The Council on Higher Education (CHE) is an independent statutory body established by the Higher Education Act, No. 101 of 1997, as amended. It is also governed by the NQF Act No. 67 of 2008 which declared it the Quality Council for Higher Education, and further operates as a Schedule 3A public entity in terms of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA, Act 1 of 1999), as amended. The CHE adheres to principles of good governance, public accountability, independence, transformation and integrity and is accountable to Parliament of the Republic of South Africa. Council has the overall responsibility for oversight of the CHE and is accountable for the performance of the organisation. Members of Council, its permanent committee, the Higher Education Qualifications Committee (HEQC) and all subcommittees of Council and the HEQC are thus responsible for the overall promotion of and safeguarding of the interests of the CHE and for ensuring that it executes its mandates effectively. In carrying out their functions, Members of Council, the HEQC and all subcommittees are expected to possess a high level of expertise in their fields, are required to be knowledgeable about the higher education sector and are required to uphold the highest standards of ethics.

The terms of appointment as a member of a committee are defined in the terms of reference for each of the committees and are limited to a specific number of years. There are also cases where members are unable to participate effectively once appointed to a committee and so need to be replaced. This creates the need to constantly introduce new members to committees as terms end, or as members resign or need to be replaced.

A consistent, transparent, and effective process needs to be in place to ensure that there is a quality pool of candidates willing to serve the CHE as committee members that can be drawn from when the need arises to appoint new members to a specific committee.