Dr Taabo Mugume
Taabo Mugume was born on 23 February 1982 in Mbale, Uganda, where he completed his schooling at Kira Secondary School in 2000. After moving to South Africa, he attained a B.Admin (cum laude) in 2012, B.Admin Honours in 2013 and M.Admin (Political Studies; cum laude) in 2015 from the University of the Western Cape. I proudly was his supervisor for the M.Admin at UWC.
In 2017, he completed a PGDip in Higher Education (with distinction) at the University of the Free State (UFS) together with me. Both of us graduated with distinction having worked together at DIRAP while doing the PGDip at the same time.
His career started as Assistant Lecturer at UWC in 2014. He joined the UFS in 2015 as researcher in DIRAP, working for me while I was Assistant Director there, and by December 2025 he had become the Director: Monitoring and Institutional Research - which means, he had taken the post of the person who was my line manager when I was at the UFS. What achievement for Taabo; what pride for me.
Taabo, or rather: Dr Mugume, was awarded his PhD with his thesis titled:
Creative Governance and University Response to Student Protest Demands to Decolonise the Curriculum: A South African Case Study
In that study, Taabo investigates how a South African university’s governance structures responded to #MustFall student demands to decolonise the curriculum between 2015 and 2020. Using qualitative case study methods, including interviews with university leaders, academics, and student representatives, Mugume analyses three intra-institutional cases: the institution-wide language policy review and curriculum change processes in two faculties.
The study introduces and applies an adapted “Creative Governance for Curriculum Decolonisation” framework, showing how creative practices, such as a university assembly for consensus-building and inter-departmental decolonisation forums, enhanced responsiveness to student demands. It highlights governance self-assessment tools like the Council Score Card as mechanisms for improvement and proposes the creative governance framework as an analytical and practical tool to strengthen inclusive and responsive university governance in South Africa.
