Abstract
In South Africa, the National Diploma Mechanical Engineering for Technicians was offered in Technikons. After 1994, students from all backgrounds were allowed into technikons and universities. The institutions find themselves faced with students who had socio-economic challenges while technology was advancing on the other side. In addition to those challenges, higher education institutions were expected to provide education that was accessible, inclusive, relevant and responsive. The study seeks to explore and describe the impact of the changes in the education programme for the NDip Mechanical Engineering for Technicians from 1990 to 2015. Grounded theory was used to explore and describe the phenomenon. Data was collected through interviews, documents, research publications and the research journal. The findings were that the impact of the changes on graduates and teaching staff were minimal. The changes lacked vision and focus on improving the key competencies and skills of the graduates. Change management as a strategy was found lacking but the Olin College and Illinois State University strategies can be used as examplers. There is a need for a well-structured approach to curriculum development and should be approached as a project. It is recommended that academic leaders be trained in curriculum development and change management. Future work could be to investigate curriculum development based on the views of graduates, students and academics.