Symposium on student representation in university governance

The symposium and authors' workshop on Student Representation in Higher Education Governance in Africa started today in Cape Town with 15 participants, and keynote addresses by Eve Gray (UCT Centre for Educational Technology), Francois van Schalkwyk (African Minds Trustee & Funder), Nico Cloete (Director: CHET) and Leo Zeilig (Author of "Revolt and Protest: Student Politics and Activism in Sub-Saharan Africa"). The symposium was organised by me.

The symposium is driven by presentations of draft chapters by authors of the forthcoming book Student Representation in University Governance in Africa and the Special Issue of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa on "Student Power in Africa". 

In the picture (above): Ms Eve Gray is addressing the participants of the symposium at the opening dinner on open scholarship, open access and new opportunities for scholarly publishing in Africa.

And right: Author, Mr Taabo Mugume, discussing the differences and similarities between Uganda Christian University and Makerere University's model of student representation as a study illustrating the impact of the growth of private-sponsored students in Ugandan HE.

Co-editor, Dr Manja Klemencic (Harvard University, USA) is presenting an international perspective from Europe at the symposium in Cape Town, with day chair James Jowi (Moi University, Kenya).

Dr Sam Fongwa (University of the Free State, SA) and Mr Lucky Kgosithebe (University of the Western Cape, SA) at the workshop.

To the right: Dr Adesoji Oni of the University of Lagos discussing student representation in seven universities of the Nigerian knowledge hub, South Western Nigeria, and its relationship to university leadership. His expertise also includes cultism in Nigerian higher education.

Dr Ransford Gyampo, Political Scientist from the University of Ghana, presenting on the politicization of NUGS. (left).

African Minds Founder and Publisher, Francois van Schalkwyk, at the opening dinner.

 

(Below left to right:) Dr Blessing Makunike from University of Zimbabwe; Dr Endalew Kufi from Adama University in Ethiopia on stakeholder perceptions of student presentation; and participants Bekele Workie (Ethiopia)  and Mwangi Macharia (Egerton University, Kenya), Taabo Mugume (UWC).

Dr Patrico Langa (Assistant Professor of Higher Education Studies at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in Mozambique) at the Symposium (far right). 

Ending day 1 of the symposium were two closing addresses: 

Prof Nico Cloete (CHET) presenting on knowledge production in African flagship universities.... 

....and Dr Leo Zeilig (below), author of Revolt and Protest discusses origins and evolution of student activism in Africa from pre-independence through to the recent period. A way of summarising his insightful presentation could be to ask, to what extent the triumphantly proclaimed "end of ideology" (cf. Fukuyama et al.) impacted on African student politics? (Seated next to Leo is Mr Godlove Chifon).

The day finally closed with a visit to the University of Cape Town's Department of Student Affairs and Students' Representative Council for a most informative Questions and Answers Session with Ms Christine Immelga (middle) and Mr Shannon Bernhardt (from DSA; left) and SRC Secretary-General Keenan Hendrickse (right).

Authors and participants from the symposium asking questions about the UCT governance model and listening to the elaborations.

Dr Gerard Birantamjie from Burundi talking about ASSER and student leadership as a precursor to national leadership in politics and civil society (bottom, right). 

And Mr Lucky Kgosithebe (Botswana, bottom left) on the contribution of higher education to democratisation with special reference to student governance at the University of Botswana.

Below left: Mr Mwangi J. Macharia (Kenya) presenting on "Comrades' Power!" in Kenyan student politics.

The symposium was followed by two workshops dealing with different aspects of the way forward "Towards Publication" respectively presented by Ms Felicity Gallagher and Dr Thierry Luescher-Mamashela. Overall the symposium and workshop concluded on the third day on a high note.

On the right: Co-editor of the publications, Mr James Jowi from Moi University. In summing up the symposium and workshop he mentioned a number of key cross-cutting issues such as the diagnostic potential of student politics for assessing the quality of democracy and, conversely, the important  role of (political) culture in the governance of higher education institutions.  

Last picture: Thierry Luescher, Soji Oni and James Jowi after a long day at the symposium, listening to the elaborations of how student governance at UCT works.

(Missing from the symposium were: Ms Claudia Fritelli from Carnegie; Prof Ibrahim Oanda from Codesria; Mr Daniel Manu (Ghana), Dr Pascal Bianchini).

Journal of Student Affairs in Africa

Journal of Student Affairs in Africa

Vol. 2 Issue 1 "Recontextualising the Profession" has just been published. 
This is a free, open access, international, interdisciplinary journal for academics, professionals and students in Student Affairs and Higher Education Studies broadly. It focuses particularly on African higher education.

The new Table of Contents is provided below. Visit the website and register briefly and for free as a user, and you can start to download the journal or upload your own research articles, reflective practice articles, or reports or comments. Welcome! Editor-in-Chief: Prof Teboho Moja (NYU). 

Vol 2, No 1 (2014)

Editorial Commentary

Preface: Together in student success	PDF
John Schuh

Contextualising student affairs in Africa: The past, present and future	PDF
Teboho Moja, Birgit Schreiber, Thierry Luescher-Mamashela

Research Articles

Building South African women’s leadership: A cohort model for the PhD in student affairs	PDF
Dawn Person, Katherine Saunders, Kristina Oganesian

Multicultural competence in student affairs: The case of the University of Botswana	PDF
Thenjiwe Emily Major, Boitumelo Mangope

Can we become friends? Students’ cross-racial interaction in post-apartheid South African higher education	PDF
Samantha Shapses Wertheim

Listen, live and learn: A review of the application process, aiming to enhance diversity within the Listen, Live and Learn senior student housing initiative, at Stellenbosch University	PDF
Mathew Smorenburg, Munita Dunn

Reflective Practice

Joining hands across the seas: The genesis of IASAS	PDF
Roger B. Ludeman

Campus Dialogue

The co-curriculum: Re-defining boundaries of academic spaces	PDF
Birgit Schreiber

Creating seamless connections: Intersecting social and academic lives of students	PDF
Teboho Moja, Monroe France

A critical feminist approach to social inclusion and citizenship in the context of the co-curriculum	PDF
Ronelle Carolissen

Book Reviews

Leibowitz, Brenda (2012). Higher Education for the Public Good: Views from the South. Oakhill, USA: Trentham Books. Stellenbosch, South Africa: Sun Media	PDF
Reviewed by Joy Papier

Manning, K., Kinzie, J., & Schuh, J. H. (2014). One size does not fit all: Traditional and innovative models of student affairs practice. (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge	PDF
Reviewed by Ellen M. Broido

Bozalek, Vivienne, Leibowitz, Brenda, Carolissen, Ronelle & Boler, Megan (Eds.) (2013). Discerning Critical Hope in Educational Practices. London and New York: Routledge	PDF
Reviewed by Denise Wood

Professional Notices

Author Biographies	PDF

JSAA Call for Papers Vol 2(2) 2014

Student Representation and Multiparty Politics in Africa

Fresh off the press :) An article I published with my research assistant and M.Admin. student, Taabo Mugume in Studies in Higher Education. The article provides an overview of students' role in African politics, with special focus on a most recent development: the insertion of national political parties into student politics on campus.
Link to the article here.

Vice-chancellors explore research potential and limits - University World News

Vice-chancellors explore research potential and limits - University World News

South African vice-chancellors called for renewal of the academy, more and better postgraduate training and greater policy coordination at their biennial research and innovation conference last week. There was a lively debate over differentiation, and a decision to meet with captains of industry and forge more productive relations with the private sector.

The equity and development debate in SAHE... continued

It was once upon a time a group of Education policy analysts, mainly centred around Profs Harold Wolpe and Saleem Badat, who seriously grappled with the question of how to overcome the crippling legacy of apartheid in Higher Education. Over 20 years later,  it appears that neither the debate on how to bring about the transformation of the system and individual institutions, nor even what accounts for transformation, has been settled. Cloete, in this digest of his article in the SA Journal of Science, provides a useful overview of parts of that debate and its origins, of achievements made and opportunities missed.



Full article see here:

A new look at demographic transformation - University World News

Higher education in 2050 and diversification

Will Africa have a world-class university in the foreseeable future?

The blunt answer is no, if the consensus arrived at by a recent international gathering in Chicago of university presidents is to be believed. In a review of higher education projected to 2025, the presidents foresaw the following, globally:

•  A first layer of highly prestigious, highly resourced and very productive universities, 35 to 60 in number. 
• A second layer of 200 to 250 universities in consortia, sharing resources, offering joint and mutually accredited programmes, and therefore able to compete internationally.
• A third tier of about 200 institutions comprising a range of niche players, strictly focused on three or four fields at most.
• A large fourth tier of mainly regional institutions, about 24,200 in number.
• A group of high-tech MOOCS.

According to this scenario, if Africa garners a handful of second and third tier places it will be doing very well indeed. Is this all doom and gloom for Africa?

Read the full article by Prof Joe Muller here:

Differentiation: Africa lags (again) – Or does it? - University World News

Taylor & Francis Online :: Student representation in university decision making: good reasons, a new lens? - Studies in Higher Education - Volume 38, Issue 10

Student representation in university decision making: good reasons, a new lens? - Studies in Higher Education - Volume 38, Issue 10
The story of this article starts in December 2007 when I realised that I needed to completely rework my PhD literature review. The outcome was a conceptual review of the scholarship on various justifications for student representation in higher education governance and how they relate to different conceptions of 'students'. In 2008 the thesis was examined and in 2010 I presented a paper based on the literature review at the CHER conference in Oslo. It was very well received, but when I submitted the paper to this Journal I was told that there were 'mixed comments' from the peer reviewers and publication was declined. I worked on the paper again taking into account the very useful comments of the reviewers and eventually submitted it four months later to the "emerging scholars manuscript competition" of the International Journal for Leadership in Education ILJE (also a T&F journal) where it won! However, due to local regulations in SA regarding research funding, I could not publish it in ILJE and therefore went back, very cheeky, to SiHE asking them to reconsider in the light of the changes done and the award won. That was in 2011. In January 2012 the article was published in iFirst and now, in December 2013, finally in Vol. 38 Issue 10 of what was all along the preferred journal for this article. In short, this article has been maturing over more than six years and it took seven years from conception to final publication... talk about academic publishing! It is a fantastic article though. Have a read!

Launch Issue of Journal of Student Affairs in Africa

The Journal of Student Affairs in Africa (JSAA) has just published its launch double issue (vol. 1 no. 1&2) with the thematic focus "The professionalisation of student affairs in Africa". The journal's editor-in-chief is Prof Teboho Moja of NYU; other members of the editorial executive include Dr Martin Mandew, Prof Gerald Ouma and Distinguished Prof John Schuh.

The opening articles to the launch issue are by American scholars: Carpenter and Haber-Curran, and Selznick. Both articles engage with definitions of student affairs as a profession – and find that student affairs does not fit the strictures of traditional professions (such as medicine) very well.

Nonetheless (and from different perspectives), both arrive at the intermediary conclusion that professionalisation in the African higher education context is both possible and desirable, and should not necessarily follow the American model. According to Carpenter and Haber-Curran, the traditional American service model has resulted in a conceptual separation of student affairs from the academic core mission of universities, which ought to be avoided in the African context. Rather, by asking a series of questions, they propose that “student affairs professionals should engage in what can be called the scholarship of practice” (p. 3 in this issue):

- What if student affairs professionals fully embraced a role as practitioner-scholars engaging in
practice in a thoughtful and intentional way that is both informed by research and informs
research (Komives, 1998)?
- What if the notion of scholarship expanded beyond just the scholarship of discovery to also
include the scholarship of integration, application, and teaching and learning as argued by
Boyer (1990)?
- And what if student affairs practice were approached interdependently with academic faculties
and departments rather than independently or dependently?

In elaborating their conception of what constitutes a scholarship of practice, Carpenter and Haber-Curran illustrate ways in which professional associations, professional preparation programmes (such as those mentioned above) and professional/scholarly publications like JSAA can infuse scholarly values in professional practice.

Other articles deal with assessment in student affairs; residence management in Kenyan universities; the relationship between student activism and democratisation in Ghana; and other topics. There are three outstanding book reviews in the issue as well as editorial commentary and calls for papers for future issues.
Enjoy! Thierry

Student engagement – Between policy-making and scholarship - University World News

Student engagement – Between policy-making and scholarship - University World News

Manja Klemencic providing a critical perspective on the 'buzz' around student engagement surveys. What are we really learning? What can we really learn?

The first question we should probably ask ourselves is whether it is possible to account for "the student experience" or can we just account for "a student experience among many others"? Is in the age of individualism "the student" still a valid category?

On the one hand, Manja notes that "the state of being a student – studentship – as a life stage is unique in that it is transient, developmental and liminal (as an expected rite of passage to a different social status);

on the other hand,  "the student body is profoundly heterogeneous... [ and ] ... researchers are becoming sensitive to the constraints and opportunities that socio-economic background, gender, religion, race and ethnicity pose – by way of ‘cultural capital’ – to student choices of, engagement with and experiences of higher education". 

And even taking this into consideration... how 'nuanced' can our analysis really be when we are still constrained by 19th and 20th century sociological constructs such as "socio-economic background, gender, religion, race and ethnicity"? 

How have things moved in the last fifty years ... like my daughter's individualised Montessori classroom experience (developed in the early 20th C) as against her grandmother's standardised 'realschule' soup (which was so conceived about 50 years earlier); (BTW my grandma is last row, right, with braids); and then...  actually .... Dineo learns German, Japanese and Italien with Busuu, Chinese and German also with Duolingo, and Maths on Eurotalk and numbersaddict; and whatever else by navigating four different operating systems and however many apps almost simultaneously....

If we have data from individuals - even if it is highly standardised survey data - why can we not resist the temptation to reduce such data to a highly unpalatable pap. Why can't we try and build complex holistic, multiperspectival pictures of individuals using such data (like Picasso), rather than blurry impressionistic scatterplots? Sampling, my survey colleague from the neighbouring university always likes to say, sampling is like putting a spoon into a big calderon of soup. If you have stirred it properly, a good spoonful should tell you what the whole pot tastes like. But are we satisfied to reduce the heterogeneity of students' experiences to a "well-stirred soup"? Even if we can still discern the taste of the carrots from the celery and the potatoes... I'm just not sure I want to cook up a student body as soup.

And finally, what about "the historical and temporal dimensions in student life relating to their choices of engagement and experience, placing studentship within the perspective of entire life trajectories"? 

Manja's conclusions after such a critical intervention are valid and imaginative: "cross-disciplinarity", "methodological pluralism", "innovation in methods of data collection" and "engaging students as researchers – as active co-producers of knowledge – in research on student engagement" - yet, they are also vague - like that research on student engagement could serve as "discursive platforms". I wish Manja was making some more concrete suggestions... I know she will, eventually... I guess I must be patient.

From a different perspective, there is of course another point to Manja's story. I believe there is great opportunity in institutional research on 'student engagement' as current work in African universities is showing - this is to experiment with new methodologies - in involving respondents; in the collection of data; in the analysis of data; in engaging the powerful opportunities offered by ICT and overcoming traditional constraints of quantitative and qualitative designs respectively.

Love & Peace, Thierry

University in the Clouds?

http://youtu.be/8YQTEdTm6ec

The cloudy future of higher education: we must stick our heads out of the ivory lecture halls and recognize that soon the vast majority of young Africans have smart phones, Wikipedia and the rest of OA knowledge at their finger tips, and not knowledge content but knowledge methods will be needed|: - How to access the right knowledge?

- How to discern trustworthy knowledge?

- How to generate data, analyse, synthesize, interpret, evaluate, critique?

- How to move from know-what to know-how and back.

Etc,....

See above YouTube link to 

Global futurist Jack Uldrich predicts the future of higher education at EAIE Istanbul 2013.....Have fun. Thierry

Blue, Red or Green? South Africa's Differentiated University System

Blue, Red or Green?
South Africa's Differentiated University System

On the basis of knowledge input and output indicators, CHET has developed an empirical model differentiation in South Africa's university system.

The blue institutions, which include the University of the Western Cape (UWC), are the most knowledge (and research) intensive, while red and green institutions score in the middle and lower ranges on indicators of academic staff input, undergraduate to masters output and high-level knowledge output.

For details see CHET on differentiation.

World Bank’s Africa Initiative: Forgetting the Faculty | Inside Higher Ed

World Bank’s Africa Initiative: Forgetting the Faculty | Inside Higher Ed

The World Bank has announced a “Centers of Excellence” initiative that will provide $158 million to a select group of African universities  “to strengthen the capacity of selected universities and their partner institutions to deliver high quality training and applied research at the regional level” in the words of the project document as reported in University World News (November 3, 2013). Some 15 universities will be selected to receive up to $8 million each to strengthen the institutions. One missing key element will absolutely doom the project to failure. No funding will be provided to the academics teaching at the universities although there will be money to bring in short-term people and consultants. What this means is that the key personnel who are responsible .....

Read more: http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/world-view/world-bank%E2%80%99s-africa-initiative-forgetting-faculty#ixzz2lN6zTdQk
Inside Higher Ed 

Wits produces most employable graduates

Wits is having it all :)  For once, Wits has stolen the lime light from UCT and comes out tops on all scores. Well done. Thierry Wits produces most employable graduates
Issued by: Wits University, Johannesburg, 11 November 2013
Wits University is the only African university chosen by top international recruiters to be ranked in the Global Employability University Ranking, which was published in the New York Times recently. The Global Employability University Ranking is a list of the top universities as selected by more than 5 000 recruiters, including CEOs and chairpersons, from top companies in 30 countries, who were asked to rank universities based on the employability of their graduates. Each had 10 votes to cast and could also add additional universities. Wits came in at 139 on the list. Ever wondered which universities produce the most millionaires? Wits is also ranked 57th in the world for producing the most number of alumni millionaires, according to a study compiled for Spear's Magazine. Wits came in ahead of the University of Colorado (58), Brown University (63), the London Business School (64), Stanford Business School (68), Monash University in Australia (74), and the University of Cape Town (80). The study also lists which subjects produced the most millionaires, with engineering coming first, followed by an MBA, economics and law – although according to Spear's, millionaires produced by these subjects have often left their degrees behind in professional life. This follows on the Times Higher Education ranking of universities that produce the most number of CEOs. Titled the THE Alma Mater Index: Global Executives, the ranking puts Wits at 24 in the world (it lists the top 100), placed above prestigious institutions such as New York University, Korea University, the University of Stuttgart, and Texas A&M University, to name a few. Wits is the highest ranked African institution on the list. The University of Cape Town, the only other African university on the list, came in at number 79. "It is gratifying to know that as a university at the heart of the national and continental economy, Wits continues to provide the world with a growing cohort of world-class African CEOs," says Professor Adam Habib, Wits Vice-Chancellor and Principal. The Global Employability University Ranking forms part of the Global Employability Survey, an online survey conducted in 20 countries worldwide, with the objective of describing the ideal university from a corporate perspective. One of the trends picked up by the Global Employability University Ranking is the breakthrough of a number of Chinese universities (five noted, with two in the top 50), while universities from other Asian countries make their first appearance: three from Hong Kong, two from Singapore, and two from South Korea. India went from one to three universities, with a very strong performance from the Indian Institute of Science. Another new trend is the phenomenon known as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), which are online programmes made available by universities. The recruiters who were surveyed said they felt certain this new form of higher education would have a great impact on the economic model of universities, since it was bound to reduce a university's financial burden