:Studying While Black: Race, Education and Emancipation in South African Universities

This study explores how microcredentials could be directed towards social justice ends in South African (SA) Higher Education (HE). The Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) draft Open Learning Policy Framework (OLPF) is premised on understanding open learning as a social justice imperative, identifying digital badges and microcredentials as strategically significant in open learning. Microcredential activities in SA HE are still nascent, so academic staff from only one SA university, who were actively experimenting with digital badges and microcredentials, were able to be interviewed. Interviews with selected local and international informants involved in researching and/or working with microcredentials in HE were also conducted, to investigate other practices and approaches in this field that could advance social justice in SA HE. The social justice framework of Nancy Fraser, which theorises ‘parity of participation’ in the dimensions of economic, cultural and political injustice, provided the analytical lens with which to interrogate the qualitative data. The findings indicate that microcredentials can remedy systemic inequities for both staff and students in the university studied. More broadly, microcredentials can afford the recognition of alternative epistemologies and cultural practices, and linking microcredentials to qualifications frameworks can allow for increased mobility of workers who can access an ‘ecosystem’ of work and educational opportunities, and potentially improve their lives. However, a coherent, integrated national post-school education and training (PSET) policy environment, explicitly based on social justice principles, is urgently needed to facilitate and guide further microcredential development so that it may help remedy inequities in SA HE.

Over the past 20 years, the South African higher education (HE) system has become increasingly regularised. All programmes offered at South African public universities have to be registered and accredited by the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET); the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) under the auspices of the Council on Higher Education (CHE); as well as the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). Such accreditation, registration and quality assurance is subject to a growing series of stringent regulatory frameworks that must be adhered to, chief amongst which are the Higher Education Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF) and the Classification of Educational Subject Matter (CESM) manual and the later Addendum. Increased calls from both students and government for curriculum transformation and the decolonisation of HE require a critical review of the regulatory regime as one of the barriers to curriculum transformation at South African universities. The aim of this article is to present a conceptual analysis of the CESM and its regulatory context within a decolonial framework in order to show that the regulatory requirements for curricula have created a rigid and colonised conception of what universities may and may not teach. The CESM categories and their concomitant requirements have become the so-called invisible statues of colonisation based on narrow and morally decadent Western conceptions of academic disciplines in current university curricula.

The level of readiness to use information and communication technologies is referred to as a measure of “e-Readiness”. South African universities may be well-placed to use some applications of information and communication technologies, but unable to use others. From review of existing literature, it is unclear as to which factors are regarded as important to be “e-Ready” in the South African Higher education context. In order to address this problem, a research project with the following objectives was proposed: 1. To determine the key focus areas and stakeholders for e-Readiness in South African Higher Education, and 2. To illustrate these key focus areas and stakeholders, and show how they relate to one another in a model for e-Readiness in South African Higher Education. A two-round Delphi questionnaire was conducted with South African universities' Information Technology directors, South African National Research and Education Network managers and Association of South African Information Technology Directors managers. The main outcomes that were achieved were: 1. New definitions for e-Readiness and e-Learning were posited, 2. The key focus areas for e-Readiness were determined as: Information, Infrastructure and Human Capital, 3. Key stakeholders and their proposed key roles were determined, 4. A model for e-Readiness for Teaching and Learning in South African Higher Education was proposed and tested.

This article draws primarily on the relevant literature to reflect on two critical moments that changed the South African (SA) higher education landscape: #Rhodesmustfall and #Feesmustfall. It examines how universities have responded to the calls for curriculum decolonisation in the aftermath of the hashtag movements and the implications for reimagining Academic Literacy (AL) pedagogies in SA universities. The article is framed around two arguments. First, although Rhodes fell during the student protests, it did not dismantle the resilient institutional cultures that have sustained racial and epistemic hierarchies. In the context of AL, these epistemic hierarchies often influence module contents, pedagogies and assessment practices. Second, given the socio-economic challenges in SA, curriculum decolonisation should inspire transformative practices in classroom spaces. The article therefore concludes that AL pedagogies should focus on providing students with key cognitive competencies and literacies that can assist them to participate in disrupting Western epistemic domination, increasing their chances of academic success and employability. To achieve these, AL curricula should include discipline/context-specific indigenous and culturally inclusive pedagogies. In addition, lecturers should use a mixture of academic texts that allow students to recognise and appreciate the fact there are different ways of being, knowing and doing.

A brief overview of South Africa's higher education history contextualizes this article's examination of how admissions policies and procedures at the University of Cape Town (UCT), an historically White South African university, have been affected by increasing enrollments of Black students since the passage of the 1983 Universities Amendment Act. This is followed by an institutional profile that delineates the specific changes in admissions policies and procedures related to Black students at UCT from 1983 to 1995. Data are presented by race and gender. The article concludes with a critical analysis of UCT's academic development programs and alternative admissions criteria. INTRODUCTION The origins of higher education in South Africa date back to 1829 and the establishment of the University of the Cape of Good Hope-the present-day University of Cape Town (UCT)-and the University of Stellenbosch, founded in 1874. These early institutions of higher learning were established primarily to prepare White males for further educational training abroad. They were modeled after British institutions; their students were White, and their academic staff came primarily from Britain and other European countries. It was not until early in the 20th century, with the passage of the University Act of 1916, that provisions were made for the establishment of the first university for non-White South Africans. That legislation established the South African Native College, now known as the University of Fort Hare, and the University of South Africa, a correspondence university for the nation's Blacks, or its African, Colored, and Indian/ Asian populations. As this article makes plain, the history of South African higher education is intricately bound to and influenced by political developments. Upon assuming leadership in 1948 until the 1994 democratic elections, the National Party (NP) government of the nation's White minority played a decisive role in the development of higher education. With its doctrine of apartheid, the NP introduced the plethora of legislation that systematically entrenched racial segregation at all levels of society, including the educational system. Within five years of taking power, the NP government passed the Bantu Education Act of 1953, which created separate systems of education for Africans, Coloreds, Indians/ Asians, and Whites. This Act was followed by the Universities Amendment Act of 1959 that prohibited the admission of Blacks to historically White universities and established separate universities for Blacks along racial/ethnic lines. Subsequently, between 1951 and 1968, six South African colleges became full-fledged, independent universities serving Whites only: the University of the Witwatersrand (1922), the University of Pretoria (1930), Natal University (1949), the University of the Orange Free State (1950), Rhodes University (1951), and Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (1951). Two new Whites-only universities were founded during this period: the University of Port Elizabeth in 1965 and Rand Afrikaans University in 1968 (Muller, 1991). Institutional development in South African higher education also reflected the cultural and linguistic duality of the South African settler population. The Afrikaans-language universities of Stellenbosch, Pretoria, Orange Free State, Potchefstroom, and Rand Afrikaans-became the nucleus of Afrikaner (Dutch Boer) nationalism and cultural consciousness (Booysen, 1989; Gwala, 1988; Marcum, 1982). The English-language universitiesCape Town, Witwatersrand, Rhodes, and Natal-have historically been perceived as politically liberal in the South African context for their strong commitment to the ideals of academic freedom and interracial and interethnic relations (Taylor, 1990; Vale, 1987). The Extension of Universities Act, passed in 1959, set forth provisions for ethnically based institutions of higher learning designed to serve South Africa's African, Colored, and Indian/Asian populations. …

ABSTRACTThe 2015–2016 South African higher education students’ movement proved historical for our country in bringing to our dinner tables: issues of higher education transformation and decolonisation; institutional culture(s); curriculum reform; the need to foreground and make inclusive assessment in education; the coloniality in our knowledge production, and more. Influenced by the emergence of the student movements and the critique they have brought to South African higher education, we bring to the fore the often silent critical reflections on the purposes of higher education in general, and in South Africa especially, as they relate to teaching and learning. We propose that the purposes of higher education in relation to teaching and learning ought to respond to (1) context, (2) democratic difference, and (3) cosmopolitan perspectives. We argue that discourses, phases and logics about South African higher education have tended to disregard and, at times, blur the context and differences as well as cosmopolitan perspectives. Using the notion of Ubuntu-Currere, we re-imagine how teaching and learning could respond to context, difference and cosmopolitanism with examples from the South African higher education experience.

Community engagement was a relatively unknown concept in South African higher education until the late 1990s. In response to the call of the White Paper on the Transformation of Higher Education (1997) for `feasibility studies and pilot programmes which explore the potential of community service in higher education' the Joint Education Trust launched the Community — Higher Education — Service Partnerships (CHESP) initiative in 1999. The purpose of this initiative was to assist South African Higher Education Institutions to conceptualization and implementation community engagement as a core function of the academy. This article tracks the development of community engagement in South African higher education through the CHESP initiative and identifies some of the processes and outcomes at a programmatic, institutional and national level. The article includes four South African universities as case studies to illustrate the processes and outcomes of embedding community engagement in South African higher education.

The 2015 student protests, #RhodesMustFall and #FeesMustFall, gave rise to the call to decolonise curricula and end the dominance of Western ideologies in South African higher education (HE). The argument put forward in this paper is the need to shift from a traditional approach to a humanised pedagogical approach, wherein students frame knowledge around individual experiences to construct personal and shared understanding. Although limited scholarship around decolonising South African fashion HE exists, such scholarship does not focus on storytelling and circle learning as pedagogical strategies. To address this research gap, narrative humanism, referred to in this research as storytelling, and circle learning are put forward as pedagogical strategies to integrate student identities for personal connection in South African fashion HE. This paper aims to explore the affordances of storytelling and circle learning to decolonise South African fashion HE. Through qualitative action research, two teaching and learning interventions, termed the pilot and main studies, were designed and applied with fashion students at a South African HE institution. Data collection entailed semi-structured student questionnaires, artefacts, and a reflective research journal. To analyse the data, content analysis was employed. The findings reveal that, irrespective of cultural lived experiences or diverse backgrounds, storytelling afforded a decolonised approach in terms of inclusivity, collaboration, and a safe environment for socially engaged dialogue and peer feedback. Similarly, circle learning seemed to reduce teacher-student power relations and contrasted traditional modes of delivery. Circle learning appeared to encourage meaningful, engaged participation, affording a progressive pedagogical strategy to accommodate student and teacher voices in open dialogue. This paper contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning in that storytelling and circle learning are suitable pedagogies to decolonise fashion education in the Global South.

There are several global, regional, and local policies on the promotion of inclusive and equitable education in Africa. However, African universities in general and South African universities in particular, are at a crossroads 30 years into democracy due to the dominance of English as the language of research, teaching, and learning in higher education. English is used as the dominant language of science, research, epistemological pedagogy, and embodiment of knowledge. In this study, I examine how colonial legacies and the global knowledge economy have contributed to marginalising Indigenous languages in South African universities, thereby constraining multilingual higher education. South African universities' over reliance on English has hierarchised languages in ways that relegate Indigenous languages to the periphery. South African higher education is at a crossroads because on one hand, the global knowledge economy characterises universities as marketplaces whereas on the other hand, student movements demand transformation and decolonisation. In this paper, I employ a critical discourse analysis (CDA)-social justice frameworks to review the vision and mission statements and institutional language policies of a South African historically Black university, historically White university, and a university of technology. The CDA-social justice frameworks approach unmasks the deeply institutionalised global market competitive posture of universities, and unravels the social injustices. A key finding is that the imperialist global knowledge economy is a barrier to multilingual higher education.

Globally, few students with disabilities progress to higher education. This is mostly due to avoidable barriers they face as they navigate different educational structures from lower levels. Even for those few students who make it to higher education, they continue to face challenges. A qualitative study was carried out at the University of the Free State and the University of Venda. Fourteen students with disabilities took part in this research that was aimed at exploring their academic and life experiences. This article interrogates the inclusion of students with disabilities at two South African universities. This article is timely as South Africa has initiated the development of a national policy framework on disability in the post-school education and training systems. It highlights some of the areas where inclusive policies should pay attention in an effort to fully cater for the needs of students with disabilities.

The South African campus protests of 2015–17 in demand of decolonisation and free tertiary education presaged similar demonstrations on campuses throughout the English-speaking world and revealed the dilemmas of university leadership under conditions of sustained crisis. This research examines the typology of leadership exercised by senior administrators in South African higher education in the period just prior to these events, when the tensions that led to them were already manifest. It proposes a new conceptual model for leadership in higher education that will allow leaders to move beyond the bureaucracy and enable a conception of leadership as a complex interactive dynamic through which adaptive outcomes can emerge. Complexity theory frames the study, as it reconceptualises leadership by focusing on the dynamic interactions between all individuals within organisations; explains how those interactions can, under certain conditions, produce positive outcomes; and takes into account the properties of non-linearity, uncertainty, ambiguity and disequilibrium under which universities worldwide operate. A Likert-scale survey of senior higher-education leaders produced data that were analysed using both linear and non-linear statistical methods. The study finds that no distinctive leadership characteristics are evident at the senior levels of South African higher education management and that there are no significant differences between the leadership characteristics of senior managers in the country’s historically white, historically black, and post-apartheid universities. An appreciation for complexity is critical within a university environment where bureaucratic assumptions are often the mode of operation. This article proposes a new model for leadership in higher education that will allow leaders to move beyond the bureaucracy and enable a conception of leadership as a complex interactive dynamic through which adaptive outcomes can emerge.

Student engagement has been defined as the extent to which students are engaged in activities that higher education research has shown to be linked with high-quality learning outcomes. The ubiquitous influence of the term ‘student engagement’ has been felt throughout the higher education landscape. This is especially true for South African higher education where student success has been poor. South African universities have been tasked to improve the student learning experience as a component of improving success. Some of the innovative teaching and learning practices often highlighted by research which are thought to improve student engagement include: having students adopt teaching roles such as peer assessment, tutoring and mentoring. These practices are thought to promote student engagement, leading to greater student academic success. Tutoring can therefore be seen as one of the key strategies to facilitate student engagement in order to achieve academic success. The following paper considers the role of tutoring in student engagement while reflecting on strategies used at a South African university to address the challenges associated with student success.

Although policies to widen participation have been implemented in South African higher education since 1994, inequality of achievements persists in universities. The failure of the higher education policy to clearly define ‘disadvantage’ in various interventions seems to have contributed to the continuing inequalities. This study theorises disadvantage using the capabilities approach pioneered by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum and argues for a more nuanced definition of disadvantage by exploring the opportunities, agency and achievements available to students in universities. The theorisation is based on findings from a qualitative case study of 26 semi-structured interviews conducted with students from one South African university. Using empirical findings, the theorisation in this study shows how the conversion factors intersect, resulting in some students achieving fewer functionings, which put them at a disadvantage. While gender equality seemingly has been achieved through enrolment figures that show parity levels, some female students are still disadvantaged through subtle forms of discrimination and sexual harassment in universities. This study therefore recommends that higher education policies should consider an expansive definition of disadvantage that encompasses the various dimensions of student wellbeing for all students to have flourishing lives.

The liberation of the nation's indigenous languages and linguistic equality are directly tied to multilingualism in South Africa. This implies that the successful implementation of multilingual education in South Africa will require a thorough understanding of the linguistic implications of multilingualism. Many South African colleges and universities are still far from completely implementing multilingual education, despite a wealth of data supporting multilingualism in higher education. Furthermore, not much research has looked into the real reasons behind the notable slowdown in its implementation in South African higher education. This study identified and examined factors that may have slowed or are still slowing down the adoption of multilingualism in South African higher education. This study used a desktop research approach based on source document reviews and analysis of secondary research literature on multilingualism to identify and interrogate factors that may have hindered or continue to slow its implementation in higher education. This review presents a comprehensive analysis that adds fresh information to support and enhance the process of implementing multilingualism in higher education.We advised that the government increase financing for bilingual and multilingual programs and closely monitor the implementation of language policies at universities. Furthermore, rather than considering multilingualism in terms of a select few isolated multilingual practices, we advise higher education institutions to begin embracing multilingualism as a broad term. This will be made possible by improving collaborative platforms that let academic institutions share information about successful multilingual education strategies, reopening or creating language departments at universities, and conducting surveys and parent and student consultations to learn more about attitudes toward multilingualism and the silent student voice.

There has been intense scrutiny about the design and delivery of curricula in South Africa higher education institutions. Various policies and laws have been established to ensure that the South African higher education contributes to the transformation agenda of the nation. This study contributes to this debate by examining how the South African higher education policies contribute to the transformation of curriculum to meet contemporary socioeconomic needs. The study employs a systematic literature review to synthesise current evidence and adopts a morphogenetic approach to explore how existing frameworks, such as the Higher Education Act of 1997 and the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training (2014), have shaped the curriculum design and implementation processes in South African universities. The paper begins by discussing the internationalisation of higher education curricula and highlights the need for graduates to develop global competencies. It further examines the role of the South African internationalisation policy in preparing students for the global economy. The research also addresses how policy gaps, such as the inadequate focus on decolonisation and the lack of alignment with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), impact the effectiveness of curriculum transformation efforts. The findings reveal that despite numerous policy frameworks and strategic documents, there remains a disconnect between the goals of higher education policies and the practical realities of curriculum design and delivery. This disconnect contributes to the numerous challenges in the higher education sector, manifested through student protests and dissatisfaction with the relevance of academic programs. The paper concludes that a more nuanced approach to curriculum reform is necessary, one that bridges policy intentions with practical outcomes through continuous dialogue among universities, the government, and industry stakeholders.