Stellenbosch University
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IG again presents successful HEMIS Institute
Author: Leon Eygelaar
Published: 19/09/2018

The Information Governance (IG) Division at Stellenbosch University (SU) recently (14-16 August 2018) again successfully presented its annual Higher Education Management Information System (HEMIS) Institute at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West.

At the event, staff members of the IG participated directly in the expansion of institutional research in Southern African higher-education institutions. Also in attendance from SU were representatives from the Registrar's Division, Information and Technology, Academic Planning and Quality Assurance, and Human Resources.

This year's event, attended by a record number of 137 representatives from the country's 26 higher-education institutions, was coordinated by SU's Mr Leon Eygelaar and Ms René Robbertze, respectively Director: Institutional Information and officer at Institutional Research and Planning.

Prof Ian Cloete, Senior Director: IG, opened proceedings. He was followed by guest speakers Ms Jean Skene (Director: HEMIS, Department of Higher Education and Training), Prof Lis Lange (Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, University of Cape Town), Ms Hannelie van Rensburg (Director: Academic Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Department of Higher Education and Training), Prof Monie Naidoo (Director: Programme Accreditation, Council on Higher Education), Mr Jerall Toi (Senior Institutional Information officer, SU) and Dr Cornelie Crous (researcher and senior lecturer, University of the Free State).

“Being a university of excellence pioneering new development requires more than only investment in teaching, research and community interaction. It also requires in-depth institutional research to implement the various policies regulating higher-education institutions more effectively," Cloete said in his opening address.

Institutional research refers to a range of activities supporting, among others, decision taking, policy making, policy analysis, quality assurance, effective management, projections, modelling and planning in higher education.

Concurring with Cloete, Eygelaar said, “South African – indeed, Southern African – institutions have an increasingly urgent need for institutional research on higher-education matters. The HEMIS information, available at institutional and at national level from the Department of Higher Education and Training, is probably one of the most important resources for institutional research."

The annual HEMIS Institute creates a platform for discussing HEMIS matters relating to students, staff and physical facilities and for strengthening existing higher-education networks and establishing new ones. The event is one of the highlights on the calendar of the Southern African Association for Institutional Research​ (SAAIR), one of nearly 50 other international institutional research associations affiliated with the American Association for Institutional Research (AIR).

More about HEMIS

HEMIS is the higher-education management and information system for state-subsidised tertiary institutions and contains information on, for example, students, staff, physical facilities and postdoctoral students. It forms the basis for the calculation of, among others, the teaching inputs and outputs, research outputs and subsidy allocations of tertiary institutions.

  • ​Photo: Attendees at this year's HEMIS Institute.
  • Photog​rapher: Hennie Rudman