Another milestone for the forthcoming book: #FeesMustFall - Ten Years On

In 2025-26 we commemorate the ten-year anniversary of the South African student movement of 2015-16, known by campaigns, campus movements and formations like #FeesMustFall, #EndOutsourcing, #RhodesMustFall, #OpenStellenbosch, #PatriarchyMustFall, #RUReferenceList. 

Starting from the end of 2015, a project started to create a number of archives on the movement, and in 2022 Dr Anye Nyamnjoh and I initiated a project specifically to provide a platform for a critical reflection on the history, significance, and legacy of the South African student movement. This started in 2023 with a national colloquium on the movement (see blog entry here). After this, a proposal and call for papers was developed for a book with an editorial team that included a broad spectrum of scholar-activists from different backgrounds. 

Now this process is gradually coming to a close. The Mandela University Press received the full manuscript of the book a month ago - and the book is now under review. Of course, the editors and the many authors and co-author teams are excitedly waiting for the outcome of the review and the process of publishing this important book to continue. 

If all goes well, the first book launches will be held before the end of the year and continue throughout 2026 - across South Africa and possibly also in major African, Global South and Global North centres of activism, higher education, and engaged scholarship. We are excited!

Rethinking higher education: Public and private synergies for student success in Africa

The July 2025 issue of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa arrives at a pivotal time in the discussions around higher education and student success in South Africa and on the continent. It comes also in the context of almost seismic global disruptions (and we are thinking here of AI, geo-political madness and climate change-related conflicts, combined with the ongoing structural challenges within African post-school education systems. This compels us to ask hard but essential questions: What kind of higher education systems do we need to serve our students and our societies better? And critically, can we afford to ignore the growing role of private higher education in that future?

The JSAA feature article is feathered by Ahmed Bawa and Linda Meyer, ‘Becoming more private: Broadening the base of South African higher education’. It courageously interrogates the long-standing public-private divide in the South African higher education sector and explores how declining government funding, siloed and ill-articulated institutions, and systemic socio-political inequality make the emboldened participation of private higher education not only viable but inevitable. A truly functional and future-oriented system must enable coordination, collaboration, and shared responsibility between all HE actors, public and private alike, toward a unified national learning agenda (and extending this into all Africa).

The rest of the issue builds on this theme of rethinking structures and support for student success across African higher education. There are articles on a health and wellness intervention programme; peer mentoring; the role of residence advisors in student academic success; on first-year student belonging; on counselling; on student activism, climate action and other student extracurricular activities and on managing an extended orientation programme in the context of COVID-19. The book review by Dr Sibeso Lisulo, reflects on Widening university access and participation in the Global South: Using the Zambian context to inform other developing countries by Edward Mboyonga. According to Lisulo, the book offers both case-based insights and transferable strategies for inclusion and equity that higher education leaders across the continent would do well to consider. 

As this issue illustrates, student success is not merely a matter of programme design, it is a systemic concern. This invites us to examine the assumptions, architectures, and power dynamics that shape our institutions. Whether we are talking about health, belonging, leadership, activism, or orientation, we must look not just at what we do within universities, but how our systems are organised, and how public and private actors can align for the broader public good. This alignment will necessarily raise questions about purpose, equity, access, and what kind of higher education architecture we need for a just and thriving Africa.

Rethinking higher education in Africa thus requires us to think across several levels or units of analysis – from the micro, individual level of student experience and student success, to support for different groups of students and rethinking the roles of residences, for example, in the academic and social engagement of students. It includes the meso level of institutional diversity and complementarity, and at the macro level, the purpose of higher education in Africa. We started this editorial with reference to the growing polarisation we see in the world – from “geopolitical madness” to conflicts around migration and increasing climate-change-related conflicts. Universities in Africa have to create transformative leaders (with the values, knowledges, attitudes, skills and networks) to respond to the fast-changing context and create peaceful, prosperous and equitable societies. Contributing to this as student affairs professionals, scholars and researchers, gives meaning to our work. And if our institutions fail to deliver on the promise of freedom, peace and prosperity, then they might as well be trade schools.

Birgit, Thierry and Teboho

This is a shortened version of the latest editorial in JSAA. The full editorial can be found at:

Schreiber, B., Luescher, T. M., & Moja, T. (2025). Rethinking higher education: Public and private synergies for student success in Africa. Journal of Student Affairs in Africa, 13(1), v–vii. DOI: 10.24085/jsaa.v13i1.6227 

Reimagining the African University of the future - Thought-leader interviews

Mark Paterson and I just concluded a series of over 40 brief articles in University World News Africa based on interviews with African higher education thought-leaders. The articles highlight key ideas and innovative practices in African higher education that anticipate the 'future African university' today. They engage with current debates in African higher education such as the growing place and use of African languages in higher education (as against colonial languages); African indigenous knowledge systems and epistemologies; curricular reforms and changes in the delivery of higher education; the impact of massification on a range of matters like university funding, student and staff complements, infrastructure, diversity of institutions and differentiation; and the increasing emphasis on 'tertiary TVET', professional training and practical skills, and so forth. 

The thought-leaders were carefully chosen to include a wide range of scholars, professionals, youth leaders, and grant-makers that are deeply and reflectively involved in the development of universities across the continent. They include: 

Goolam Mohamedbhai, Mogobe Ramose, Reitumetse Mabokela, Rekgotsofetse Chikane, Dzul Razak, Catherine Odora Hoppers, Neil Turok, Adam Habib, Madeleine Arnot, Paul Zeleza, Tade Aina, Lihle Ngcobozi, Rajesh Tandon, Claudia Frittelli, Peter Materu, Birgit Schreiber, William Mpofu, Saleem Badat, Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Laura Czerniewicz, Issa Shivji, Nelson Masanche Nkhoma, Cheryl de la Rey, Doyin Atewologun, Tshilidzi Marwala, Ndungu Kahihu, Patrício Langa, Teboho Moja, Chris Bradford, Fred Swaniker, Shanen Ganapathee, Ernest Aryeetey, Yunus Ballim, Achille Mbembe, David Awuah, Thoko Mayekiso, and Fikile Vilakazi. 

In the choice of this illustrious group of thought-leaders, the project team of The Imprint of Education (TIE) project of the Human Sciences Research Council took care to try and balance the views by adding selection criteria (other than the ones above) to also ensure gender, age, region, and broad expertise. In addition to the UWN articles, some of the (edited and approved) transcripts of the interviews are also published on the TIE website. Maybe I should mention that it wasn't only I who did interviews but a whole range of TIE project collaborators, including: Catherine Odora Hoppers, Ibrahim Oanda, Relebohile Moletsane, David Everatt, Crain Soudien, James Otieno Jowi, Sharlene Swartz, Krish Chetty, Alude Mahali, Angelique Wildschut and Vuyiswa Mathambo.

After the conclusion of the series, the second big step now is the publication of the book "Rupture and innovation in the African university", which I co-authored over the last 16 months with Vuyiswa Mathambo, Angelique Wildschut and Crain Soudien. It is due to be published by AISA Press (the Africa Institute of South Africa Press), which is an imprint of the HSRC Press. We hope it will also be co-published with CODESRIA Press which would then be the leading house for the French version of the book. 

Creating a sustainable diamond open access future for African scholarly journals

 The Journal of Student Affairs in Africa (JSAA), of which I am a founder and editorial executive, has received a substantial development grant to support its decadelong history as diamond open access journal into the future. 

The grant-maker is EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries), which is a not-for-profit organisation based in Vilnius, Lithuania, that works with libraries and journals to enable access to knowledge in developing and transition economy countries in Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe and Latin America. JSAA shares EIFL's vision of "a world in which all people have the knowledge they need to achieve their full potential". 

EIFL has provided JSAA with funding to hold its first ever in-person full editorial team workshop; build capacity and tools (such as an editorial manual and a financial sustainability plan); renew its editorial team and operationalise the community of practice in student affairs research that JSAA launched in 2022. The  grant-holder is JSAA's long-term project partner and publisher, African Minds.

In March 2025, the JSAA editors held an editorial summit and workshop in the historic town of Porto (Portugal). The venue was chosen among several options (Zanzibar, Mauritius, South Africa, Morocco and Portugal) because it turned out to be more accessible and less costly for the editors who come from South Africa, Germany, USA, Ethiopia, and the UK. Nonetheless, parts of the workshop was held hybrid to enable a full participation including editors, who for various reasons were not able to join in person (several last-minute).

The five-day editorial summit/workshop focused on (1) discussing the financial sustainability plan; (2) discussing the operationalisation of (a) the community of practice and (b) the JSAA awards; (3)  discussing the renewal of the editorial board and international editorial advisory board; and (4) developing a draft operational manual for JSAA. In addition and somewhat unexpectedly, the three Editorial Executives present in person at the summit also developed (5) a new concept paper on ways to enhance JSAA's contribution to the professionalisation of student affairs with extensive capacity building work. This, they included in their Yidan Prize application. As part of the context: On the encouragement of some of the most outstanding higher education and student affairs scholars and professionals world-wide and particularly in Africa, Prof Moja, Prof Schreiber and I have applied for the educational development prize given annually by the Yidan Prize committee.

The draft operational manual that the summit produced includes a detailed outline of the procedures, some automated and some manual involved in producing JSAA. This Operational Manual will be the guide to review and renew the JSAA website and serve as training tool and reference manual for new and existing section editors, editorial executives, and journal managers. Once complete, the operational Manual will include sections on:

1. Manuscript Submission Management
2. Editorial Review and Assignment
3. Peer Review Coordination
4. Decision Making
5. Manuscript Revision Management
6. Copy Editing
7. Formatting and Layout
8. Proofreading
10. Marketing and Promotion
11. Ethical Oversight, Plagiarism and AI
12. Administrative Tasks
13. Quality Control, and Improvement
14. Mentorship 

This will be drawing on, and update, the present author guidelines for submission and publishing, but dealing with it from the perspective of editors of the journal. 

New issue published: JSAA 12(2): Advancing Student Success

This is the second guest-edited issue in partnership with the South African Association of Senior Student Affairs Professionals (SAASSAP), led by guest editors Drs Neo Pule, Irene Mohasoa,  and  Prof.  Matete  Madiba.  

The  title  of  this  issue,  ‘Advancing  Student  Success  in  Higher  Education  through  the  Scholarship  of  Integration’, emphasises the importance of scholarship. For student affairs scholarship  in  Africa to be  successful  we  require  a  conducive  ecosystem  that  advances knowledge creation and facilitates the publishing process. Many factors within and beyond academe enable or hinder knowledge production. 

Enjoy the read! Thierry

Advancing Critical University Studies in Africa - Methodology Academy: Learning 'World Cafe'

The Advancing Critical University Studies (ACUS) Africa Conference is an annual inter-institutional conference and training event. This year it was structured as a conference incorporating a methodology academy for emerging scholars in critical university studies with add-on workshop-based training in a participatory and emancipatory methodology (World Cafe). 

Overall, the intended learning outcome was to strengthen the critical and theoretical thinking of (emerging and early career researcher) EECR  participants about African higher education and universities in Africa. Researchers and academics from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), University of Venda, Nelson Mandela University, and Makerere University, conceived and facilitated an EECR World Café research methods academy that ran in conjunction with the ACUS Africa Conference with the outcome to give participants a thorough conceptual, methodological and practical introduction to the World Café methodology. 

For the HSRC, participation was conceived primarily in terms of the training academy for emerging African scholars working on higher education. 

Participation in the World Café EECRA ran as part of the conference sessions which HSRC participants and other participants were a part of and attendance of the academy required an additional sign-up and commitment. Thus, the methodology academy ran specifically for the African EECR attending, in addition to the theoretical and thematic conference papers and discussion. Attendance was entirely free of charge, and for the first time, it was conducted in hybrid format (online and offline).

From the HSRC EEE in particular, the programme included the following panelllists: 

• Prof. Thierry Luescher and Dr Keamogetse Morwe co-facilitated the academy workshops in which over 140 EECR participated both online and in-place
• Leya Mgebisa and Zimingonaphakade Sigenu co-facilitated in place the World Café research methodology and hosted feedback sessions during the course of the workshop
• Zimingonaphakade Sigenu presented a paper on the isiXhosa intellectual archive and insights for contemporary African universities

The broader make-up of participants comprised around 150 emerging and early career researchers from Makerere University, specifically those who are completing their Masters and PhD studies in the East African School of Higher Education Studies and Development as well as early career and emerging scholars from a number of institutions in Ghana, Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, and South Africa. 

The participation was characterised by active engagements both in-place and on-site with the emerging scholars participating in a practical exercise of the World Café methodology with some of them being table hosts (data collectors) and study participants addressing the questions, "What are some of the persistent inequities and challenges that universities in Africa face in becoming Afrocentric universities?" and "What practical steps can we pursue towards creating an Afrocentric university?"

Like in previous years, the Academy was particularly problem and project-oriented, with a practical component of actually participating in the design and operation of a research project using World Cafe. 

The participation also included the participants actively reflecting and feeding back on the methodology and experience of practically implementing it as well as carving out ways in which the methodology can be used for decolonial and emancipatory research and ways to incorporate indigenous practices within the methodology to make it better suited for the African context.

The Academy ran from 16 to 18 October 2024. 

The four-dimensional professor

 In a complex and changing academic context, early career academics must be aware of the many dimensions that academic work involves. In whatever discipline or field you are building your career, there are global challenges that cannot be ignored, alongside global efforts to address these challenges, such as the UN SDGs. We are in the midst of the threat of climate change wreaking havoc across the Global South, and just survived one of the most deadly global pandemics in human history; there are massive technological advancement and an incisive digital transformation underway with AI offering huge opportunities as well as challenges and threats. In the midst of this, academic work must provide equitable quality education and contribute to deep societal transformation, especially in post-colonial and post-conflict societies in the Global South. In short: we need a new generation of academics who can provide transformative leadership across the multiple functions of academic work; academic game-changers.

What are those dimensions?

Among the top-of-mind academic work functions are:

• Teaching & Advising
• Community engagement
• Development & support
• Research & knowledge production
• Reflective practice
• Academic citizenship

In the dimension of research, knowledge production and reflective practice (and its interrelation with community engagement, as well as teaching, advising and academic citizenship,) developing an identity as researcher-academic is becoming increasingly important. My argument is that the conception of the 'teacher-academic' of previous centuries has given way to that of the 'researcher-academic' in the last fifty years or so, increasingly ubiquitously, not anymore in the exception of the 'star research professor' but it is the new normal.

In this new normal, the 'researcher-academic' is a professor who takes the leap into the 'fourth dimension' - leading in knowledge creation, policy influence, partnerships, transformation and sustainability. 

This transformation of the academic work and the workplace, there are naturally tensions. In the 'fourth dimension' - determining knowledge production - the three-dimensional professor of old becomes a digitally-enhanced, natural and artificial intelligence-connected, multiverse being; but tensions abound. I have not even reflected on many of them related to the digital and AI connection yet, but rather on some of the 'old' vs. 'new' tensions, like at the very basic level, of taking the leap from scholar to researcher; tensions between type 1 and type 2 knowledges; collaboration (with other human and machine colleagues) or working in the hermetically, and so forth.

The fourth dimension is also the one where dreams become reality in ways that a 20th century steel and mortar generation still feels hard to grapple with; the creation of international consortia, policy laboratories, global research studios, and so forth, has become cost-neutral. The most precious resource remains time (money has always been a distraction)! 

And like MS and others have long discovered, the true value is not in owning the application, but developing and maintaining the platform. Hence, a key issue - undervalued but of paramount importance - is to be in the centre of the knowledge process as owner and editor of knowledge platforms, like scholarly journals.

I'll leave this here; many of these thoughts are ready for building up, critiquing, developing. I'll love to hear from you. 

(A detailed version of this discourse was delivered by me as keynote at the Research Indaba, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, 11 October 2024.)

Towards a new entrepreneurial student activism

The month of June is knows in South Africa as "Youth Month" in extension of Youth Day which is celebrated on 16 June every year. The South African youth day reminds of the protests of black school learners in Soweto and other parts of the country against the imposition of Afrikaans as language of tuition in black schools. With these protests, known as the Soweto Uprising, the year 1976 marks a turning point in the history of the liberation struggle in South Africa. After over a decade of repression. Post-1959, that is, following the Sharpeville  and Langa Massacres where in a peaceful protest march against pass laws over sixty black civilians were killed brutally by the white police, an entire generation of freedom fighters in South Africa were incarcerated by the Apartheid regime, many liberation organisations banned, and the remaining leadership of the African National Congress, the Pan Africanist Congress, the Communist Party of South Africa, and others fled into exile. It was the trade union movement and the student movement - particularly the SA Students Organisation founded by Steve Biko and others - that revived the struggle in the early 1970s. The latter elaborated their political philosophy of Black Consciousness and thus inspired a new generation of young black South Africans to resist their apartheid classification, marginalisation, exploitation and exclusion. 

The University of Venda, under the leadership of the Department of Youth in Development and particularly my good friend and colleague, Dr Keamo Morwe, hosted the 2024 Youth Month Celebrations  on 17 June (one day after the actual youth day) with panel and plenary discussions, debates, and a luncheon. I was invited as guest speaker and guest panelist. 

In my public lecture to the assembled student and staff body I reflected on 'entrepreneurial student activism' as a form of activism that builds bridges between campus and community, student life and livelihoods, political agency and economic freedom. In this speech I drew on my experiences over twenty years ago as a student vice-president at the University of Cape Town, where as an SRC, we adopted a student entrepreneurship policy and developed several structures to support student entrepreneurship. These included "Student Enterprises" as a holding company for student-run businesses on campus, including the student bookshop; the "Student Research Institute" which provided training to students and offered student-led research consultancy to campus and community clients; as well as other student-run social enterprises like "SHAWCO and RAG", "Ufundo" and so forth. 

The Univen staff journalists summarised my lecture in their university magazine as follows:

"In his lecture, Prof Luescher explored the contemporary realities faced by today’s youth, including their struggles and triumphs. He also shed light on the unique perspectives and innovative solutions that young people bring to society. 

His talk sparked a lively and dynamic discussion among the students, who were inspired to reflect on the vital role of youth in shaping the future of our communities. 

Prof Luescher also stressed the critical role that young people play in driving leadership and entrepreneur-ship. In his public lecture, he underscored the importance of empowering youth to take on leadership roles and explore entrepreneurial opportunities, noting that their unique perspectives and innovative ideas can spur economic growth and promote social change."

I also reflected on the various ways in which student entrepreneurship was being supported nationally by Universities South Africa (USAf) and at the University of Venda. This led me to recite a 'found poem' called "Towards a student entrepreneurial training ground" to conclude my talk (see below).

Because Youth Day is all about student activism, Keamo and I brought the "Aftermath of #FeesMustFall" to Univen five years after we conducted our research there with students in 2019. While none of the original student participants in the Univen Photovoice project were available, it was amazing that there were former student activists at the Youth Day celebration who are depicted in the book "#FeesMustFall and its Aftermath" and we were extremely pleased to be able to gift them a copy of the book and hear their story of the photo and protests. 

Towards a student entrepreneurial training ground

I found this poem when I was reading the USAf Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) programme, the national initiative for student entrepreneurship. I call it "Towards a student entrepreneurial training ground". It goes like this: 

The context: graduate and youth unemployment 
The resources: here at university
The goals: create enterprises, wealth and jobs

* * * 

Instilling the mind of the entrepreneur
with relevant knowledge, 
transferable skills 
financial literacy and
business principles
In every discipline, within and across.

Developing into entrepreneurial universities
With a supportive environment
Adopting and adapting 
Strategies and projects
through innovation and support.

* * * 

Four Cs throughout:
Concept and Competence 
Connections and Courage.

Concept: What will we do? What is the plan? How can we offer value?
Competence: Who knows what? What can we do? And what we need to learn?
Connections asks: Who’s who? Who does what? Who is our network and client?
Courage boldly moves ahead for: Why not now? Let’s get it done! Let’s persevere in struggle.

* * *

Academics and student affairs
embedding entrepreneurship 
in curriculum and co-curriculum
in pedagogies, methodologies, 
epistemologies, and ontologies
relevant to our context. 

Economically active
Taking ownership
to implement initiatives. 
to start a career here 
and generate income.

During and after campus
ending student poverty 
defeating unemployment 
crating livelihoods
as students and graduate entrepreneurs. 

T Luescher 2024

C4P: #FeesMustFall Ten Years On: A critical examination of the history, significance, and legacy of the 2015–16 student movement in South Africa

Abstracts/proposals of 300–500 words must be emailed to anyenyamnjoh@gmail.com by 15 June 2024 (please request an extension if needed). See the full call here. 

 In 2025, we commemorate the 10th anniversary of South African students’ calls for free decolonised higher education, propelled by digitally networked student movements and campaigns such as #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall. We invite scholars, higher education practitioners, (former) activists, participants and observers, and storytellers to contribute their insights, diverse perspectives, research, and reflections on the 2015/16 student moment, its aftermath, impacts, and significance. 

Anticipated themes / sections: 

• History, causes and conditions in which the movements emerged • Case studies of specific campus movements, campaigns and events • The strategies and tactics of the movements • Sustaining movements over time and wellbeing of activists • Solidarity, positionality and intersectionality • Translocal and international resonance of the movements • The conceptual and theoretical contributions of the movements • The political and policy impact of the movements • The methodological and pedagogical impact of the movements • The personal and biographical impact of the movements on individuals and groups • Critical self-reflections and autobiographies from activists 

Submissions can take the form of research articles; reflective practice accounts; creative writing; visual essays and art; autoethnographic, personal narratives and testimonials; transcripts; manifestos and declarations.

IASAS Global Summit - South Korea: What is the "Africa Cafe" research methodology?

Currently the Annual Global Summit of the International Association of Student Affairs and Services (IASAS) is underway in Daegu, South Korea. I am so proud that four of my close research colleagues and friends are there and present papers on which I am collaborating with them, even if I decided that I can't be in South Korea at this time.

Dr Lisa Bardill Moscaritolo, Dr Brett Perozzi and Prof Birgit Schreiber are presenting on our findings from the global survey on student affairs and sustainable development goals (SDGs). We have previously published on some of these findings. Here is the reference and access to the open access article:

Schreiber, B., Perozzi, B., Bardill Moscaritolo, L., and Luescher, T.M. (2024). Student Affairs and Services: The Global South Leading the Global North in the Adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals. Journal of International Students, 14(2),91-104. Open Access.

Dr Keamo Morwe is presenting on the world cafe research methodology and the work we did together with student affairs practitioners and former student activists using this methodology. We are now starting to call our adaptation of this method "Africa Cafe" because we are using principles of African ethics and humanism like ubuntu and considerations of African ontology and epistemology in our adaptation of the methodology. We will spell this out in detail with examples based on our work on four university campuses in a forthcoming article.

Student Affairs promoting engaged and student-centred higher education

Towards community-engaged and student-centred universities

This  guest-edited  issue  of  the  Journal  of  Student  Affairs  in  Africa  (JSAA)  originates  in  conversations during the build-up to the National Higher Education Conference entitled ‘The  Engaged  University’,  which  was  organised  by  USAf  in  partnership  with  the  South  African  Council  on  Higher  Education  and  held  from  6  to  8  October  2021  (USAf,  2022).  The  special  JSAA  issue  was  originally  proposed  jointly  by  Dr  Bernadette  Johnson  (USAf  and University of the Witwatersrand) and Dr Amani Saidi (Council on Higher Education). 

Eventually, support for the special issue moved under the auspices of USAf and its Higher Education Leadership and Management (HELM) programme, and to the responsibility of Dr Oliver Seale, Prof. André Keet, and Dr Johnson, who asked Prof. Thierry Luescher and Dr Somarie Holtzhausen to act as guest editors of the issue. Here are some of the topics in  this  issue’s  articles  that  we  are  sure  will  generate much thinking, debate and further research in the sector.

Ubuntu in the practices of African graduates and students

A strong theme in this issue’s articles relates to learning relationships among students, relationships between graduates and wider society, and the conception of these relations in terms of ubuntu. With the article ‘“Giving back is typical African culture”: Narratives of  giveback  from  young  African  graduates’,  the  research  team  led  by  Alude  Mahali-Bhengu  at  the  Human  Sciences  Research  Council  makes  a  critical  intervention  in  our  understanding of African graduates’ social consciousness and the kinds of interventions that  foster  commitments  to  transformative  leadership,  community  engagement,  and  giving back to society even after students have left university. Drawing on a wide dataset from  across  several  African  countries,  they  show  how  African  graduates’  practices  of  giving  back  to  family,  community,  and  society,  change  over  time,  and  how  their  conceptions of give-back are evidence of a strong sense of ubuntu. 

Mikateko  Mathebula  and  Carmen  Martinez-Vargas  place  ubuntu  front  and  centre  in their conception of a capabilities-based framework for assessing the performance of higher  education  in  terms  of  supporting  student  well-being.  Analysing  data  from  two  longitudinal research projects with undergraduate students in South African universities, they  infer  that  ubuntu  underpins  the  ways  students  tend  to  relate  to  each  other  –  as  interdependent  partners  of  a  learning  community  –  while  at  university.  Considering  the  deeply  relational  ways  of  being  of  African  students  at  university,  Mathebula  and  Martinez-Vargas  advocate  for  embracing  an  African  indigenous  worldview  and  the  creation of conditions for students to be able to achieve the capability of ubuntu.

The articles by Mahali et al. and Mathebula and Martinez-Vargas strongly relate to each other: the former shows the results of deliberately fostering an ethic of give-back and  transformative  leadership  among  students  and  the  latter,  articulating  ubuntu  as  capability,  illustrates  how  students  ways  of  relating  on  a  daily  basis  already  evidence  an  ubuntu  ethic.  These  two  articles  are  followed  by  a  third  in  which  an  ubuntu  ethic  is  evident.  Dumile  Gumede  and  Maureen  Sibiya  analyse  the  self-care  practices  of  first-year  students  in  managing  stressors  during  the  COVID-19  pandemic.  They  use  digital  storytelling  as  data  collection  method.  Their  findings  show  that  first-year  students  engaged in a range of self-care practices across all the six domains of self-care whereby relational  self-care  was  the  most  fundamental  domain  that  underpinned  first-year  students’ well-being. They therefore recommend a student affairs self-care programme design  to  prevent  harm  and  support  adequate  self-care  which  should  include  social  involvement and relational engagement as fundamental principles. 

Technology and support for enhanced student engagement and success

Following the special COVID-19 issue of JSAA in 2021, the experience of the pandemic continues  to  inspire  research  that  gives  new  insights  into  students’  adaptation  and  resilience  to  fast  changes  in  the  culture  of  teaching  and  learning  and  the  place  of  technologically  enhanced  teaching  and  learning  in  African  universities.  Sonja  Loots,  Francois  Strydom  and  Hanlé Posthumus  have  analysed a large  set  of  qualitative  data  from  the  South  African  Survey  of  Student  Engagement  collected  during  the  pandemic.  They  explore  factors  that  support  student  learning  and  development  and  how  these  factors may be translated to enhance student engagement in blended learning spaces. Loots and her colleagues find that relational engagement (between students and their peers,  students  and  lecturers,  students  and  support  staff  and  administrative  staff,  and  even  students  and  the  learning  content)  is  central  to  the  student  learning  experience.  Learning technologies may enhance relational engagement if these platforms are used to create blended learning environments that support learning and development. 

Extended curriculum programmes (ECP) predate the pandemic and its ramifications on   students’   lives.   Such   programmes  were   developed   to   provide   promising,   yet   underprepared  students  with  the  necessary  foundations  to  achieve  success  in  higher  education.  The  question  of  how  students  in  extended  curriculum  programmes  can  be  better  supported  continues  to  concern  student  affairs  practitioners  like  Lamese  Chetty  and  Brigitta  Kepkey.  Their  article  explores  students’  interest  in,  awareness  and  utilisation  of  support  services  offered  as  part  of  an  extended  curriculum  programme  in  health  sciences.  Their  analysis  of  survey  and  qualitative  responses  of  the  first-year  students  showed  that  students  were  not  as  well  informed  as  they  should  be,  and  that  they accessed support services related to administrative, academic, and psychological/emotional or support needs much more frequently than those services related to other health needs or security services. It also showed that there remained a stigma around access to and use of certain support services. 

The  article  by  Rishen  Roopchund  and  Naadhira  Seedat  illustrates  how  a  voluntary  student  organisation   can   promote   student   well-being   and   engagement,   student-centredness  and  student  development.  Their  study  focuses  on  a  department-based  chemical  engineering  student  association  and  its  relationships  with  departmental  staff  members  and  other  university  departments  (such  as  community  engagement)  in  organising a range of student development and community engagement activities. The authors  propose  an  action  plan  for  the  association’s  future  improvement  and  growth,  which can serve as a template for other initiatives of this nature.

Equipping students for successful transitions into livelihoods

The article by Taurai Hungwe and colleagues, ‘Diaries of establishing an entrepreneurship incubator at a health sciences university’, recounts a range of challenges and experiences they  documented  in  the  process  of  establishing  an  entrepreneurship  incubator  to  support  student  entrepreneurial  development  at  a  health  sciences  university  in  South  Africa.  They  describe  and  critically  reflect  on  matters  such  as  the  funding,  staffing,  planning and operation of the incubation centre during its inception and building phase, and they consider the critical milestones they have reached and offer recommendations to others interested in embarking on such a journey. 

Entrepreneurship skills are often mentioned as increasingly important for students to  navigate  the  current  complex  world  of  work  and  develop  sustainable  livelihoods.  Nowhere  is  this  more  evident  than  in  the  article  by  Andrea  Juan  and  her  research  colleagues.   ‘Graduate   transitions   in   Africa:   Understanding   strategies   of   livelihood   generation  for  universities  to  better  support  students’  shows  that  the  notion  of  a  straightforward  transition  from  university  into  full-time  employment  is  not  the  typical  experience of African university graduates. Indeed, Juan and her colleagues found that such a path is accessible to only a minority of African graduates. For the majority, their post-graduation  livelihood  pathways  are  multidimensional  and  complex,  involving  any  combination  of  paid  employment  and  unpaid  work  (such  as  internships  or  home  care-giving), entrepreneurship ventures, further studies, and unemployment. They show how important it is for African universities to help graduates navigate the challenges of post-graduation  income  generation  and  diversification  by  developing  key  transferable  skills  and resources early, including entrepreneurship skills, and affording graduates continued access to career development support and other transition services on campus. 

Chanaaz  Charmain  January’s  contribution  deals  with  the  role  of  student  affairs  in  the  transformation  of  higher  education  and  student  success.  Against  her  development  of  a  framework  for  higher  education  transformation  that  blends  equity  and  excellence,  January discusses how student affairs can best contribute to student success. In a mini-case study, she discusses successful collaborations in the student residence sector at the University of Cape Town. She also shows how the transformation framework may cascade down to a diverse set of graduate attributes called ‘Student Learning Imperatives’. 

The full issue is available open access online at: www.jsaa.ac.za

Global South student affairs professionals lead the way in implementing SDGs in Higher Ed

 In an amazing twist, our research with student affairs and services professionals around the globe has found that practitioners in universities in the Global South are more knowledgeable about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and more readily conceptualise their work in SDG terms and implement/address certain SDGs in what they do.

The survey results from the work of Birgit Schreiber, Brett Perozzi, Lisa Bardill Moscaritolo and I has just been published in the Journal of International Students. 

The journal is open access and the article can be found here at OJS.  

Researching with and for Mastercard Foundation

The Mastercard Foundation has been in existence for less than two decades but is making great impact in African secondary and tertiary education. For almost five years now, the HSRC is working closely with MCF to study The Imprint of Education or lasting contribution of the educational opportunities and support afforded by the Foundation's Scholars Program to former beneficiaries. The HSRC's research involves thousands of former African recipients of Mastercard Foundation scholarships; university and NGO partners in the implementation of the Scholars Program; as well as experts from across the African higher education landscape. 

My contribution to date has been as a project 'learning activity' leader and liaison researcher for the Rwandan tertiary alumni cohort. The multi-million, multi-year project is divided into several sub-projects or learning activities, which includes a large-scale tracer study (surveys running for several years); in-depth interviews and other work (like social network interviews, annual self-reflections on goals and progress, and the like) with several hundred tertiary alumni across Africa; documentary and pod-cast production with and by alumni as well as the creation of a virtual museum; and reflective research on transformative leadership, social consciousness, post-education pathways, and so forth. 

My sub-project is forward-looking and asks: What are the developments, ruptures and innovations, in African higher education, that help us to (re-)imagine the African university?

I am working with a fantastic core team including Dr Angelique Wildschut, Prof. Crain Soudien and Ms Vuyiswa Mathambo, to mention but a few. We are supported in our work by Prof David Everatt (Wits), Prof Lebo Moletsane (UKZN), Prof Catherine Odora-Hoppers (Gulu), Dr James Otieno Jowi (Anie / East African Commuity), and several other HE experts. 

Among the main activities in our sub-project has been to interview a diversity of African higher education 'thought-leaders' - that is experts in different areas; persons with great insight and imagination - on the present and future of the African university. They include some of the most recognizable names in African higher education studies across different professions, disciplines, roles and contexts, including for example Prof Goolam Mohamedbhai, Prof Tade Aina, Prof Paul Zeleza, Prof Tshilidzi Marwala, Mr Rekgotsofetse Chikane, Prof Teboho Moja, Dr Birgit Schreiber, Prof Laura Czerniewicz, Prof Sabelo Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Prof Achille Mbembe, Dr Doyin Atewologun, Prof Reitumetse Mabokela, Prof Cheryl de la Rey, Prof Madeleine Arnot, and so forth. 

The interview transcripts are freely available for download at https://hsrc.ac.za/our-research/learning-activity-4-reimagining-the-african-university/  and we have published short articles on all of these interviews in the Africa Edition (and Global Edition) of University World News Africa, co-authored by Mark Patterson and I. 

As the next big leap in this The Imprint of Education project, I am happy to announce that we are fast moving forward with compiling a fantastic book that captures the innovativeness in African higher education and shows what ideas and practices anticipate a new kind of African university, that is more relevant, decolonised, open, and excellent, than what any of us may be able to imagine.