The Independent Institute of Education (The IIE) supports the open access (OA) to research principle and contributes by making information in its institutional repository and its peer reviewed journal available through open access mechanisms.  The Independent Institute of Education is South Africa’s leading private higher education institution operating across 20 sites, offering more than 70 registered and accredited higher education programmes, including postgraduate and Master Degree programmes.

The Independent Institute of Education will be signing The Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences ... during the Open Access Week celebrations taking place from 23 – 29 October this year. International OA Week is a global, community-driven initiative to create awareness and support for unrestricted and open access to research. The Berlin Declaration was issued in 2003 by international research, scientific, and cultural institutions to promote the Internet as a medium for disseminating global scientific knowledge. To date the declaration has been signed by the leaders of over 590 universities, research institutions, libraries, archives, and museums from around the world.

The declaration calls for research to be made accessible in at least one electronic online archive. As part of our OA contribution The IIE launched an OA research repository, IIESpace, in 2015. The publication of our OA journal, The Independent Journal of Education, started in 2006. It has been accredited by The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) since 2014.

Some of the top public universities in South Africa, such as Stellenbosch University and The University of Pretoria, have already signed the declaration and are supporting the OA principle. The IIE is however the first private South African higher education institution to sign the declaration. As South Africa’s leading, accredited private higher education institution, we join global private universities such as Harvard University and Duke University, by also putting our pen to paper.

This year’s International Open Access Week invites participants and supporters to complete the statement:

” Open in order to...”  

The IIE replies:

Open in order to create, contribute and share knowledge required to develop critical thinkers, knowledgeable citizens and an improved diverse, differentiated but integrated South African educational system