De Wit replaces Altbach at Boston College centre - University World News

Hans de Wit is replacing the retired Philip Altbach as the head of CIHE at Boston College.

Nothing against the choice of de Wit, but personally, I would have liked to see a woman to take Philip's place and perhaps a younger candidate. I hope de Wit will continue Altbach's great leadership of research into international HE that spanned from Africa to Asia, Latin America, North America to Europe.



De Wit replaces Altbach at Boston College centre - University World News

Student unrest on the wane thanks to democratisation - University World News

Student unrest on the wane thanks to democratisation - University World News

Wow. It's always great to see when academic work becomes public scholarship! My paper in Studies in Higher Education with Taabo Mugume has clearly made an impact for this insightful article about student activism in University World News.

African HE Summit - African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) launched

At the HE Summit in Dakar last week, eight major universities on the continent lauched the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA). See the following press release.

The founding universities currently in the African Research Universities Alliance include: University of Lagos, Nigeria; University of Ibadan, Nigeria; Obafemi Awolowo University lle-Ife, Nigeria; University of Ghana Legon*; University of Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania*; University of Nairobi, Kenya*; University of Cape Town, South Africa*; University of Witwatersrand, South Africa; National University of Rwanda; University Cheikh Anta Diop, Senegal; Makerere University, Uganda*; University of Stellenbosch, South Africa; University of Pretoria, South Africa; and Rhodes University, South Africa. * denotes universities in the HERANA group.

Chapter now open access: Student Engagement & Citizenship Competences (2015)

After the launch of the book Knowledge Production and Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education at the 2015 Higher Education Summit in Dakar last week, my chapter in the book is now available for open access download from my academic.edu website under this link  as well as from the website of the publisher African Minds under this link where also all other chapters of the book can be downloaded.

This book is the culmination of several years of research work of the Higher Education Research and Advocacy Network (HERANA) in collaboration with key research universities in Africa. In this respect, it is essential reading to accompany the just recently launched African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) at the Summit. 

African Higher Education Summit - Podcast of Keynotes

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The African HE Summit 2015 started with a Keynote by former UN Secretary General Prof. Kofi Annan. The Panel including Prof Nico Cloete of CHET highlights key issues going forward for African higher education including access, equity, diversity, quality, governance, private higher education, financing and knowledge production, especially the need for specialisation and differentiation.
The podcast have been published on the CHET site.
http://chet.org.za/news/chet-focusing-debate-need-research-universities-africa

African Higher Education Summit 2015 - Blog 1 - African Minds presence

African Higher Education Summit 2015, Dakar, Senegal

I'm feeling very proud to be associated with African Minds, CHET and JSAA which has a fantastic presence at the Summit. My own work is featured in the Special Summit Issue of UWN with the article "Re-thinking Student Engagement's Role in Democratisation"
which is a 'teaser' from my chapter in the book "Knowledge Production & Contradictory Functions in African Higher Education" edited by Nico Cloete, Peter Maassen and Tracy Bailey. The book is available for free in its e-copy. It is launched at the Summit. In addition, African Minds publisher is also taking the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa  to the Summit to show the work we do in that sector ( - I am a member of the Editorial Exec and the journal manager - ) and the forthcoming book "Student Representation in Higher Education Governance in Africa" is also prominently advertised at the summit (see blog post of August 2014).

Transforming higher education through community engagement - University World News

Transforming higher education through community engagement - University World News



Later this year I will be publishing an interesting chapter on Community - University Research Partnerships in a book edited by Rajesh Tandon.

Journal of Student Affairs in Africa

The Journal of Student Affairs in Africa has become quite a success, wow. Now this is the fourth issue (Vol. 2 Issue 2) and as a resource to higher ed professionals, academics and students in the African context and beyond, it's a great resource.



This special issue provides what is perhaps the best  - - most concise, most accessible, and most contextually relevant - - introduction to the work of Vincent Tinto. Tinto is one of the great theorists in Student Affairs, having contributed immensely to our understanding of the impact of the university environment, institutional culture, etc. on student 'drop-out', student retention and ultimately student success.



JSAA is an open access, scholarly journal published by African Minds. This issue is edited by Prof Teboho Moja (NYU), Dr Birgit Schreiber (UWC), and yours truly.

Preview of the HERANA Book: Soon to be published!

Extract of draft chapter 9, forthcoming in:Cloete N, Maassen P & Bailey T (2015). Contradictory Functions, Knowledge Production and Pacts in African Higher Education (AHED Series: No. 1). Cape Town & Maputo: African Minds.

Chapter 9: Student Engagement and Citizenship CompetencesA Framework for Enhancing the Contribution of African Universities to Development

Thierry M Luescher-Mamashela[1], Vincent Ssembatya[2], Edwina Brooks[3], Randall S Lange[4], Taabo Mugume[5], Samantha Richmond[6]

 The roles of higher education in a democratising society

Taking Castells’ notion of development as a starting point, it is possible to appreciate the critical roles that universities play in the development of citizenship and democratic leadership in Africa. According to Castells, development as “the self-defined process […] by which humans, as a collective, enhance their wellbeing by creating the structural conditions for the expanded reproduction of the process of development itself” (Castells 2014: 3) involves a normative dimension that includes desirable values like “human rights, animal rights, equality, gender, empowerment and gender equality, solidarity, and the ability to live in a multicultural world [...], peace and democracy ...[which] includes and presupposes all other business of development (Castells 2014: 6). From a holistic perspective, the pursuit of social and economic development is necessarily linked to human development and both are intrinsically linked to the ability of the state which as the key collective agency of development is charged with creating the required structural conditions for development by means of different state initiatives and policies. The level of Africa’s socio-economic development today must thus be understood as a function of the historical and current weakness of its states to act as development agency for the collective (Castells 2014: 16). Thus, political underdevelopment remains a key structural constraint undermining all other efforts at development. While there are, of course, variations between countries as to the extent to which African states are weak, corrupt, inefficient or even predatory (Castells 2014: 16), what is important is to realise the interconnection between different elements of development and the primacy of politics. As Ghana’s first president, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, famously argued: “Seek ye first the political kingdom and all things shall be added unto you” (in Mazrui 2001: 128).

Over the course of history, universities have played various functions in their contribution to political, social and economic development. While not all universities fulfil all functions, and individual universities combine and recombine them differently over their history, the university system of a country has to combine somehow all of them. The functions have historically been additive; especially flagship institutions are expected to play multiple roles, which all involve elements of political socialisation. The first role is that as ideological apparatuses and producers of values and social legitimation. Then, especially flagship and elite universities have always played a key role in the selection of elites; in their socialisation and the formation of networks for their social cohesion. Universities play the crucial role of training high-skilled people, which includes the highly skilled labour force to run the complex institutions of modern society, including institutions of modern democracy, other state institutions, and civil society organisations. And finally, there is universities’ role in producing new knowledge, whereby the socio-economic and political conditions are of major importance to create the structural conditions for development (Castells 2009). In order to be able to fulfil these roles, universities have to be connected simultaneously to the information economy and to the socio-cultural challenges the society is undergoing (Cloete & Maassen, Chapter 1)

In political development, democratisation and the consolidation and sustainability of democracy, education has a special role with respect to political socialisation, and universities have been central in the process of shaping civic values, constructing a new basis of belonging and citizenship, educating citizen leaders (Pascarella & Terrenzini 2005), and “making possible equal opportunities for people” even in the socio-political realm (Castells 2009). The notion of ‘elite’ socialisation has a different meaning in a democratising society in that from a democratic perspective - however utopian the democratic ideal – it is inclusive: any citizen is potentially a citizen leader and member of the political ‘elite’. The imperfection of political reality in the actually existing democracies of our time is not to distract from this fundamentally egalitarian political ideal.

Citizenship education is with respect to these functions an essential part of contextually relevant education in democracies. It is premised on the complementarity of the notions that all individuals are entitled to human rights and all citizens are entitled to civil and political rights equally. In the words of UNESCO (2014: 1):

 All forms of citizenship education inculcate (or aim at inculcating) respect for others and recognition of the equality of all human beings; and at combating all forms of discrimination (racist, gender-based, religious, etc.) by fostering a spirit of tolerance and peace among human beings. Thus when we speak of the purposes to be ascribed to either citizenship education (producing citizens with moral qualities) or human rights education (comprising a knowledge of the social and political rights of all human beings, and their recognition) we inevitably end up with the complementarity between citizenship and human rights. (UNESCO 2014: 1)

The purpose of citizenship education is therefore to further democracy by educating people about their rights and the principles and institutions that govern them, in exercising critical judgement, and in their sense of self and responsibility towards others and their community (UNESCO 2014). This is meant to apply at all levels of education. Yet, citizenship education is more widely studied as a role of general education than specifically in relation to higher education; meanwhile, being placed at the apex of the education system, higher education has immense potential to contribute to the good of society by contributing to “the production and consolidation of values – ethical values, personal values – and the formation of flexible personalities” (Castells 2009: 4).

.... to be continued.......

---

[1] Directorate: Institutional Research and Academic Planning, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein/Mangaung, South Africa. Email: thierryluescher@outlook.com

[2] Directorate: Quality Assurance, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.

[3] Directorate: Student Development, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.

[4] Centre for Student Support Services, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.

[5] Department of Political Studies, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.

[6] Democracy in Africa Research Unit, Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.

Martin Hall to step down as University of Salford v-c | News | Times Higher Education

Martin Hall to step down as University of Salford v-c | News | Times Higher Education
My former PhD co-supervisor is retiring from his VC post in Salford, UK. 

Creating high impact citizens through student engagement - University World News

Creating high impact citizens through student engagement - University World News
HERANA studies done at the University of Cape Town and Makerere University, Kampala, provide for evidence on ways in which universities can foster citizenship competences through student engagement. I presented the HERANA Research Report at the HERANA 3 workshop in in November, and now again at the Talloires Network Leaders Conference in December in Stellenbosch/Cape Town. It is my critical intervention into a debate about learning success to take us closer to the development of whole citizens.
The final report will be published by CHET in January 2015, and a synthesis of the work will be published in a chapter in the AHED series of African Minds.

Continental HE challenges identified ahead of summit - University World News

Continental HE challenges identified ahead of summit - University World News

Africa's 2063 Agenda for Higher Education will be charted at the 2015 summit in Senegal. From HERANA we are preparing the first book in the new academic series African HE Dynamics (AHED) , edited by Peter Maassen of the University of Oslo and Nico Cloete from CHET/Stellenbosch University. My contribution in the book relates to the summit sub-theme on HE and citizenship.



Strategically, the book on "Student representation in higher education governance in Africa" James Jowi, Manja Klemenčič and I have been preparing with the contributions of colleagues from across the continent should also be ready for the summit.



Lots of work ahead!

Welcome at the University of the Free State

I am now a Kovsie, as we say :) That is a member of the University of the Free State, and I am proud of it. UFS is a fascinating university, with a history that is reflecting in so many ways the history of South Africa. It is in the heart of the country - the Free State Province - and its main campus is in the capital of the province and the judicial capital of South Africa: Bloemfontein/Mangaung. Find me in the Rector's building, the 'Main building' as it is called, in the Directorate: Institutional Research and Academic Planning. This is a multicultural university, so don't get distracted if someone speaks to you in Afrikaans or SeSotho, or if you hear many other languages spoken, like my neighbours at the Lofts who are on the Young Scientist Programme and who speak French, Lingala, and Gujurati.