The University of the Free State (UFS) contributed to national discussions about the future of short learning programmes (SLPs) as practitioners, quality assurance specialists, and academic leaders from across Southern Africa gathered in Durban for the 2026 Forum of Short Learning Programmes in early October.
Held at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) Graduate School of Business and Leadership on 30 September and 1 October, the forum explored the theme New pathways: Perils and opportunities for learning and quality assurance.
The annual forum has become an important platform for universities to consider how SLPs are evolving within higher education. Founded by Carol Kat, Director: Copyright, Trade Marks and Short Courses at Stellenbosch University, the forum brings together professionals working across the academic, operational, and quality-assurance dimensions of short learning.
The UFS was represented prominently in this year’s programme.
Adv Shirly Hyland, Director: Short Learning Programmes at the Kovsie Phahamisa Academy (KPHA), chaired the opening panel, Behind the SLP: The Nuts, Bolts and Processes, and presented the Operations Working Group report. The group was established at the 2025 forum as one of three working groups examining the development of SLPs in the sector.
Its report considered five areas: the balance between financial sustainability and academic quality; the role of academic staff; remuneration models; marketing and benchmarking; and whether SLP functions should be centralised, decentralised, or operate through a hybrid model.
The discussions highlighted the need for universities to approach short learning strategically, ensuring that operational sustainability supports, rather than undermines, academic quality. Lorraine Ries, Chief Officer: SLP Systems Manager at the UFS, joined a panel discussion with colleagues from Stellenbosch University and UP Enterprises. Ries led a discussion around a practical question facing universities as SLP provision expands: who should ultimately own an SLP – the faculty, a central unit, or the institution as a whole?
Adv Hyland also contributed to a panel discussion, Why we do what we do, with fellow panellists from Enterprises University of Pretoria and Stellenbosch University. This panel examined the role of SLPs in the broader higher education environment.
Short learning enters a new regulatory era
The discussions come as the regulatory environment for short learning and microcredentials begins to change.
A keynote address by Dr Whitfield Green, CEO of the Council on Higher Education (CHE), focused on the quality-assurance of microcredentials. Dr Green discussed the revised Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF), gazetted on 3 July 2026, which provides for credits to be awarded for SLPs and microcredentials that include formal assessment.
The revised framework also anticipates external quality processes that are still to be finalised by the CHE. The emerging framework may create opportunities for credits earned through assessed SLPs and microcredentials to contribute towards full qualifications, although the practical implications will depend on the quality-assurance processes still being developed.
For universities, the changes could affect how short learning is designed, quality-assured, positioned, and connected to formal academic pathways.
For Adv Hyland, the formal recognition of SLPs and microcredentials represents an important step towards widening access to higher education.
“Seeing short learning programmes (and microcredentials) formally recognised in the higher education landscape is deeply reassuring. It reflects a real commitment to the government’s obligations towards social justice and wider access to higher education, values that lie very close to my heart,” she said.
For the UFS, the development presents an opportunity to strengthen short learning pathways that respond to the needs of lifelong learners, professionals, and communities.
The UFS’ Head of Academic Planning, Dr Senoela Nkhase, also attended the forum, reflecting the University’s interest in understanding these developments as the microcredential environment evolves.
For Adv Hyland, the value of the forum extends beyond the formal programme.
“What makes this forum so valuable is that it brings universities together not as competitors, but as partners. Through the SLP Community of Practice, we share good practices, benchmark honestly, and learn from one another’s experiences,” she said.
“Short learning programmes show that academic excellence and third-stream income are not competing goals. Done well, they strengthen each other. When institutions work together, we raise the standard for the whole sector, and ultimately it is our learners and our communities who benefit.”
For the UFS, participation in the forum provides an opportunity to contribute operational experience to a national conversation, while keeping pace with changes that could influence how universities respond to lifelong learning, professional development, and emerging skills needs.
As the sector works through the implications of the revised framework, collaboration, quality assurance, and sustainable models for short learning will become increasingly important in shaping new pathways into higher education.