The #feesmustfall movement brought gains for democracy. As relatively free spaces for enquiry, universities have a public duty to fight, not facilitate, a slide into a national security state.
Universities are cutting and streamlining their courses in an attempt to make graduates more employable. But lots of graduates are still struggling to find work, so why isn’t it working?
Funding for South African higher education is inadequate considering past inequalities. Even more alarming is the fact that plans for research development and innovation in science remain elusive.
In a country as unequal as South Africa, the people who have access to higher education have the power to shape the society, including its elites and middle class.
The decline in government investment in higher education and the ever-increasing reliance on fees has made universities more like private for-profit corporations.
A school in south London has become the latest building to win the UK’s most prestigious architecture accolade, fuelling the debate as to the importance of architecture to learning.
The university should be the bastion of the right to free expression in the promotion of democracy, and has a moral and ethical obligation to provide spaces for fierce debate and critical engagement.