The 23-year-old mutually cancelled his deal at the Shrimps earlier this month but can train at the Championship side ahead of the move.
"Agreeing the pre-contract deal now, I get the opportunity to bed myself in before I can play again," he said.
"I think this will be a really good challenge for me."
Morecambe boss Jim Bentley had spoken about selling a player to raise funds for the Lancashire side who paid their players late at the start of November.
Despite cancelling Barkhuizen's contract at the Lancashire club, they retained his rights so Preston had to pay the compensation package.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.

The former Oceana nightclub building will be demolished in October and replaced with a new office block.
It forms part of the council's plans to transform the Kingsway into a business district.
The authority is moving from its seafront location as part of a wider regeneration of the city centre. Work is due to start in 2017.
The current civic centre site is likely to be replaced with public spaces, tourist attractions and homes.
Swansea council bought the Oceana building - which was once at the heart of the city's nightlife - in May and it is understood it has been earmarked as the potential new home for the civic centre and central library.
Demolition is due to take until March.
"Once we have control of that site we will look at the development and possibly start construction in 2016 to build offices which could be home for the council offices and Swansea library," said Swansea council leader Rob Stewart.
The building, originally constructed by the Rank Organisation in 1967 for a cinema, has accommodated a number of nightclubs over the years, including Ritzy and Icon, Time and Envy, and most recently, Oceana.
It also previously housed an Odeon cinema and Tesco before they were turned into a different club and bar respectively.
But it is no longer fit for purpose and a council move is one of a number of options being considered for the site.

Asked about the allegations surrounding the late entertainer, Mr Cameron suggested that the removal of his honour might be an option.
He said: "We have something called the Forfeiture Committee, it's not chaired or sat on by me, but it is responsible for looking at honours and the removal of honours and obviously they have to do their job properly."
Police investigating the alleged abuse say they are pursuing 120 separate lines of inquiry, and Scotland Yard says there could be 20 to 25 victims in total.
None of the allegations has been proven - but the Sun newspaper has started a campaign to have the presenter's knighthood removed.
Sir Jimmy was awarded the OBE in 1971, and received his knighthood from the Queen in 1996.
Honours can be taken away in cases when recipients are, according to the Forfeiture Committee's website, "judged to have brought the honours system into disrepute".
In January 2012, Royal Bank of Scotland's former chief executive Fred Goodwin had his knighthood removed because of his role in the bank's near-collapse in 2008.
And in 1987 the jockey, Lester Piggott, lost his OBE after being jailed for tax fraud.
But the Cabinet Office explained that there were no legal arrangements in place to remove honours posthumously.
Part of the reason is that an OBE or a knighthood expires when a person dies - but it is also highly unusual for there to be calls for a recipient to be stripped of their honour after they have died.
However, a Cabinet Office spokesman said it was possible that as a result of the Jimmy Savile case, the Honours Forfeiture Committee might reconsider the rules.
He said: "There are currently a number of police investigations under way into the allegations.
"The Order of the British Empire is a living order and individuals cease to be a member when they die. An appointment as a Knight Bachelor would also cease on death.
"However, that doesn't mean that the Forfeiture Committee won't consider the impact on the honours system of cases such as the one under discussion."
Preston North End have signed forward Tom Barkhuizen from League Two side Morecambe for a compensation fee with the deal to go through on 1 January.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
The site which used to house Swansea's biggest nightclub could become the new home for Swansea council and library.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
Prime Minister David Cameron has entered the debate about whether Jimmy Savile's knighthood should be rescinded because of the sex abuse claims against him.