Sections of South Africa’s student movements regard transformation as a complete failure. Responding to this perceived failure, some have adopted an anti-democratic stance.
Young people understand the value of education but find fees prohibitively high in a context of widespread unemployment and low incomes.
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The huge problem of youth unemployment in South Africa appears to be getting worse. New research will hopefully amplify their voices and inform more realistic interventions to combat the monster.
Women students have been at the forefront of South African university protests.
EPA/Nic Bothma
Forty years after the students uprisings of 1976, South Africa is again in the midst of a political movement led by students.They have changed the tenor and shape of political discussion around education.
Students cheer as a statue of Cecil John Rhodes is removed from the University of Cape Town in April 2015.
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There is a risk that because of fatigue, frustration and silencing the important moment created by South Africa’s student movements will pass by with no proper, long-term structural change.
Students with disabilities face massive physical and attitudinal hurdles.
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For law faculties, the transformative vision embodied in South Africa’s constitution provides a potent driver for change. So what does a transformed law faculty look like?
Students want colonial symbols, such as this statue of Cecil John Rhodes, gone from their universities.
EPA/Nic Bothma
Calls for the decolonisation of countries, institutions, the mind and of knowledge are not new. In South Africa, these changes are crucial and long overdue. But they must be carefully thought through.
There’s a big gap what between universities teach and what industries need.
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Anti-rape protests at a South African university have far bigger implications for the country’s ongoing fight against rape culture and patriarchal gender norms.
There are several ways to defend a defamation claim in South Africa.
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Is it defamatory to ‘name and shame’ alleged rapists? Absolutely, according to South African law – and those who share that information on social media are liable too.
Universities can be alienating spaces, particularly for students from poorer backgrounds.
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A curriculum can’t be decolonised by simply removing content. This denies students the chance to participate in local policy debates and the global job market. A more nuanced approach is needed.
Every student has their own story and their own concerns. Lecturers need to listen.
Reuters/Mike Hutchings
In future, universities will only survive if they can produce knowledge fast and innovate. This will require transformational leadership that gets everyone involved.
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