Universities South Africa (USAf)

Universities South Africa (USAf), formerly known as Higher Education South Africa (HESA), is a membership organisation representing all 26 of South Africa’s public universities.

Its mandate is to create an environment in which universities can prosper and thrive in South Africa, thus enabling them to contribute to the social, cultural and economic development of our country. It does so mainly by: influencing and contributing to policy positions regarding higher education; advocating for an adequately funded university sector; facilitating effective dialogue among universities, government, business, parliament and other stakeholders on issues affecting universities; coordinating sector-wide engagement on major issues such as stability, transformation, differentiation, internationalisation; commissioning and disseminating research on key issues with implications for universities; providing value-adding services to member institutions; speaking on behalf of universities on major issues with implications for their well-being; and strengthening the creation of a Higher Education Governance System based on the principles of cooperative governance, institutional autonomy and academic freedom.