Micro-politics of student participation in university leadership across the historically black universities

Abstract

In the post 1994 South African higher education system, there have been significant moves and achievements at the transformation of higher education institutions. The chief instrument of institutional transformation has been the university governing councils. The key assumption was that transformation of the university council was key to the transformation of the universities. However, over the same period several former historically black universities have experienced periods of unrest and protest. As a result, several of these universities have remained in a state of a risk of protest. This state of tension and uncertainty that characterizes these institutions has made the different stakeholder begin to question their faith and confidence in the institutional values that govern these institutions. This paper argues that participation in leadership is key to effective governance. The paper makes use of the concept of culture within a micro-political framework to generate modes of good governance within such stakeholder institutional environments. To have been able to collect and analyze this kind, the study relied on data collected through documents, interviews and surveys. The paper ends with implications for effective governance in stakeholder governed university environments.