The Council on Higher Education (CHE) was of the view that the tenth anniversary of South Africa’s democratic dispensation created a unique and timely opportunity for reflection on a decade of policy making and policy implementation towards the goal of transforming South African higher education. The specific goals of the colloquium were:

• Critically identifying and discussing national and institutional weaknesses and shortcomings and issues and trends of concern, and the reasons for these;
• Defining ongoing systemic, institutional research and development challenges, cognizant of constraints but also the bounds of possibility;
• Celebrating, appropriately, progress and achievements;
• Renewing commitment to higher education transformation.

The intended emphasis was on critical intellectual engagement that highlights current paradoxes, ambiguities and tensions in the higher education transformation process and facilitates the effective pursuit of the higher education transformation agenda.

The agenda for the colloquium was developed and enriched through a period of consultation and discussion with key actors in the sector. A thematic dialogue thus began well before the colloquium.