South African students call to decolonize science: Implications for international standards, curriculum development and Public Administration education

Abstract

The decolonialisation of the higher education curriculum and free higher education were two of the burning issues during student protests that erupted across universities in South Africa at the end of 2015. Although the president announced free higher education in December 2017, the country can scarcely afford it, with many universities already feeling financial constraints. The call for decolonialisation of the curriculum by students (which was viewed negatively by the public) refers specifically to books, theories and learning content that still predominantly reflect the thoughts of Western colonial powers. Students required a bigger focus on indigenous (African) knowledge to be incorporated into the South African curriculum. This, however, is the opposite of current international trends, where curricula are developed to meet international or even global standards that are set by international accreditation agencies in Public Administration, such as the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration and the International Commission on Accreditation of Public Administration Education and Training Programs. Therefore, this article investigates not only the direction the discipline of Public Administration is taking with regard to international standards and the curricula, but also to specifics of governance in developing countries. Are there reasonable arguments to support the demand for changes to the content of this discipline and is there a need to adjust curricula to concede to the wishes of the protesting students for the decolonising of science? This article found that international scholarly requirements, specific national conditions for governance and the demands uttered by students in the development of curricula at South African universities are at odds, particularly in the study of Public Administration.