Joys, fears in higher education

Anew year comes with excitement and anxiety. Almost a month ago, we would have made resolutions for the new year, been excited about new beginnings but also been anxious for what the new year might hold.

Last week, the academic year for our schools commenced and for many pupils, going to a new school, a new grade or even repeating the year, holds both enthusiasm and discomfort. Educators too may be nervous and thrilled at the same time, by the prospect of a new class, new responsibilities and, for some, even a new job. Yet they would hope for the best for their pupils; no educator wishes for their pupils not to succeed.

In a week or two, the academic year for Rhodes University will also commence. Naturally again, there exists eagerness and apprehension about the upcoming academic year. As with our own experience of a new year, the commencement of a university what would happen--and this included academics and experienced administrators.

A number of initiatives are however taking place to relook at the crisis in higher education. This crisis takes place within a context of a plethora of other crises in South Africa. Gross inequality exists in basic education, food, healthcare, housing, jobs and other public goods.

So any initiative that seeks to resolve the crisis in higher education needs to take the bigger picture into account.

At a national level, stakeholders have been engaged in dialogue, a process led by the former Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke, and assisted by other eminent individuals like Advocate Mojankunyane Gumbi, Mary Metcalfe, Jay Naidoo, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba and the president of the South African Council of Churches among others.

This dialogue envisages a civil society conference on higher education in South Africa in mid-March. Already, these the ‘trusted convenors’ have engaged students, university staff, parents, university management, the business community and government.

The issues that need to be worked through range from the immediate disciplinary and court cases of students to long-term goals of sustainable and transformative university education. One thing unites all of us thought: we want a better higher education system.

University staff, too, have been trying to get themselves organised so that their ideals, fears and vision do not get marginalised in the process. Academics, administrators and support staff have come together to form the South African Universities’ Staff Network for Transformation (SAUSNeT), which stand in solidarity with the students, but also has particular views and vision unique to staff.

A number of initiatives are also taking place at Rhodes. Hopefully, more will be written about these in the coming weeks but what is vital is that the Makana community, with whom the university shares an interdependent relationship, also starts initiatives and dialogues. Unlike other university towns, such as Stellenbosch and Tlokwe (Potchefstroom), what happens at Rhodes directly impacts the community of Grahamstown. We only to ask the businesses along Somerset St and the neighbouring schools.

As with the national process, we must all take responsibility for our university. Various community organisations must start discuss their responses to the crisis in higher education and at Rhodes. This response could either take a head-in-the-sand approach and be reactive, or it can be proactive and forward-looking.

Towards the end of last year, the Unemployed People’s Movement hosted a dialogue session where members of the community engaged staff and students. This is a helpful start. Churches, organised business, schools, community organisations can to the same by inviting staff and students from the university to engage them, as Rhodes belongs to all of us.

One of the ways in which anxiety or fear is tamed is to share one’s joy and excitement with others.

Dialogue, engagement and even talk-shops, as tedious and obnoxious as they can be, help us to understand one another better. It is only after we have heard and understood one another that we can make our education system and country have a better future. As with 2017, we must give education dialogue our best!

• Wesley Seale is a lecturer in South African politics at the University Currently Known as Rhodes. Any university/TVET college staff member interested in SAUSNeT may contact him at w.seale@ru.ac.za