If universities work together they are more likely to find creative solutions to problems. Collaboration will allow them to benefit from the global academic community’s collective wisdom.
Many academics have been involved in supporting student protesters.
Reuters/Rogan Ward
2017 promises to be another tough year as South African universities head into the uncertain terrain of further addressing and healing the divisions that have been exposed.
Police guard a building at the University of Cape Town – from whom, since knowledge is not really owned by anyone.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
More than two decades after apartheid ended, South African universities still tend to offer a view of the country and continent that is rooted in colonial and apartheid thinking.
More leadership is needed to tackle universities’ crises.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Demands being made by protesting students in South Africa purport to support the poor. But the most marginalised young people in the country will not benefit from free higher education.
There has been a great deal of research, planning and talking to come up with solutions to South Africa’s higher education funding crisis. Some of these plans must now be put into action.
The student movement in South Africa prides itself on being “leaderless”.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Student protesters have demonstrated good leadership in some spheres but come up short in other areas. This suggests that universities ought to focus more on how they teach leadership.
Peacekeepers can offer a channel of communication between police and protesters.
Mike Hutchings/Reuters
Peacekeeping is not easy. But for South Africa’s universities to begin working towards solutions, it is crucial that their communities give peace a chance.
Scenes like these may drive young people away from academic careers.
Kim Ludbrook/EPA
Many young academics and those who might be considering an academic career will be horrified by what’s unfolding at South Africa’s institution. Will bright minds be lost?
Critical dialogue could help South African universities get back on their feet.
Ian Barbour/Flickr
When students are genuinely listened to and understood, and their proposed solutions to problems are taken seriously, real change can happen in university faculties.
Economic models suggest that South Africa’s GDP would fall, inequality would deepen and unemployment would rise if university graduates don’t enter the labour market in 2017.
Director of Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Rhodes University & Visiting Research Professor in Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, Rhodes University
Previous Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DSI-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor in Genetics, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria
Chief Director: Tshwane University of Technology – Institute for Economic Research on Innovation; Node Head: DST/NRF SciSTIP CoE; and Professor Extraordinary: Stellenbosch University – Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology., Tshwane University of Technology
Associate Professor of Higher Education Studies. Head of Department of the Centre for Higher Education, Research, Teaching and Learning, Rhodes University