Abstract
M.B.A.
More and more policy makers in South Africa’s educational environment are
focusing on the impact of digital developments on lifelong learning, electronic
publishing, computer-mediated communication and the growth of virtual
universities. Johnson and Scholes (1999:475) state that increased availability
and quality of information can enhance an organisation’s competency both by
reducing the cost of processes and by improving their quality. Managers need to
be clear about how these improvements in information technology should
influence the way in which they manage their business processes and the
benefits associated with the costs of these electronic services.
President Thabo Mbeki has stated that universities have a key role to play in
improving the quality of life of all South African citizens since education is the key
to unlocking each person's potential and improving the quality of life in general
(Le Roux, 2005). Mbeki also emphasized that South African universities should
emerge from the current process of change, ready to compete with the best
institutions in the world. Mbeki asserted that change must guarantee that South
Africa catches up with the best in the world in terms of the generation and use of
knowledge capital to create the winning society that South Africa yearns for. It
must guarantee that South Africa produces the intelligentsia who must be at the
cutting edge of our process of renaissance.