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01 October 2021 | Story Xolisa Mnukwa

The silence of universities, collectively and individually, regarding the July events (the political turmoil that disrupted different regions in South Africa in July 2021) was noticeable, as well as inexplicable and distressing. 

This was according to Prof Saleem Badat, Research Professor in the College of Humanities at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and former vice-chancellor at Rhodes University, during a webinar hosted by the University of the Free State (UFS).  

The webinar: The impact of political influences on university governance structures, was held on 22 September 2021, with Prof Badat; Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the UFS; Prof Hermann Giliomee, internationally renowned historian; Prof Chitja Twala, Vice-Dean: Faculty of the Humanities at the UFS; and Prof Thulisi Madonsela, Law Trust Chair in Social Justice and a Law professor at Stellenbosch University, as panellists. 

SABC anchor and prominent South African journalist, Vuyo Mvoko, who facilitated the webinar, opened engagement among the esteemed panel by posing the question – how can university communities collectively solve the challenges facing South Africa today?

University governance structures must address and mediate political influences in principled, creative, and strategic ways

“I hope that there is honest and critical reflection on this by individual universities and Universities South Africa (USAf),” said Prof Badat on the silence of universities regarding the July events. He further argued that a ‘renewed focus’ on the responsibilities of universities in society is important. 

He explained this by unpacking the roles of universities in society and how they are shaped by the structural and conjunctural conditions within which they exist and operate. Prof Badat encouraged those roles – institutionally and through scholarship, learning, and community engagement – to intersect effectively with contemporary and long-term economic, social, and political challenges faced by universities at global level. 

You are a participant in South African society before you are a staff member or student

Prof Twala responded to the topic by saying: “In order to understand a university’s governance, student politics, and activism, it’s also important to historicise the impact and political influence that governmental structures in South Africa continue to have on higher education institutions.” 

He unpacked his argument by highlighting the importance of engaged scholarship within universities when the South African society is threatened by occurrences such as the riots that took place in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in July as a result of political failures in government. 

“If there are social ills and problems at community level, you cannot divorce yourself from such, because they have an impact at your place of work or learning,” he explained. 

Prof Twala further highlighted the provision of higher education in SA as political, and that universities should move according to the ideological times and changes experienced across the country to understand what governance within higher education spaces should look like.

Prof Petersen reflected on the role of higher education institutions as catalysts for social change and the collective responsibility they have in solving the key challenges of poverty, inequality, unemployment, and violence in societies.
According to Prof Petersen, the crucial role that universities need to fulfil is often impacted by political influence exerted on university governing structures. “Therefore, student governing structures, in particular, are often vulnerable to political pressure that results in different tensions and challenges in the higher education system,” stated Prof Petersen. 

Complexities regarding language policy in university governance at a time of political transition
Prof Giliomee reflected on the complexities regarding language policy in university governance at a time of political transition, by unpacking the negotiations among higher education institutions regarding the implementation of a new language constitution in South Africa – and the absence of pertinent proposals from universities concerning their future role and functioning in society. 

Prof Giliomee argued that universities, separately or collectively, did not try to promote understanding of how the new South African state could meet the demands for higher education in a multilingual society. While enjoying the highest prestige, English was not in effect the optimal medium of instruction for the country.

The involvement of government in university governance is necessary and inevitable

Prof Madonsela, who is also the founder of the Thuma Foundation – an independent democracy leadership and literacy public benefit organisation – and a widely published author, discussed the role of the South African government in mandating leadership, governance, and protocol from a national level so that higher education institutions can follow suit. 

“Government is a custodian of the constitution,” Prof Madonsela stated before explaining the principles that should oversee government’s involvement in university leadership structures.  

She modelled the eight (8) standards of good governance as identified by the United Nations, being participation; rule of law; transparency; responsiveness; equality and inclusivity; consensus orientation; effectiveness and efficiency; and accountability, as a sounding board for the South African government itself, through to university management structures – prevailing through the basis of South Africa’s own constitution. 

Prof Madonsela further underlined the importance of ethics in the overall society that South Africa is building as a nation, by discussing the necessity of understanding democratic value, social justice, and fundamental human rights – not only within university governance and governmental structures, but also within the population.

News Archive

Teachers should deal with diversity in education - Prof. Francis
2010-10-08

At the occasion were, from the left: Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (UFS); Prof. Francis; and Prof. Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Teaching and Learning at the UFS.
Photo: Jaco van der Merwe

Prof. Dennis Francis, the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of the Free State (UFS), recently delivered his inaugural lecture on Troubling Diversity in South African Education on the Main Campus in Bloemfontein.

He urged teachers to be open to what “diversity” might mean in a particular context and how diversity relates to either inclusion or exclusion.

“An approach that promotes the inclusion of all must be based on an understanding of how exclusion operates in ways that may have typical patterns of oppression, but differ in the specific ways that exclusion is expressed and becomes normalised in that context,” he said.

“The good teacher thus seeks to understand how these forms of exclusion may develop in the school’s context and respond through taking thoughtful action to challenge them. It may require creating a climate that enables the silent to speak and recognising that not all groups communicate in exactly the same ways.”

He said teachers also had to affirm the experiential base of learners and students. He said there was an assumption that students would be more effective practitioners if their own experience were validated and explored.

“It is crucial that the students’ own history is treated as valuable and is a critical part of the data that are reflected,” he said. “Equally important is that such stories and similar activities are intentionally processed to enable students to make the connections between personal experience and relevant theory.”

He also urged them to challenge the ways in which knowledge had been framed through oppression.

“Schools are often characterised by messages that draw on one or another form of oppression. Thus, expectations are subtly or in some cases unsubtly communicated, e.g. that girls are not good at physics, or that, while white learners are strong in abstract thought, African learners have untapped creativity, and so on,” he continued.

“For someone to integrate into their role as educators a commitment against oppression means confronting obstacles that one may previously have shied away from, such as challenging authority, naming privilege, emphasising the power relations that exist between social groups, listening to people one has previously ignored, and risking being seen as deviant, troublesome or unpopular.”

Furthermore, Prof. Francis said dealing with diversity in education was always affectively loaded for both students and teachers. He said in South Africa one injunction from educators was to be “sensitive” and thus avoid risking engagement with the contentious issues around imbalances of power.

“If both students and teachers are to confront issues of oppression and power in any meaningful way, we need to design more purposely for the difficulties they will encounter, for example, creating a classroom environment that promotes safety and trust so that all students are able to confront and deal with prejudice and discrimination. Classroom environments will need to balance the affective and cognitive in addressing issues of diversity and social justice,” he added.

He also said that teachers should recognise the need to complement changing attitudes with attempts to change the structural aspects of oppressions.

“To prevent superficial commitments to change, it is important for students to explore barriers that prevent them from confronting oppressive attitudes and behaviours. In this way students are able to learn and see the structural aspects of oppression,” he said.

“Equally important, however, is to get students to examine the benefits associated with challenging oppression. A fair amount of time must therefore be spent on developing strategies with students which they will be able to use practically in challenging oppression.”

He also advised educators to affirm the capacity of staff and learners to act and learn in ways that do not replicate patterns of oppression.

“Many South African schools have survived both the harsh repression of apartheid and the continuing legacy of oppression of various kinds. Despite that, we are often as educators made aware of the ways in which young people in particular affirm themselves and each other in creative and confident ways,” he concluded.

Media Release
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication (acg)
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: loaderl@ufs.ac.za  
7 October 2010
 

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