21 November 2025
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Story Andile Mbowana
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Photo Supplied
Attending the colloquium, from the left: Prof Emily Henderson, University of Warwick, UK; Prof Melanie Walker, UFS Centre for Development Support; Prof Siseko Kumalo, University of Johannesburg; and Dr Precious Sima, Stellenbosch University.
The University of the Free State’s (UFS) SARChI Chair in Higher Education and Human Development (HEHD), under the leadership of
Prof Melanie Walker, hosted its bi-annual Colloquium on Wednesday, 12 November 2025.
Centred on the theme ‘Stories of Wellbeing, Agency and Reducing Injustices’, the event brought together prominent scholars from South Africa, across the African continent, and the United Kingdom, alongside HEHD researchers and an enthusiastic cohort of early career researchers.
Held in the Chancellor’s Room in the Centenary Complex, the Colloquium provided a vibrant space to explore how universities can contribute to repair, justice, and human flourishing through research, teaching, and collaborative knowledge-making.
Opening the event,
Prof Lochner Marais and Prof Melanie Walker emphasised the critical role of higher education in cultivating compassionate, critically engaged, and socially responsible citizens. Prof Walker noted that since its inception in 2012, the HEHD research programme has “focused on how universities can advance human development and social justice,” producing more than 30 doctoral graduates and nurturing impactful international research partnerships.
Throughout the day, discussions highlighted the power of narratives and lived experiences in driving transformation within higher education and broader society.
Tracing ubuntu and the labour of repair
The first keynote address was delivered by
Dr Precious Simba from Stellenbosch University, who reflected on the question: “How does one learn or teach ubuntu?” Her presentation -
Tracing Ubuntu: On Teaching, Encounter, and the Labours of Repair - explored ubuntu as both an African philosophical tradition and a lived practice grounded in relationality, healing, and dignity.
Dr Simba argued that ubuntu should not be reduced to a simple ideal but recognised as a “framework of encounter” that informs pedagogy, research, and everyday academic practice. She described her own intellectual journey as both scholarship and survival: “a slow reclamation of joy after being undone by the architectures of the university.”
Her keynote encouraged participants to view ubuntu as a labour of repair and a way of reimagining teaching and learning as acts rooted in shared humanity.
Beyond the critique: Pedagogical repair and decolonisation
The second keynote speaker,
Prof Siseko Kumalo from the University of Johannesburg’s Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies, addressed the complexities of decolonisation in South African universities. His talk,
Beyond the Critique: The Black Archive and the Work of Pedagogical Repair, examined how the decolonial turn has challenged entrenched systems over the past decade.
Kumalo argued that while important strides have been made, transformation is too often reduced to “revising reading lists” without interrogating deeper pedagogical relationships. “True decolonial change,” he explained, “lies not in replacing content, but in reconstituting the very pedagogical relations and epistemic assumptions through which knowledge is produced and taught.”
He also outlined the aims of his ongoing Black Archive Project, which works to preserve marginalised African intellectual traditions while cultivating new generations of critical thinkers.
Narrating the unnamed: Higher education outreach in India
In the afternoon session,
Prof Emily Henderson from the University of Warwick (UK) shared insights from her international research on widening access to higher education in India. Her keynote,
Narrating a Practice with No Name? Conceptualising ‘Higher Education Outreach’ in India demonstrated how storytelling can be a powerful tool for conceptualising emerging or undefined practices in academic spaces.
“Sometimes,” Prof Henderson remarked, “naming a concept gives it life, legitimacy, and the power to tackle inequalities.” She illustrated how narrative methods, co-created with participants, open new avenues for understanding higher education outreach in diverse contexts.
Strengthening African collaboration and knowledge production
The day concluded with a panel hosted by the RAHEdA (Research on African Higher Education Development and Agency) network, titled Why African Partnerships Matter for Producing African Scholarship and Dismantling Bibliometric Coloniality. Panellists from universities in Zambia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe emphasised the urgent need for cross-border collaboration to strengthen African epistemologies and counter global academic marginalisation.
Prof Faith Mkwananzi described the RAHEdA initiative as “a powerful step toward building networks of solidarity and producing knowledge that speaks from, to, and for Africa.”
A Panel of HEHD postdoctoral fellows also showcased their current scholarship.
Presentations included: Judith Sikala - Participation and equity in Zimbabwean higher education; Arina Sibanda - Reimagining sustainability; Kurauone Masonga - Fostering political freedoms.
Postdoctoral fellows further contributed by serving as discussants for all the keynote sessions, enriching the day’s intellectual exchange.
Participants described the Colloquium as deeply engaging and intellectually layered, emphasising the importance of continuing these conversations in advancing equality and justice.
Reflecting on the event’s success, Prof Walker noted that the colloquium “embodied what HEHD stands for - research that not only critiques but also imagines, transforms, and fosters a deep curiosity.”