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Around the world, more young people than ever before are attending university. Student numbers in South Africa have doubled since democracy and for many families, higher education is a route to a better future for their children. But alongside the overwhelming demand for higher education, questions about its purposes have intensified. Deliberations about the curriculum, culture and costing of public higher education abound from student activists, academics, parents, civil society and policy-makers. We know, from macro research, that South African graduates generally have good employment prospects. But little is known at a detailed level about how young people actually make use of their university experiences to craft their life courses. And even less is known about what happens to those who drop out. This accessible book brings together the rich life stories of 73 young people, six years after they began their university studies. It traces how going to university influences not only their employment options, but also nurtures the agency needed to chart their own way and to engage critically with the world around them. The book offers deep insights into the ways in which public higher education is both a private and public good, and it provides significant conclusions pertinent to anyone who works in – and cares about – universities.
Around the world, more young people than ever before are attending university. Student numbers in South Africa have doubled since democracy and for many families, higher education is a route to a better future for their children. But alongside the overwhelming demand for higher education, questions about its purposes have intensified. Deliberations about the curriculum, culture and costing of public higher education abound from student activists, academics, parents, civil society and policy-makers. We know, from macro research, that South African graduates generally have good employment prospects. But little is known at a detailed level about how young people actually make use of their university experiences to craft their life courses. And even less is known about what happens to those who drop out. This accessible book brings together the rich life stories of 73 young people, six years after they began their university studies. It traces how going to university influences not only their employment options, but also nurtures the agency needed to chart their own way and to engage critically with the world around them. The book offers deep insights into the ways in which public higher education is both a private and public good, and it provides significant conclusions pertinent to anyone who works in and cares about universities.
In what ways does access to undergraduate education have a transformative impact on people and societies? What conditions are required for this impact to occur? What are the pathways from an undergraduate education to the public good, including inclusive economic development? These questions have particular resonance in the South African higher education context, which is attempting to tackle the challenges of widening access and improving completion rates in in a system in which the segregations of the apartheid years are still apparent. Higher education is recognised in core legislation as having a distinctive and crucial role in building post-apartheid society. Undergraduate education is seen as central to addressing skills shortages in South Africa. It is also seen to yield significant social returns, including a consistent positive impact on societal institutions and the development of a range of capabilities that have public, as well as private, benefits. This book offers comprehensive contemporary evidence that allows for a fresh engagement with these pressing issues.
This volume investigates the uptake of ‘open learning’ in South African Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges and higher education institutions. Comprised of 16 studies focused on activities at a range of colleges and universities across the country, these chapters aim to promote a better understanding of open learning practices across the Post- School Education and Training (PSET) sector, including issues such as: recognition of prior learning, access for students with disabilities, work integrated learning, professional development, novel student funding mechanisms, leadership for open educational practices, institutional culture, student support, blended and online learning, flexible learning, online assessment, open educational resource development models and funding, and micro- credentials. This collection of peer-reviewed chapters contributes to understanding the ways in which South African PSET institutions and educators are interpreting ‘open learning’ as a means of advancing social justice. It includes a historical and contemporary understanding of the economic, cultural and political obstacles facing PSET, drawing on Nancy Fraser’s theory of social justice as ‘participatory parity’ to better understand the ways in which ‘open learning’ may address systemic social injustices in order to allow South African students and educators to thrive. This volume emerges from research conducted by the Cases on Open Learning (COOL) project, an initiative by the Department of Higher Education and Training in partnership with the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa.
This book argues for renewed understandings of academic activism, understandings that conceive of the ideas, arguments and scholarship of the academe as embedded within the practices of what the academy does. It examines why and how a renewed notion of academic activism informs a philosophy of higher education specifically in relation to teaching and learning. The book focuses on the theories and practices of teaching and learning, in particular how such pedagogical actions are guided by social, political and cultural influences outside of the university as a higher education institution. The authors advocate for a living philosophy of higher education that is commensurate with real actions and imaginary fictions of what constitutes higher education and what remains in becoming for the discourse. With a focus on South African social justice education, the book imagines pathways for academic activism to manifest in revolutionised pedagogical actions or actions that bring into contestation what already exists with the possibility for the cultivation of renewal.
The various chapters of this book have brilliantly provided perspectives on creating conditions for success in higher education from a wide variety of stakeholders within a university environment. The rich content comes from varying fields of study as well as academic development and student affairs directorates within the institution. This is what is exciting about the book. The diversity of focus in chapters makes the book relevant to anyone with interest in higher education matters. From the opening to the closing chapter, students are making a contribution on what the university has done or is doing for them to succeed or what it should consider doing to improve its service to students. This touches on every environment that students find themselves in a university setting, from residences, to the classroom to commuter or off-campus students. The book’s extended use of the capabilities approach and critical social theories has enabled it to provide nuances on not only the success of students, but, more importantly, about how the higher education environment can transform itself to practices relevant for the sector today. The various research studies in this book can benefit similar university contexts nationally and internationally.
Drawing on the South African case, this book looks at shifts in higher education around the world in the last two decades. In South Africa, calls for transformation have been heard in the university since the last days of apartheid. Similar claims for quality higher education to be made available to all have been made across the African continent. In spite of this, inequalities remain and many would argue that these have been exacerbated during the Covid pandemic. Understanding Higher Education responds to these calls by arguing for a social account of teaching and learning by contesting dominant understandings of students as decontextualised learners premised on the idea that the university is a meritocracy. This book tackles the issue of teaching and learning by looking both within and beyond the classroom. It looks at how higher education policies emerged from the notion of the knowledge economy in the newly democratic South Africa, and how national qualification frameworks and other processes brought the country more closely into conversation with the global order. The effects of this on staffing and curriculum structures are considered alongside a proposition for alternative ways of understanding the role of higher education in society.
Premised on the disruption and lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic, and in meticulous response to the impact of the pandemic on higher education – especially in South Africa – this collection of chapters spotlights the effects, consequences, and ramifications of an unprecedented pandemic in the areas of knowledge production, knowledge transfer and innovation. With the pandemic, the traditional way of teaching and learning was completely upended. It is within this context that this book presents interdisciplinary perspectives that focus on what the impact of Covid-19 implies for higher education institutions. Contributors have critically reflected from within their specific academic disciplines in their attempt to proffer solutions to the disruptions brought to the South African higher education space. Academics and education leaders have particularly responded to the objective of this book by focusing on how the academia could tackle the Covid-19 motivated disruption and resuscitate teaching, research, and innovation activities in South African higher education, and the whole of Africa by extension.
This book presents the most comprehensive and most thorough study of the developments in South African higher education and research after the first democratic elections of 1994 – that is of post-Apartheid South African higher education. This volume will provide its readers with a detailed insight into the new (i.e. post-1994) South African higher education system. The large number of experienced authors and editors involved in the book guarantees that the reader will be introduced in the new SA higher education system from a large number of perspectives that are presented in a consistent and coherent way. This book will be of interest to scholars, students, administrators, policymakers and politicians interested in South Africa, higher education and research, and policy analysis. "Publications on higher education are not new. But this volume, which is the first of its kind as a collective effort of tracing and examining the twists and turns taken by processes of change in the South African higher education system in a context of profound societal and global transformation, adds a fresh dimension to the debate. In its examination of the extent to which the changes were in line with policy intentions, particularly with regard to equity, democratisation, responsiveness and efficiency, and how a new institutional landscape started emerging, it makes a momentous contribution to the current debate about higher education restructuring." Njabulo Ndebele, Vice-chancellor, University of Cape Town and Chair of the South African Association of University Vice-chancellors "This book addresses a rich variety of issues on South African higher education. It puts these in the relevant context of the process of globalization and it shows that the South African experiences offer us a lot to learn. Highly recommended for those who are intrigued by the innovations taking place in South African higher education as well as for those who intend to grasp the effects of globalization." Frans van Vught, Rector Magnificus and founding Director of the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies, University of Twente, The Netherlands "Reflection is a crucial ingredient to learning. In this book on higher education we have reflections on a unique period in the history of a country that managed its transition to democracy in a way that was unique, but from which we can all learn. Higher education in South Africa played a vital role in that transition and was part of the many tensions, choices and influences. They have been thoughtfully captured." Brenda Gourley, Vice-chancellor, The Open University, UK and board member, Centre for Higher Education Transformation. "No contemporary higher education system has changed as dramatically as that in South Africa. This book, rich in data, examines the changes that took place and offers insights into how change frequently cannot be predicted. The analysis captures the excitement, high expectations, remarkable successes, and failures in the transformation of the apartheid system of higher education. This excellent study provides rich fare for comparative analysis." Fred M. Hayward, American Council on Education Pilot Project, Executive Vice President, Council for Higher Education Accreditation, US.
This edited volume reveals how the journey of transformation at the University of the Free State (UFS) became interwoven with student leadership development and global learning. The UFS initiated two intersecting co-curricular programmes, namely, the First-Year Leadership for Change (F1L4C) programme in 2010; and the triennial Global Leadership Summit (GLS) in 2012. Although these programmes changed over time, their core focus remained to be the development of transformational student leaders through the creation of global learning spaces. From its inception in 2010 to the last GLS in 2018, the UFS global learning project involved 780 students and 259 staff members from 109 institutions, across four continents. The goal of this edited volume is to create a deeper understanding of how the UFS F1L4C and GLS programmes enhanced student leadership development through global learning, especially in the context of higher education transformation.