to the institution, especially because of where it comes from," said Professor van Zyl, who faced the wrath of black students and a trashed campus when his appointment was announced last month.

"There is a diminishing number of Afrikaans matric pupils and an ever smaller circle to appoint from. Change is essential - we must create an institution that will survive in the long term. It is only the pace of change that worries people."

Professor van Zyl, an agricultural economist, gained all but one of his five degrees at the 40,000- student University of Pretoria, nicknamed Tukkies, and has based his academic career there, is very young for the job - he is in his early forties - and initially did not want it. He says he was persuaded by colleagues to stand. "Certainly I didn't plan or scheme to get the post. Maybe I got it because I didn't want it. I will give myself five years in which to give it a go, and that's it."

Black students did not want him to get the job either: the university had to get a court interdict prohibiting protests following the demonstrations, trashing and a clash between black and white students that greeted the announcement that he had got the job.

He believes the aggression directed at his appointment is misplaced and says a look at his record should disprove any implication of racism: his research into agricultural economics, rural development and land reform is all about redressing imbalances, and as dean of biological and agricultural sciences it was he who opened the faculty to black students.

This he did by changing the language of tuition to English, redirecting university resources to disadvantaged students, soliciting outside financial support, introducing new courses tailored to improve access, and providing academic support. These measures increased enrolment of disadvantaged students from 1 per cent in 1991 - the year he took over the deanship - to 25 per cent in 1994. "That year, 80 per cent of the black graduate students in agriculture in South Africa were registered with the University of Pretoria," he says.

Under his control the faculty grew from 600 students to 1,800 in five years, incorporated several more departments, forged links with universities abroad, launched a programme to develop black academic staff, and raised millions of rand for the university.

For 18 months in 1994 and 1995 he also worked as a consultant for the World Bank, managing and co-ordinating the bank's rural development portfolio.

Professor van Zyl has been asked by the university council to revise Tukkies' entire top structure to make it representative - a crucial job for the future of the university, since he intends handing over the reins of power by the year 2002.

"I will be looking to decentralise a lot of power and resources to the deans, where the real decisions are made. The days are over in which we can centrally decide issues in such a complex and diverse organisation."

Underlying the vision with which he will lead the University of Pretoria into the 20th century are international changes in higher education from which, Professor van Zyl points out, South African institutions are not immune.

"These are the trends towards less funding but extra demands on universities, the need for greater efficiency and productivity, and moves towards a more student- centred model of higher education. In South Africa, there is also the need to tackle past imbalances."

More specifically, Professor Van Zyl will be looking to encourage major changes in the way students are taught, expand the 40,000- student university, especially in the direction of distance education, and set in place new governance structures and mechanisms to avoid campus confrontation.

Transformation at Tukkies, he says, will not just be about changed governance and different population demographics among students and staff. It will also be about changing models of teaching.

"The idea of contact teaching, with eye-to-eye contact and students at the feet of the master, is just not on in this day and age. It fascinates me that people can get away with dictating to students in class. Today, when there is contact you have to add value."

Lecturers must improve, and students must be given opportunities to learn in many different ways. "What we don't want to change is the quality of education, so there has to be quality control at all levels. Africanisation is important, but we will not compromise on quality."

There will be massive expansion of part-time students and courses. Already the university has satellite campuses in Witbank and Nelspruit, as well as 14,000 students on distance courses. "Next there will be 20,000 distance learning students. The market is huge."

The university has acquired a television channel, and next year will be on air 24 hours a day.

Pretoria also has outreach programmes at 28 schools, broadcasting science lessons to pupils. Next year this will grow to cover 60 schools. Professor van Zyl will also concentrate on putting policies in place that keep campus unrest to a minimum. He says Pretoria is still stable compared to most other universities - but he has no illusions about trouble-free years ahead. "Pretoria is a huge university, so there is bound to be unrest. It is essential that we have structures in place before there is more change."

For example, the university will ensure high levels of financial support so that it is never forced to deny a continued place to a student who has performed satisfactorily.