The student revolts in South Africa

The lecture seeks to examine the state of higher education in South Africa since 1994. Its premise is that South African higher education system is in good health and is internationally competitive. However, there is a paradox. The lecture seeks to prize open that paradox. The paradox is that notwithstanding all the successes of the higher education system, with reasonable funding by the state and much supported by the private sector, the system is in a state of flux. Student uprisings in 2015 and currently are raising critical issues about what matters ibn the determination of the health of the higher education system, as well as the relationship between the academe and society. The lecture will provide a personal critique of the radical student movement. The conundrum, however, is what does it take for society to both meaningfully consider the state of all the players in the system, and yet remain faithful to the idea of a university. The lecture will examine the concept of dialogue as a hermeneutical model for arriving at the essence of what is being sought.
Professor N Barney Pityana, is a Guest Researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute, February – April 2016. He is the retired Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of South Africa (2001-2010). After which he served as the Rector of the College of the Transfiguration Grahamstown (2011-2015).
Prof Pityana is Professor emeritus in Law, at the University of South Africa, and Honorary Professor in the Allan Gray Leadership Ethics Centre, Department of Philosophy, Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Currently he also serves as a consultant in the Thabo Mbeki Foundation.
Patience Mususa is a senior researcher based at the Nordic Africa Institute. Her research looks at the micro-processes of planning and settlement in new and old mine towns in Africa’s Copperbelt. She has worked as lecturer in social anthropology at the University of Cape Town, teaching on the courses the ‘anthropology of development’ and ‘power and wealth’.
Date: 7/4-2016
Place: Ekonomikum hörsal 2
Time: 18.15
Price: Free for members, 60 kr for others. Become a member at the lecture! 100kr for one year.
In collaboration with Folkuniversitetet, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and The Nordic Africa Institute