Durban Universities

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR

DATE : 10 May 2007

2. INTRODUCTION

3. BACKGROUND

4. SUMMARY OF UNIVERSITY OF NATAL

5. SUMMARY OF DURBAN WESTVILLE

6. MERGER

7. SUGGESTIONS

8. CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

In 1994, South Africa experienced a new era of democracy by electing the first the Black President, Nelson Mandela. Due to this change the whole country was pushed into a wave of transformation. The previous government structures and policies had to be reviewed to be in line with the government of the day. All government departments had to engage in a process of rational planning that will ensure that historical structural inequities and distortions are corrected and replaced by an integrated but creatively diverse regional systems based on the principals of equity and quality.

The abovementioned government stance was vigorously adopted by the Department 0f Education, more specifically to higher learning institutions, which ultimately was the beginning of the merge between University of Natal and University 0f Durban Westville.

BACKGROUND

The University of Durban Westville

The University of Durban-Westville was established in the 1960s as the University College for Indians on Salisbury Island in Durban Bay. Student numbers throughout the 1960s were low as a result of the Congress Alliances’ policy of shunning apartheid structures. This policy gave way in the 1980s to a strategy of “education under protest” which sought to transform apartheid institutions into sites of struggle. Student numbers grew rapidly and in 1971, the College was granted University status. The following year, the newly-named University of Durban-Westville moved into its modern campus in Westville and was a site of major anti-apartheid struggle. UDW became an autonomous institution in 1984, opening up to students of all races.

The leadership style at the university was influenced by Vice...