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Legal Education Colloquium sparks book project at UFS

01 March 2024 | Story VALENTINO NDABA | Photo SUPPLIED

Prof Geo Quinot and with Ntando Ncamane — Prof Geo Quinot from Stellenbosch University, pictured with Ntando Ncamane, a Lecturer in the UFS Department of Mercantile Law.

The Department of Mercantile Law at the University of the Free State (UFS) recently spearheaded a Legal Education Colloquium, marking the genesis of a groundbreaking book project with the vision of revitalising legal education across South Africa. Attended by luminaries from academia, legal practitioners, and students, the event featured Professor Geo Quinot from Stellenbosch University, a distinguished figure renowned for his profound insights into legal education, as the keynote speaker.

Ntando Ncamane, a Lecturer in Mercantile Law, provided a comprehensive overview of the colloquium’s objectives, outcomes, and future trajectory. "The dynamic evolution of legal frameworks, notably the promulgation of the Constitution, statutes, and landmark cases, has necessitated a reformation in South African legal education," Ncamane remarked. He underscored the pivotal role of digital transformation, particularly in the context of the pandemic, and emphasised the joint commitment of regulatory bodies and academic institutions towards fostering an ethos of engaged scholarship. The colloquium served as a platform to dissect and explore transformative trends, inviting stakeholders to deliberate on novel perspectives and navigate emerging challenges in legal education.

Insights from Prof Geo Quinot and eminent experts

Reflecting on the invaluable insights garnered from deliberations, Ncamane highlighted Professor Quinot's keynote address, which advocated for a reimagining of collaborative endeavours, particularly involving students. Discussions spanned an array of topics including innovative methodologies, enhancing assessment frameworks, leveraging digital platforms for education, integrating competition law into curricula, promoting engaged scholarship, nurturing emotional intelligence among students, and addressing complexities within modules such as civil procedure. Stimulating dialogues on decoloniality, decolonisation, and ubuntu ethos also permeated the discourse.

The forthcoming book, a culmination of the colloquium, will traverse themes encompassing Digital Education, Student Engagement, and Decolonisation. Ncamane elucidated, "Contributors will be aligned with one of the themes based on the relevance of their contributions…A call for papers was issued, eliciting abstract submissions from prospective contributors."

Scholars hailing from diverse academic institutions including the UFS, University of the Witwatersrand, University of Limpopo, University of Fort Hare, North-West University, Varsity College, and Stellenbosch University, have been enlisted for participation. Each chapter will undergo a peer review process, ensuring scholarly rigour and academic excellence.

Role and impact of the book

Articulating the envisioned role of the book, Ncamane underscored its potential to reshape legal education and curriculum development. He said, "The book offers key approaches that can be adopted by legal scholars to improve teaching methods, ultimately benefiting students, academics, and society at large."

With regards to timelines, Ncamane indicated that the publication is slated for release in late 2024 or early 2025, contingent upon the duration of the blind review process and editorial refinement. The Legal Education Colloquium and its ensuing book project exemplify a concerted endeavour to address the evolving imperatives of legal education, foster scholarly discourse, and contribute meaningfully to the enhancement of legal praxis in South Africa.

News Archive

The book on ‘Reitz’ still not closed

2016-08-12

Prof André Keet, Director: Institute for Reconciliation and
Social Justice (IRSJ) with the authors of Transformation
and Legitimation in Post-apartheid Universities: Reading
Discourses from ‘Reitz’, JC van der Merwe and
Dionne van Reenen.

A new IRSJ book tackles issues of transformation.

Transformation and Legitimation in Post-apartheid Universities: Reading Discourses from ‘Reitz’ is the first in a series on critical studies in higher education transformation from the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ). In his introduction to this series, Prof André Keet, Director: Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ), highlights why a scholarly work of this nature was necessary: “Acts of resistance against structurally-anchored forms of exclusion within universities in both South Africa and elsewhere suggest that, despite our best efforts, the social structure of the academy … has remained more or less intact over the past several decades.” The book was recently launched during the fifth anniversary reflections of the IRSJ.

Transformation and Legitimation in Post-apartheid Universities: Reading Discourses from ‘Reitz’ explores and expands on the landmark “Reitz” incident. The authors, JC van der Merwe, Deputy-Director at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ) and Dionne van Reenen, researcher and PhD candidate at the IRSJ, offer insights on how this incident and the events surrounding it represent a recurring pattern that continues to underpin many processes in post-apartheid South Africa.

Prof Jonathan Jansen, Chair of the Advisory Board of the IRSJ, and Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, says of the authors: “The courage of their convictions is reflected in this book. They have played, and will continue to play, an amazing role in shaping the discourse around transformation.”

Jamie Turkington, former editor of the IRAWA Post during the time of the ‘Reitz’ incident and facilitator during the five-year anniversary function, says: “This book will be beneficial for every student and every person involved in the University of the Free State since 1980 till now to read and absorb the valuable points therein. If you thought Reitz was over, it shouldn’t be; it is as relevant today as ever.”

"If you thought Reitz was over..."

Turkington adds that the book will serve as a “worthwhile conversation starter at UFS”, raising such questions as:
• How much legitimacy was the UFS able to acquire internally, within the university community, as well as in society at large?
• How do we chart a way forward from here?
• How do we keep the progress going?

As the book itself says: “Reitz serves as a reminder to higher education practitioners that our humanity is fragile in terms of who we are and what we can achieve. Transformation and legitimation, and the way higher education institutions handle these going forward, promises to be seminal in the foreseeable future of the sector.”

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