Cape Town — South Africa’s Council on Higher Education has called for more cooperation between the government and public universities to ensure that academic freedoms are protected, and that universities retain their autonomy while remaining accountable for fulfilling their government-mandated roles.

A report recently published on the council’s Web site says that the “government’s steering of higher education has in recent years … grown more directive, less consultative, and occasionally prone to hierarchical decree.”

The report, “Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and Public Accountability in South African Higher Education,” was prepared by an independent panel convened by the Council on Higher Education, an independent advisory body to the South African minister of education, in order to investigate growing concerns about government interference in higher education.

Universities have assailed the government for its restructuring of the higher-education landscape in what critics describe as an overly bureaucratic manner. The report notes that legislation and policy changes in planning, financial support, and quality assurance have grown progressively more stringent since 1997, with the result that institutions have had less control over how they transform themselves and use their funds.

The council has requested comments on the report by October 15, and then will submit it to the education minister. —Megan Lindow