Towards 10 Years since #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall: A lasting Legacy of Inclusion in Higher Education?

Between 2015 and 2017, South African higher education was engulfed by a wave of student protests demanding free decolonised African higher education. The coming 10-year anniversary of these protests provides an important opportunity to consider the aftermath and enduring significance of the student mobilisations known by hashtags like #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall. 

In order to consider the lasting legacy of the #MustFall movements in South Africa and their reverberations across the globe, including at Oxford University (UK) and in several universities across the USA, the Dr Anye Nyamnjoh and I convened in May a two-day research colloquium with early career higher education researchers who have researched the student movement. 

Among the participants were:

Back row, left to right: Lindokuhle Mandyoli (University of the Western Cape, SA), Taabo Mugume (University of the Free State, SA), Dr Leigh-Ann Naidoo and Dr Michael Smith (University of Cape Town, SA), Dr Josh Platzky-Miller (University of the Free State, SA), Mbalenhle Matandela (Sexual and Reproductive Justice Coalition, SA), Krystal Wang (Nelson Mandela University, SA), Wandile Ngcaweni (Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection, SA), and Dr A. Kayum Ahmed (Columbia University, NYC, USA).

Front row seated, left to right: Nobubele Phuza (Nelson Mandela University, SA) Dr Anye Nyamnjoh (University of Cape Town, SA), Dr Keamo Morwe (University of Venda, SA), Boikanyo Moloto (Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, SA) and Dr Thierry Luescher (Human Sciences Research Council and Nelson Mandela University, SA). 

A brief overview of some of the debates held at the colloquium has recently been published by University World News. 

Post-COVID-19: The new scope, role, and function of Student Affairs across the globe

Proudly showing off the book on the impact of Covid-19 in which a chapter on student affairs post-C-19 was published. It continues to be a privilege and fruitful relationship between Lisa Bardill Moscaritolo, Brett Perozzi, Birgit Schreiber and I, to work together on #COVID19 and SDG-related matters and Student Affairs. 

The chapter is called "Post-COVID-19: Renegotiating the Scope, Role, and Function of Support and Development for Students in Higher Education Across the Globe". 

The book edited by Rómulo Pinheiro, Elizabeth Balbachevsky, Pundy Pillay, and Akiyoshi Yonezawa overall shows how the Covid-19 pandemic caught higher education institutions by surprise. The book maps out the responses of higher education institutions to the challenges brought about by the pandemic. It brings together scholars from across the world. 

This book is open access and can be downloaded for free from the publisher.

Chapter: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-26393-4_16 

Full book: https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-031-26393-4.pdf

10 years of research on student affairs in Africa

The Journal of Student Affairs in Africa just turned a full 10 years old. A lot of changes and innovations are accompanying this milestone. When JSAA was born in 2013, it wasn't quite with all the support we would have hoped. But over the last 10 years, the key people involved are without a doubt the 'triumvirate' of colleagues in the Editorial Executive, Dr Birgit Schreiber, Prof Teboho Moja and I, who in different ways made and are making the journal a success. The question is: who will be leading the journal through the next 10 years? 

Among the changes are the look and feel of the journal inside; additional information on article processing on the article front pages, and on ethics, conflict of interests and funding on their back pages.

Every article now has in addition to their English abstract and keywords the same in French. This opens the door to a more multilingual JSAA where authors can actually submit a second abstract and set of keywords in any official African language. 

JSAA is also launching a Community of Practice this year to expand this platform's impact on the development of research and publishing on student affairs in Africa as part of our aim to contribute to the professionalisation of student affairs.

And finally, we will have in the next issue the first JSAA Awards ever. 

The Journal is Open Access available at www.jsaa.ac.za and https://upjournals.up.ac.za/index.php/jsaa/issue/view/312 

Universities and community engagement in secondary cities

A throwback to a great book launch in Kimberley (South Africa) last year, 2022. We launched the book "Universities, Society and Development. African Perspectives of University Community Engagement in Secondary Cities" published by Sun Press. Present from left to right are Prof. Jesmael Mataga (Dean of Humanities, Sol Plaatje University/SPU), the Vice-chancellor of SPU, Prof. Andrew Crouch, Dr Ntimi Mtawa (University of Dar es Salaam) and Dr Samuel Fongwa, then with the HSRC and now at the Council for the Development of Social Science Research (CODESRIA) in Senegal. And in the middle, speaking, yours truly.

The book was the outcome of an NRF-funded project that investigated community engagement at the new university in Kimberley, while also including other examples of successful and impactful community engagement of universities in secondary cities in Africa. The book is available open access from my academial.edu account. 

What is 'deep transformation' in South Africa's universities?

Following the recent release of the report on the state of transformation in South Africa's public universities, there have been several engagements with stakeholders and policy makers in the sector, including Universities South Africa (USAf) and its Higher Education Leadership and Management project, as well as the Council on Higher Education. The latter has taken over responsibility for monitoring transformation in the higher education sector from the Transformation Oversight Committee. 

Here is the link to an article in the Mail&Guardian.

Here to the same article in University World News.

And here is the link to the recording of the presentation at HELM Engage (USAf). 

University transformation under the microscope: searching for 'deep transformation'

The report of the national Transformation Oversight Committee (TOC) in South African higher education has just been published. The report has been prepared by a research team of the HSRC, led by me. For doing the analysis of annual reports of public universities, this team was truly the 'dream team', including Dr Sam Fongwa (who is a specialist on community engagement and higher education), Dr Bongiwe Mncwango (who is a specialist on skills development and higher education), Ms Zama Mthombeni (who is a specialist on university transformation), and Dr Thelma Oppelt (a specialist on higher education teaching and learning). 

The full report is available here. 

A short article on the report is published in University World News on 23 June 2023.

A Global Handbook of Student Politics

Congratulations to Dr Manja Klemencic on completing the amazing anthology "The Bloomsbury Handbook of Student Politics and Representation in Higher Education" with contributions from across the world. What a feature!

The book starts with an introduction by the editor, Manja Klemencic (Harvard University, USA) and a set of chapters on theoretical considerations. It then follows with empirical chapters on student politics and representation in an international comparative perspective from Africa, the Commonwealth, the Caribbean, Europe, Latin America, and so forth, as well as individual country chapters covering a wide range of countries. 

For more details see Manja's website at Harvard and Bloomsbury.