NRF researcher rating application? Done! 🙊

It might not seem like that much of a big deal, but as a researcher in South Africa working in a public university or the like, it is. The NRF or National Research Foundation has a system for rating researchers which involves a rigorous process of peer review and expert panels. An NRF rating is a mark of the extent to which a researcher is recognised nationally and globally for her or his quality of research. It benchmarks South African researchers against the very best in the world.

The rating process is coordinated by members of academia who are represented in 25 specialist committees, an executive evaluation committee, and an appeals committee. Each researcher's portfolio is evaluated by international peer reviewers. The ratings that are awarded fall within the following categories:

A – Leading international researchers
B – Internationally acclaimed researchers
C – Established researchers
P – Prestigious Awards
Y – Promising young researchers

South African Higher Education Reviewed: Two Decades of Democracy

Here it is: the full e-book copy of the excellent CHE (2016) book "South African Higher Education Reviewed: Two Decades of Democracy".

This excellent book, which is the product of the work of eight expert CHE Task Teams plus a reference group including luminaries such as Saleem Badat, Ahmed Bawa, Trevor Coombe, Brenda Gourley, Molapo Qhobela, Barney Pityana and Rolf Stumpf, sports an excellent introductory chapter written by Denyse Webbstock as well as well-researched chapters on the developments and current state of HE in SA with respect to:

- Regulation (Yunus Ballim & Ian Scott)
- Governance (Lis Lange & Thierry M Luescher)
- Teaching and Learning (Sioux McKenna)
- Research (Genevieve Simpson & Wieland Gevers)
- Community Engagement (Judy Favish & Genevieve Simpson)
- Academic Staffing (Denyse Webbstock and Chika Sehoole)
- Funding (Charles Simkins, Ian Scott, Rolf Stumpf & Denyse Webbstock).

Have a look! Open Access here.

Student Politics and Protest: International perspectives (2017, Routledge) Edited by Rachel Brooks

The book edited by Rachel Brooks (Surrey) on international perspectives on student politics is finally published - congratulations. It can be viewed here. Manja Klemencic and I wrote the 'Africa chapter' for the book, drawing on the work we did for the book project Student Politics in Africa: Representation and Activism (2016, African Minds - available open access here and in print here). 

About the Book Student Politics and Protest: International perspectives

Despite allegations of political disengagement and apathy on the part of the young, the last ten years have witnessed a considerable degree of political activity by young people – much of it led by students or directed at changes to the higher education system. Such activity has been evident across the globe. Nevertheless, to date, no book has brought together contributions from a wide variety of national contexts to explore such trends in a rigorous manner. Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives offers a unique contribution to the disciplines of education, sociology, social policy, politics and youth studies. It provides the first book-length analysis of student politics within contemporary higher education comprising contributions from a variety of different countries and addressing questions such as:

What roles do students’ unions play in politics today?
How successful are students in bringing about change?
In what ways are students engaged in politics and protest in contemporary society?
How does such engagement differ by national context?

Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives explores a number of common themes, including: the focus and nature of student politics and protest; whether students are engaging in fundamentally new forms of political activity; the characteristics of politically engaged students; the extent to which such activity can be considered to be ‘globalised’; and societal responses to political activity on the part of students. Student Politics and Protest: International Perspectives does not seek to develop a coherent argument across all its chapters but, instead, illustrate the variety of empirical foci, theoretical resources and substantive arguments that are being made in relation to student politics and protest.

International in scope, with all chapters dealing with recent developments concerning student politics and protest, this book will be an invaluable guide for Higher Education professionals, masters and postgraduate students in education, sociology, social policy, politics and youth studies.

Bourdieu and the Doctoral Student Experience in Africa

Doctoral candidate, Benedicta Daniel-Oghenetega is up to giving Bourdieu a run for his capital, as she looks at the student experience of African doctoral students at UWC through his conceptual lens of capital, habitus, field and practice.

Daniel-Oghenetega is almost done, and her study shows that there are important points to consider when taking Bourdieu on a journey to South Africa. The.cultural capital of African students, often dismissed in the academic context as 'irrelevant', proves to be a key factor in their resilience to succeed at the highest levels of academic achievement. Bourdian notions of family and its relevance to understanding the transmission of cultural capital to the university students also requires a great deal of rethinking. The French notion of the nuclear family is a great deal different from the extended family networks,  community relations, and age peer groups available, as are the role of siblings (including older cousins and younger uncles) in the transmission of cultural capital and in role-modelling. What are the implications of this for understanding student success, and more specifically for supervison and forms of institutional support?

#FeesMustFall: An Internet-Age Student Movement in South Africa and the Case of the University of the Free State

Finally online (Yippee):



A somewhat optimistic take on the student political potential of social media use:  #FeesMustFall: An Internet-Age Student Movement in South Africa and the Case of the University of the Free State: (2016). Published online in Politikon: The South African Journal of Political Studies



#FeesMustFall: An Internet-Age Student Movement in South Africa and the Case of the University of the Free State. Politikon. Ahead of Print.

doi: 10.1080/02589346.2016.1238644

University House Tswelopele's LGBTQI in the News

Former residence head student (or 'Prime' as we say at Kovsies), Tshepang Mahlatsi took the initiative to make good on a 'campaign promise' and lead the all male residence in discussion on the not-so-easy matter of how to approach LGBTIQ issues in the testosterone-rich environment of an undergrad male res. Well, it was an extremely encouraging discussion, which took the better of three hours.  The original article by the UFS News is available at:

  http://www.ufs.ac.za/templates/archive.aspx?news=7907&cat=1

TEDx UFS highlights

What a great project TEDx UFS is: Here a teaser to the soon to be uploaded video clips of the talks.

Free Education Movement: It's about time

Coming from a working class family from Switzerland to Africa, first Ghana on a culture and youth exchange and then South Africa to study, I've always been amazed by the "education ideology" I've encountered across the continent.There is so much importance attached to formal education. I'm not surprised to have seen placards today "free education is the solution for South Africa". And indeed, education is critical for social mobility. Sure, there's entrepreneurship and we need much of that, but even that needs a good educational foundation.I support the free higher education movement not so much because I think that we need free higher education for all - in fact, I think for now we first and foremost need free higher education for the poor, and affordable higher education for all. Because before we can make higher education free,we must make universal early childhood education free, then primary education, and technical, vocational education, and other secondary education, and then finally higher education.What is shocking to me is how much the African education ideology is indeed an ideology in the Marxist sense.... It is presented by ruling parties like the ANC as the universal ticket to a better life for all, and indeed I agree it could be that, but then the actual politics and policy framework is not adjusted appropriately. Please, let public policy specialists do some out of the box thinking and create something new in Africa; not some semi-dictatorial Asian developmental state but an African educational state that makes the African renaissance and African Century a reality with a massive investment in the most important resource of the continent: the beautiful, diverse and rich African people.Akere.

Candidates for Vice-Chancellor & Rector post at the University of the Free State

It is not a secret anymore: the University of the Free State has announced the shortlist of candidates for the vice-chancellorship of the University. The post was vacated end of last month by Prof. Jonathan Jansen who will be taking up a fellowship at his alma mater, Stanford University in California. The three formidable candidates are all currently deputy vice-chancellors at historically white universities: Prof. Themba Mosia (University of Pretoria), Prof. Francis Petersen (University of Cape Town) and Prof. Lis Lange (University of the Free State).

While all three candidates have a lot going for them, my preference is Prof. Lis Lange for a great number of personal reasons. Not the least because I have had the pleasure of seeing her in action during her time at the head of the Council on Higher Education (CHE) and the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) in South Africa. I was the first researcher/research manager of the CHE - from 2002 - 2008 first full-time and then in part-time capacity while researching my own PhD. I don't think there are many current higher education leaders in SA who have such a thorough understanding of the system and individual institutions, and been part of developing and transforming SA higher education for the better in almost two decades.

I have also worked with her on research projects into various aspects of higher education, including most recently an in-depth longitudinal analysis of governance, leadership and management in the sector. Our study has highlighted the pervasive problems of management failures and corruption in many institutions, and I trust her to be the corruption-buster that any university needs today.

Prof. Lange is not only highly qualified as leader and manager in the sector - and  since 2010 at the UFS itself - but also as a scholar. She has made numerous high-level presentations and given keynotes, as well as written numerous scholarly articles and commentaries. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Acta Academica, which under her editorial leadership has regained a reputation of quality and avoided being de-accredited by the Department of Higher Education and Training.

In my very own book published in 2016, which has received a great deal of local and international attention, i.e. Student Politics in Africa: Representation and Activism, co-edited with M Klemencic (Harvard) and JO Jowi (Moi), Prof Lange has written the Epilogue (see blog entry from 2015). Prof. Lange wrote her insightful epilogue because she understands student issues and has been a driving force behind current projects at the UFS to improve the student experience: this includes the project for improving the admission and registration processes, the complete overhaul of the quality assurance regime, the development of institutional research capacity, and last but not least, the project of improving student participation in all aspects of university governance. The student representation in academic governance project is the first project of this kind, and it looks in great depth into the innovative ways in which students in some of the UFS departments, schools and faculties are already included in improving teaching and learning, so that what works can be recommended to units that have not yet developed such systems.

It is therefore extremely disconcerting that in the Bloemfontein Kaasblad (masquerading as an actual quality newspaper in Afrikaans), Prof Lange is being thrown with mud, yet again. It appear that for the few highly conservative forces that push a anti-UFS agenda at Die Kaasblad she is some kind of threat. Or is it some kind of sexism or xenophobia? None of that has any place in academia: here one has to be accountable to actual objective criteria of quality and merit... and that is precisely what transformation tries to achieve: equity - meaning fairness; so that at some point we can all partake together in a prosperous and successful, united and diverse nation. How I ask can one explain the lies that were written about her in the Kaasblad article published on the front-page of 14 September?

As for me, I guess I always believe to much in the goodness of people, and that finally the truth will prevail. I certainly hope that in the selection process for a new rector and vice-chancellor, the candidate who is best suited to lead the UFS will win. I have stated my personal preference; in my professional life, I will serve any of these excellent candidates to the best of my ability and that of my great team and my many and diverse colleagues at the UFS and beyond. May the best woman win! :)

PS: The picture of the three candidates (above) is my snip of the front-page of Die Volksblad.

Changing tomorrow today: TEDx UFS Talk on Student Activism and a New Political Culture

Tomorrow at UFS: Students' changing tomorrow's universities today. I will be talking about the fascinating use of social media as platform for political mobilisation, conscientisation, and intermediary between on the ground activism and public media / broadcasters.

Here is the link to the TEDx talk on Youtube. 

Researching University Presses in Ethiopia - From Addis Ababa UP to Wollega UP

It has been a bit of an adventure to travel for one week to Ethiopia to research one of the oldest, and one of the newest of Africa's university presses. The 'Digitization of African University Presses Project' that I am involved in with African Minds and the UFS is actually one of those wonderful opportunities to really stretch myself - in terms of the periphery of my expertise in African higher education development, as well as in terms of my geographical reach in this respect.

 

The Addis Ababa University is, of course, one of the oldest institutions in Africa and in so many respects one of the historically most interesting, having been founded on the initiative of Emperor Haile Selassie I, and with its main campus being located on the former palace of the Emperor. I had the opportunity to visit the Emperor's former residency which now houses a museum, several libraries, and the Institute of Ethiopian Studies. The palace grounds are extensive and also include the building of the AAU Press. There I met with several editorial staff members, including Mr Sileshi, and the Director of the press, Prof Yacob Arsano. But not only did I receive most interesting information on the establishment and development of the AAU Press - which in many ways is conceived and operates as a traditional 'editorial-professional' university press - but our exchanges were very much of the nature of mutual knowledge sharing, whereby I was glad to be able to contribute some ideas on ways in which digitizing the press could be achieved.

 

My second visit was to Wollega University Press in Nekemte, Oromia State, located about 325 km outside of Addis Ababa. Being driven there by the courtesy of the university driver, I learnt some basic Afan Oromoo words, like donkey (haare), dog (sahar), and cow (saha) - which we encountered throughout on the 6 hours drive - and more importantly: hello (nagar). The welcome at Wollega University was overwhelmingly friendly; I was hosted by the University Vice-President Dr Hirpa and the Editor-in-Chief of the Wollega UP, Dr Rhagavendra. Both, as well as the President of Wollega University, Dr Bea, gave me much interesting information about the background to the establishment of a fully Open Access university press, probably the newest and most digitized UP in Africa. This young university is leapfrogging in the most amazing ways! And... they sure know how to get value for money :) I was extremely grateful that Dr Rhagavendra organised for me to come to Nekemte by the university driver and even booked a hotel in town - for which the university paid! The immediate value they got is that I was equally booked... to give a two hour seminar on the key issues behind the 'Digitization project', namely on knowledge production and academic publishing in the age of digitization (see poster above).

I am looking forward to maintaining and strengthening the wonderful linkages with Ethiopian scholars that I was able to make during this short field research visit!

Why I do a Postgraduate Diploma in Higher Education....

Most of the time when I tell a colleague or student that I am doing a PG Dip in Higher Education they look at me puzzled: "Why? Don't you have a PhD?" Yes, of course I do have a PhD.... in Political Science. But that is a research qualification. What the PG Dip provides me with is a teaching qualification. ... and I have experienced so much bad "lecturing" in my 10 years in formal higher education that I would definitively not want to end up as yet another bad university teacher. 

I want to know about best learning facilitation, which means also that I need to know about learning theories. I want to know about best assessment practices, moderation, and, of course in my case, great supervision. I need to know about how to align my teaching and learning activities with assessment tasks and how to ensure that they actually foster and measure the intended learning outcomes of my courses. I had an excellent research training over many years. Hence, today I am a professional researcher. Now, I think that I should become a professional teacher, in order to be a full-rounded, professional; a professor indeed. Hence I am following a formal programme of learning, which includes such excellent modules like "learning facilitation", "evaluation", "programme/module design", "higher education theory", and so forth. 

In 2011, Prof Jonathan Jansen, a great educator himself and still rector of the University of the Free State until end of this month, wrote a strongly worded column in the Business Times. A wonderful, forceful argument why I  - and I would like to encourage - all other aspiring professors, should do a professional qualification in higher education teaching and learning - such as the PG Dip in HE that I currently do. 

Read it here: http://www.timeslive.co.za/opinion/columnists/2011/12/07/teaching-academics-the-art

New Look for the Observatory of Student Politics and HE Research in Africa

The Observatory of Student Politics and Higher Education Research in Africa - OSPHERA.NET - has a new look. The virtual research and advocacy hub was launched only in December 2015 as a networking and resource node for researchers, journalists, academics, university managers and students who are interested in student politics in Africa.

We expect that with the appointment of an administrator for the website, it will soon be able to serve its purpose much better. So long, the two outputs of the original team from the "Student Representation in Africa" research project and their outputs are uploaded. 

Student Politics in Africa - Book launch features in Newspaper

Student activism is one of the topics that Moeketsi Mogotsi from Central Media in Bloemfontein has covered quite extensively in recent weeks, including coverage of the 40 years anniversary since the Soweto Uprising.

Based on an interview he did with me in June 2016, he has prepared a news feature for OFM (the Free State radio station) and the Bloemfontein Courant, which is one of the widely read community newspapers of the Free State capital. I am glad that the hard work that my co-authors and co-editors have put into making the book Student Politics in Africa: Representation and Activism (2016, African Minds) is being acknowledged and I hope that the insights from the study of student politics across the continent will help understanding student activism and acting on in, for instance by instituting better mechanisms for student representation. 

The First Year Experience (FYE) in Higher Education - New JSAA published!

Vol. 4 Issue 1 (2016) of the Journal of Student Affairs in Africa has just been published with a special focus on the First Year Experience (FYE), students in transition, and institutional transformation.

The issue is guest-edited by Annsilla Nyar of the SA National Resource Centre on FYE, hosted at the University of Johannesburg.