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.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Articles on Student protests
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The politicisation of academia definitely contributes to a decline in academic standards. This is a situation South Africa must work hard to avoid. It can learn from others on the continent.
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.
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.
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.
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?
When students are genuinely listened to and understood, and their proposed solutions to problems are taken seriously, real change can happen in university faculties.
When several South African universities merged, it was hoped this would improve access and equality. It had the opposite effect.
There are several different ways to approach democracy. Polls, elections and referenda all feature, but they’re not the only way to deepen democracy.
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.
A “buy now, pay later” model is well suited to financing higher education. Commercial bank loans are not viable. Government-backed loans with income-contingent repayment are the fair solution.
Clashes between student protesters and armed security (whether public or private) compel South Africans to consider the role of use of force in the context of protests.
There is a very real risk that South Africa’s major research projects will stumble and the whole research machine will be shut down by ongoing student protests.
Protest movements become radicalised by two factors: escalating policing and competitive escalation between political adversaries and other protesting groups.
Higher education is a resource intensive enterprise. It cannot effectively function without a massive injection of resources in a sustained and escalated manner.
It’s unlikely that student protests are directly affecting South African universities’ rankings. Instead, decades of government underfunding in higher education may be at least partly to blame.
People risk being physically harmed during violent protests. But there is also an emotional element at play.
South Africa’s higher education minister has dealt with fee increments for 2017 but sidestepped students’ fundamental issue: an ongoing call to make higher education free for all.
South Africa’s universities have been told to set their own fee increases for 2017. That’s good news for institutions, but it hasn’t been well-received by many students.
Zimbabwe’s students and graduates are angry. They have every reason to be. The country’s finances are badly managed and its economy is in crisis.
Top contributors
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Professor, University of Cape Town
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Professor of Black Studies and History, Amherst College
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Professor of Digital Society, University of Glasgow
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Departmental Lecturer in African History and Politics, University of Oxford
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Professor of Architecture and SARChI: DST/NRF/SACN Research Chair in Spatial Transformation (Positive Change in the Built Environment), Tshwane University of Technology
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Researcher, Social Sciences, University of Fort Hare
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PhD Scholar, Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor and Head of Department of Political and Conflict Studies, Nelson Mandela University
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Chief Research Specialist in Democracy and Citizenship at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State
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Head of Department, University of Johannesburg
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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
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Academic Staff Development Lecturer, Centre for Higher Education Development, University of Cape Town
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Senior Researcher in Labour Studies and Education, University of Johannesburg
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Director of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation and Associate Professor of Education, University of Johannesburg
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Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Cape Town
