Crous, CornelieMerahe, Gobonamang2025-01-032025-01-032024http://hdl.handle.net/11660/12891Dissertation (MBA (Business Administration))--University of the Free State, 2024South African universities derive their funding from limited government grants. Owing to the limited funding available to universities, there is an increased requirement from stakeholders for universities to be transparent and efficiently use public resources. Thus, there is pressure on universities to develop good governance. Corporate Governance has become a severe challenge amongst South African universities. This challenge is demonstrated by the numerous universities investigated or under administration over the years. This study evaluates the current Corporate Governance practices at Sol Plaatje University (SPU) to prevent similar Corporate Governance challenges from arising in the future at the institution. Otherwise, it may experience similar Corporate Governance challenges that led to the collapse of some higher education institutions in South Africa. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to evaluate the implementation of Corporate Governance disclosure principles at SPU from 2013 to 2022 to determine the application of Corporate Governance practices regarding disclosure. Furthermore, this study is guided by two secondary objectives: (a) To identify Corporate Governance best practices applicable to Higher Education institutions through available literature and (b) To assess the implementation of good Corporate Governance practices at SPU by analysing information disclosed in the Annual Reports. This study uses a quantitative content analysis approach to analyse existing data from SPU Annual Reports submitted to the Minister of Higher Education, Science, and Innovation. SPU Annual Reports were analysed according to the instrument “𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘜𝘯𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴” designed by Crous (2017: 212–375) to assess Corporate Governance practices at the institution. All SPU Annual Reports, published from 2013 to 2022, were selected for this study. The study, therefore, uses a census sample. The study reveals that SPU’s Corporate Governance practices were not up to standard, characterised by a culture of extensive non-disclosures, and indicative of less accountability and transparency in the institution’s governance. The researcher recommended how SPU should ensure its Corporate Governance practices are up to standard. Failure of SPU to perform up to standard Corporate Governance carries the risk of the institution following in the steps of universities that collapsed.enAccountabilityAnnual reportsCorporate governanceCouncilDisclosuresHigher educationInternational best practicesKing IVNon-disclosuresSol Plaatje UniversityStakeholderReporting regulationTransparencyDissertationUniversity of the Free State