Surviving Covid-19

 

On 30 December 2020 I fell ill and on 4 January 2021 I went for Covid-19 testing at the public primary health care clinic in Claremont, Cape Town. A day later, the result came back positive. By then, my health was already quite strained.

Over the next 10 days I was getting very weak, tired, sore body, fever and headaches. Eventually, also coughing and sore lungs, but I was never 'out of breath' to the extent that I felt I needed extra-help. I sunned myself 30 min per day, took my vitamins BCD, Zinc, Selenium, Calcium and Magnesium, and other supplements, as well as Aspirin and at night flu-medicine. Most importantly perhaps was lots of rest, care, and faith. There were days that I slept 16 to 18 hours. 

Three weeks later I have restarted work - ironically one of the first projects I worked last week is the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa's Covid-19 Special Issue which is expected to be published in March 2021. 

 

Congratulations - Dr Keamo Morwe

Today I had the rare pleasure to attend a viva voce - an oral examination - of my PhD student, Ms Keamo Morwe, or rather, freshly baked Dr Keamo Morwe. Her grade according to the thesis examination committee: EXCELLENT! The viva voce was held, due to C-19, online.

The examination was done by the main university that Keamo was doing her PhD at, the University of Malaga in Spain. But she is in the fortunate position to have been co-registered at the University of the Free State in South Africa, and will therefore also have UFS co-confer the degree.

This wonderful outcome of yet another supervision process comes on the same day as I receive from Human Sciences Research Council the Award as the Best Mentor of the Year. This is in recognition of my work in capacity development, as formal and informal mentor, and as supervisor at universities. At the same award ceremony, two of my former mentees also received the top awards as junior researcher of the year, Nkululeko Makhubu, and as emerging, early career researcher of the year, Dr Angelina Wilson Fadiji, both of which co-published extensively with me in the last year. 

I am very happy to be able to play a constructive role in so many students, interns and emerging research staff members. While I often miss the formal work in learning facilitation that I had as a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Western Cape, there are opportunities even in the context of a science council and by my secondary affiliation with the University of the Free State. 

My association with Keamo is far from past. She is a co-PI with me on the "Violence and Wellbeing" project of which the previous post about the "Aftermath" exhibition is an outcome.

Aftermath: Violence and Wellbeing in the Context of the Student Movement

I would like to proudly present to you:

The exhibition, Aftermath: Violence and Wellbeing in the Context of the Student Movement, is a collection of 34 images taken and/or supplied by student leaders, which they reflect on as representations of their experiences of violence during the #FeesMustFall student movement - and their search for wellbeing after these experiences. 

The images have been selected and curated from more than 100 images that were produced as part of a photovoice research project hosted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in the course of 2019/20. The HSRC research team held photovoice workshops with 26 student leaders and activists on five campuses of universities which experienced high levels of violence during the 2015/16 #FeesMustFall student movement. Student participants were selected from University of the Western Cape (UWC), University of Venda (Univen), University of the Free State (UFS), University of Fort Hare (UFH) and Durban University of Technology (DUT) and participated in institution-specific, face-to-face photovoice workshops on their respective campuses. Among the criteria for participation were that they should have experienced violence as part of student protests on their campus - whether as observers, victims or perpetrators - during the 2015/16 student protests. In curating the exhibition, the themes that emerged were protest and violence, oppressive spaces, safe spaces, patriarchy (and the defiance of it), fear, escape, trauma, unity and wellbeing.

The aim of this exhibition is to raise awareness about the levels of violence on university campuses and the impact this has on student wellbeing. While trying to put pressure on often uncaring and unresponsive university leaders and policy makers, students end up being exposed to unacceptable levels of violence, either perpetrated by students themselves or as victims of the violent responses carried onto campuses by police and security services. 

The student leaders and activists, whose reflections are represented in these pictures and accompanying captions, have expressed the hope that by sharing their photos and stories, an awareness would be created in the public, in government and among higher education policy makers and university leaders. They hope that this awareness will ensure that student grievances are taken seriously without the need for protesting. They also hope that student counselling services are expanded to better support students who struggle with mental health issues.

This exhibition is available online at South African History Online at: https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/student-protests-democratic-south-africa and https://www.sahistory.org.za/exibition/aftermath  

Information about research outputs and the exhibition-related book can be found on the HSRC website at: http://www.hsrc.ac.za/en/departments/ied/student-movement 

Research team members:
Prof Thierry M. Luescher, principal investigator - HSRC and University of the Free State
Dr Keamogetse G. Morwe, co-principal investigator - University of Venda
Dr Angelina Wilson Fadiji, project manager - Formerly HSRC; Currently senior lecturer, University of Pretoria
Ms Kulani Mlambo, NRF master’s scholar - University of Venda
Ms Tshireletso S. Letsoalo, NRF master’s scholar - University of Pretoria
Mr Antonio Erasmus, graphic designer and photographer - HSRC

Student leaders and activists who participated in this project: 
University of the Western Cape: Azania Simthandile Tyhali, Sphelele Khumalo, Ncedisa Bemnyama, Asandiswa Bomvana, Siyasanga Ndwayi. 
University of Venda: Bob Sandile Masango, Abednego Sam Mandhlazi, Mabore Machete, Blessing Mavhuru, Frans Sello Mokwele, Conry H. Chabalala, Tshepo Raseala, Anyway Mikioni, Mulaedza Mashapha, Dimakatso Ngobeni 
University of the Free State: Tshepang Mahlatsi, Tshiamo Malatji, Thabo Twala, Sonwabile Dwaba, Anonymous, Kamohelo Maphike, Bokang Fako, Xola Zatu
University of Fort Hare: Madoda Ludidi, Yolokazi Mfuto, Anonymous, Siphelele Mancobeni, Wandisile Sixoto, Akhona Manyenyeza 
Durban University of Technology: Khulekani Ngcobo, Robert Thema, Lesley Ngazire, Siphephelo (Shange) Mthembu, Nomfundo Zakwe, Thalente Hadebe. 

Curator of the exhibition: Carl Collison

This project was funded by the National Research Foundation grant no. 118522 and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant no. 1802-05403. 

The impossibility of separating learning and development: What Covid-19 teaches us

This article was first published by University World News, 05 September 2020, 

By Birgit Schreiber, Lisa Bardill Moscaritolo, Brett Perozzi and Thierry M Luescher   

The impossibility of separating learning and development

The coronavirus pandemic has compelled universities around the world to send their students home – some with little more than a laptop or mobile phone, data and Wi-Fi access codes, some with more and most with less. In the switch to remote teaching, universities initially issued well-intended yet often insufficient guidance.

Over a remarkably short time, much of this has been improved upon. However, what could not be fixed in the remote teaching and learning model were the persistent infrastructure and network holes, glaring social-cultural inequities and social-community environments that are not conducive to learning.

It is these that have made remote learning extremely hard for some students, typically those from the most disadvantaged sections of society, for whom university offers an upward social-economic mobility pathway.

The COVID-19 crisis has laid bare the inequities in the global higher education system. While we confidently hoped that education might be the road to upward social-economic mobility, the great social equaliser, we are now seeing the major potholes that lie in the way.

University campuses have been able to level the playing field to some extent – between the Global North and South, between the developed and underdeveloped, between rich and poor, privileged and disadvantaged and the connected and unconnected. However, in stepping off campus and into congested urban apartment blocks, shanty towns, small town peripheries and rural hinterlands, we can see how fragile this developmental model is.

The importance of the learning environment
Student Affairs and Services’ overarching function in higher education across the globe is to level the playing field through a developmental model of higher education which supports a global social justice agenda.

By promoting engagement; enabling compatible living and learning contexts; providing healthcare and counselling; offering housing and residence programmes; facilitating social, learning and personal safe spaces; implementing co-curricular programmes for students to learn beyond their discipline to develop as complex, healthy, whole people; by mapping learning and career pathways and supporting students to overcome their unique challenges along the way, Student Affairs and Services ensures a measure of equity and fairness on the campuses of institutions in our massified higher education systems.

The environmental impact theorists of student success, from Vince Tinto to Ernest Pascarella and George Kuh, all emphasise the interplay of at least four influences that impact on a meaningful educational experience: 1) the personal-cognitive resources of the students, 2) institutional-teaching-learning inputs, 3) familial-social influences, and 4) the macro-infrastructure factors in which the institution is embedded. These four need to converge to support the success of higher education, and Student Affairs and Services is essential to this.

When students are on campuses a supportive environment is possible, but when students study on sporadically working laptops in unstable Wi-Fi hotspots, with power outages and in congested, noisy home environments, then higher education cannot be the socially mobile pathway that so many students seek.

Basic needs – safe homes, clean water, reliable electricity, healthcare and social support – are also key foundational aspects of successful learning and development.

Local, tailored responses
How then should we respond? Again, we see too many divisions and tensions, fundamentally between collaboration and solidarity versus authority and competition. Tensions between the power of institution-level knowledge versus the authority of national regulatory bodies; between the scramble for political control and imposition of crude uniformity versus trust in the sophistication of local responses and the power of diversity.

And all of these tensions derail the more appropriate institutional and community-based flexible, context-relevant, autonomous, adaptive and innovative responses.

Despite the reality of inequality, learning must forge ahead in the myriad of ways that our diverse student body requires. We need indigenised responses that are designed at a local level for each unique situation.

In some regions this means that the best response may be to open universities just for some students for now – for those who need the campus environment and infrastructure for learning.

For other institutions it may mean that only PhD students can continue on campus, or only the science labs can open, or indeed only first-year students can attend who can be accommodated in low-density living arrangements.

A granular approach is needed, and for this it is essential that local decision-making endogenous to institutions – within the boundaries of outside scrutiny and accountability – is accelerated and supported. This should have primacy over uber-zealous regulatory bodies, attempts at control by central governments (such as China’s position on Hong Kong) or by national unions (as in South Africa) or blunt and short-sighted national political decisions (as in the case of the USA).

In Malawi, Kenya, Bangladesh and several other countries we have seen national decisions to temporarily close universities down. This is not only a huge setback for a country’s social and economic development, but also for social justice in these countries. Education is an avenue of social mobility that enables disadvantaged groups, particularly women, working-class and poor students, to leap ahead and beyond.

More than a Wi-Fi hotspot
Student Affairs and Services across the globe has an overarching ideal, whether or not explicitly stated: a deeply meaningful social justice mission. The current crisis shows how essential the overall provision of a (personal, social and physical) micro and macro environment conducive to learning and student engagement is, particularly for those who cannot count on that at home. Student Affairs and Services bridges that gap.

On the one hand, the COVID-19 responses have shown us the immense readiness of universities to adapt and innovate to enable learning in remote ways. On the other hand, remote learning has been a setback for social justice.

Universities are more than Wi-Fi hotspots for students. Universities are complex spaces that reduce systemic-social barriers to advancement, and Student Affairs and Services plays a critical role in this. To advance social justice for all, we need especially vulnerable groups to access universities and return to university campuses.

Birgit Schreiber(corresponding author) is a member of the Africa Centre for Transregional Research at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany, and vice president of the International Association of Student Affairs and Services and co-founder and editorial executive for the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa. She is the co-editor of the recently published Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education: Global foundations, issues, and best practices, third edition, a 600-page volume in which 200 authors collaborated to provide a global overview of Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education. Lisa Bardill Moscaritolo is vice provost for student life at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and the secretary general for the International Association of Student Affairs and Services. She is on the editorial team of the global overview of Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education. Brett Perozzi is vice president for student affairs at Weber State University in the United States and serves on the global division executive for NASPA: Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. He has published three books, more than three dozen scholarly works and is an author for the global overview of Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education. Thierry M Luescher is research director for post-schooling and work in the Human Sciences Research Council and associate professor of higher education at the University of the Free State, South Africa. He is a founding member of the editorial executive of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa and an associate editor of the global overview of Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education.

University World News - Special Report - Higher Education Student Affairs and Services

University World News has started a Special Report on the newly published 3rd edition of the global Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education handbook. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was responsible for the section on "Student governance and activism", and I also co-wrote two additional entries one on "The student governance function" (with Birgit Schreiber) and the other about "Student Affairs and Services in South Africa" (with Angelina Wilson Fadiji). 

In the UWN Special Report I am writing about the Student Governance and Activism section. It is not normally my style to write personalised academic (or semi-academic) works - except of course in this blog - but in this article I went very personal, almost intimate, lol. 🙊

Again, for anyone who wants to access the handbook, it is fully open access as e-book: Ludeman, R. B., et al. 2020. Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education: Global Foundations, Issues, and Best Practices, 3rd ed, pp. 1-629.

JSAA publishes two book reviews on the "Student Leaders' Reflections" book

The latest issue of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa (Vol. 8 Issue 1) is out and it deals with various aspects of the student experience in Africa. Centring the student experience is therefore its central theme. In the introduction, Birgit Schreiber, Teboho Moja and I also reflect on the current context of the student experience globally and in Africa, which we talk about in terms of two viruses affecting higher education and the student experience: Corona and Racism.

What I am also excited about is that my book "Reflections of South African Student Leaders, 1994 to 2017" was reviewed by two scholars and Birgit, who is the book review editor, prepared the reviews to publish in this issue. They are great reviews, insofar as they are not just 'praise' for the book but they also give some good ideas of where one needs to be more critical still.

Overall, it is amazing to see student affairs and student politics related research in and on Africa to be gaining much exposure and traction, and I am extremely grateful to be able to play some role in this. It is rewarding to see the work of colleagues, especially young and emerging scholars as well as established scholars, black and women scholars, and professionals who have not previously thought of their work in scholarly or academic terms, to be researching, writing and getting published.

The Global Handbook of Student Affairs has just been published - free online!

With 250 authors and editors from over 125 countries world wide, the 3rd edition of the global Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education  handbook is a truly global collaborative effort to capture the global picture of student affairs. 

With over 600 pages, the handbook covers the principles, values, theories and frameworks underpinning and informing Student Affairs; professionalization, research and scholarship; social justice, equality and gender issues; engagement, internationalization, retention and graduate competencies; governance and student participation, leadership and migration; and so forth. It includes a discussion of over 42 functional areas and almost 100 country reports. 

The authors are of the highest caliber and greatest diversity and share their formidable knowledge and experience, all detailing the immense impact Student Affairs and Services have in Higher Education across the globe. 

Overall, the handbook has been edited by Roger B. Ludeman (editor-in-chief) and Birgit Schreiber. In addition there have been assistant editors for different section and country reports. It has been my pleasure to act as assistant editor for the country reports from the African continent, which include: Botswana, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. 

Personally I have written three of the articles featured in the handbook: 

The entry on "Student governance and activism" available here. 

The entry on "The student governance function" (with Birgit Schreiber) available here.

The entry on "Student Affairs and Services in South Africa" (with Angelina Wilson Fadiji) get it here.

And the best is that the Handbook is fully open access as e-book: Ludeman, R. B., et al. 2020. Student Affairs and Services in Higher Education: Global Foundations, Issues, and Best Practices, 3rd ed, pp. 1-629.

URL:  https://iasas.global/student-affairs-services-in-higher-education-global-foundations-issues-and-best-practices/