There was nothing in President Zuma’s speech to suggest that he’d really listened to people’s concerns about higher education - nor to suggest that any solutions will be forthcoming.
Students have been steadfast in their demands of universities and the South African government. But what might the unintended consequences be?
Nic Bothma/EPA
It shouldn’t be up to universities or the government alone to fund students who qualify for tertiary education but can’t afford it. A perpetual bond system could be the answer.
Students demand free access for all at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.
Mark Wessels/Reuters
Many people dismiss the idea of free, quality public university education out of hand. But there are many ways to make it happen - and it all ties back to the idea of education as a public good.
A student faces off with a policeman in riot gear. Private security forces on campuses are a show of dominance and control.
EPA/Nic Bothma
The way in which one group of South African student protesters has acted and engaged with university managers shows how valuable a feminist approach to protest can be.
Most young South Africans can’t afford tuition fees and are left out of the higher education system.
Kim Ludbrook/EPA
The student protests that rocked South Africa’s universities in 2015 are part of a class struggle as poor and marginalised people fight for their place in an unequal system.
Prospective students rush the gates of the University of Johannesburg during a deadly 2012 stampede. Are South Africa’s universities ready for the latest crop of matriculants?
Adrian De Kock/EPA
South Africa’s matric results and data from national benchmarking tests suggest that many school leavers aren’t ready for university. It’s also worth asking: are universities ready for them?
South Africa’s matric results are held up as probably the most important moment in the basic education system.
GCIS/Flickr
Academics from several South African universities say that in the current world economy decisions about any country’s finance minister cannot be made “lightly or capriciously”.
Tertiary institutions in South Africa, like the University of Cape Town (pictured here), are in a state of flux and change.
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South Africa’s universities are in a state of upheaval. Academic developers must rethink their own purpose and how they work with academics in this environment to foster positive change.
University of Johannesburg students summarise their goal in a hashtag. The question is, what happens next?
Kim Ludbrook/EPA
Student protests in South Africa saw triumph for the hashtag and success for the slogan. What lies beyond this as students push for genuine change in universities?
What sets brilliant university lecturers apart from their more average peers?
Omar Faruk/Reuters
The students’ movement has stretched South Africans in personal, professional, powerful and provocative ways. Have academics been stretched enough to reflect deeply on the status quo at universities?
A young man wearing an African National Congress shirt joins in student protests in South Africa. Party politics and student politics shouldn’t mix.
Reuters/Sydney Seshibedi
It’s time to change how student representatives are elected at South Africa’s universities. The existing process gives far too much space and power to political parties.
Producing brilliant graduates is one thing – developing and nurturing those who want to remain in academia is quite another.
Jason Reed/Reuters
Universities in South Africa have tried to “grow their own timber” in a bid to diversify staff bodies. These programs haven’t been wildly successful. Why, and what can be done differently?
Some South African universities said they felt sufficiently threatened to obtain interdicts against protesting students.
Kim Ludbrook/EPA
Universities were widely criticised for turning to the courts during a series of student protests in South Africa. So why did they do it, and did the interdict process work?
Understanding the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis has won a South African molecular biologist international recognition.
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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.
It has been an exciting month for Africa, not least for the highly controversial elections in Tanzania, where the annulment of the entire vote in Zanzibar has played an important role in extending the…
Police open fire with rubber bullets on protesting university students in Pretoria, South Africa.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
South African students have won a pyrrhic victory in their battle for free university education. Will students and their institutions ever be able to interact without violent conflict again?
South African students want free university education. In a deeply unequal society, could there be another way?
Kim Ludbrook/EPA
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