Dr Keamogetse G Morwe, Lecturer in the Department of Youth in Development in the Faculty of Humanities, Social Science and Education at the University of Venda, was awarded a joint PhD from the University of the Free State (UFS) School of Higher Education Studies and the University of Málaga in Spain (cum laude) at the December graduation ceremonies. 

She did this joint PhD through an EU-funded Erasmus Mundus Scholarship.

Being a specialist focusing on violent protests that take place at institutions of higher learning, Dr Morwe’s thesis is titled: Culture of Violence as a Mechanism to Solve Problems with Authority among Students at South African Universities.

As a lecturer at the University of Venda, she realised that each time students protested, property would be destroyed, other students and staff would be intimidated, and police officers would be called to intervene. “On asking a few of my students why they did this, I was told that it was the only way the minister would listen to them. I found this behaviour antithetical to democracy and the purpose of higher education, which seeks to produce critical active citizens. I decided to make this the focus of my thesis,” says Dr Morwe.

As a researcher in this field, she investigates the intersection of violent protests with age, social class, gender, and campus-national politics, including the coping mechanisms that students use after exposure to the violent protests. 

“Interesting findings of this study were that some students considered violence as fun, inconsequential, and a normal part of the protests,” she says. 

Dr Morwe adds, “Although students were emotionally affected by the protests, female students bore the brunt of such, as they were sexually harassed and threatened with sexual violence.”

She also found that some students may have been desensitised to violence; such desensitisation is critical in understanding why student protests turn violent.

“My passion is to see universities as spaces that allow students to flourish, hence my involvement with Prof Thierry Luescher, a higher education expert from the Human Sciences Research Council, and Dr Angelina Wilson Fadiji, a well-being specialist from the University of Pretoria, on the project titled: Violence and well-being in the context of the 2015/2016 student movement: a well-being approach. This NRF and Mellon Foundation-funded project was conceived from the researchers’ individual interactions with student activists’ unresolved mental health issues post the #FMF. Thus, advocacy became our goal. The research project revealed that the higher education sector needs reform in how it deals with student issues, because universities are disconnected and rather indifferent to the voice of students.”

As a first step to prevent violent protests at universities, she co-authored a training manual for student affairs and service professionals together with Prof Luescher and Dr Fadij, titled, Restoring well-being after student protests: Lessons from #FeesMustFall and its aftermath. A manual for Student Affairs and Services professionals and student leaders.

Another output of the project is a photo book, titled: #FeesMustFall and its Aftermath Violence, Wellbeing and the Student Movement in South Africa. “This scholarly book is written in a way that appeals to academic and non-academic audiences, and it details the experiences of violence and well-being of former student activists involved in the 2015 and 2016 student movements and protests,” she says.

The Office for International Affairs (OIA), which coordinates the university’s collaborative degrees, is very excited about yet another international collaboration that has produced a joint degree of this nature. 

Kagiso Ngake, responsible for Partnerships, Collaborative Degrees and Outgoing Mobility in the OIA, says, “Collaborative degrees give UFS students an opportunity to enrol for international academic programmes with universities globally, and expose students to international research, collaborative intercultural experiences, and diverse expertise, as students are mentored and guided by supervisors from different institutions who bring different perspectives.” 

A joint degree like this enables students to pursue a master’s or doctoral programme jointly at the UFS and one or more other higher education institutions somewhere else in the world. “With the UFS Policy on Collaborative Degrees with Foreign Universities approved earlier this year, the university has now expanded its strategic priority for internationalising postgraduate research and education,” she says. 

The joint degree provides students with a competitive edge through the input of international institutions.

In addition to joint degrees, which have been offered since 2016, the university also offers co-badged degrees/qualifications and consecutive degrees/qualifications.