The Mandate
The Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Dr Blade Nzimande, has tasked HIGHER HEALTH to ensure that they work with every public university and TVET college within the PSET to deal with COVID-19. In response to this mandate, HIGHER HEALTH had set in motion the following:
Post School Education and Training Guidelines on COVID-19
HIGHER HEALTH COVID-19 Communication Campaign
Training and Capacity Development Workshop for All Higher Education Health Care Workers and Staff on COVID-19

Maintaining COVID-19 and epidemic preparedness
The mass uptake of vaccines that hugely reduced COVID-19 hospitalisations and deaths, together with progressively mild variants of the virus, made it possible to return to full-scale on-campus teaching and learning in 2022. But this did not mean that the PSET sector could let its guard down. COVID-19 was still with us – as the infection spike in May and June confirmed – and lecture halls, classrooms, canteens, and residences were environments where even the milder variants could prove extremely disruptive unless precautions were maintained.
HIGHER HEALTH continues to drive capacity building for infection control among institutional staff and student volunteers. This included keeping management and academic staff abreast of the evolving pandemic and resulting changes in regulations.
Vaccination
We encouraged institutions to continue to promote vaccination against COVID-19. Several universities had introduced vaccination mandates which required all students to provide proof of vaccination as a condition of registration for the 2022 academic year. Elsewhere, HIGHER HEALTH encouraged universities and colleges to promote vaccination positively.