Author’s analysis lacks wider perspective
JONATHAN Jansen, vice-chancellor of the University of the Free State in South Africa until a year ago, has written a book on the country’s higher education sector. As by Fire – The End of the South African University is one of a number of recent books that set out to make sense of the current crisis in South African universities.
The crisis began in early 2015 with the #RhodesMustFall protests and gained momentum over the course of 2015. These protests fuelled, and eventually overtook the national #FeesMustFall movement. The underlying economic, cultural and political issues that drove the protests remain largely unresolved.
As by Fire is structured around three main questions: What in fact happened? Why did it happen? And what does the protest crisis mean for the future of South African universities?
Jansen draws on his own experience as well as interviews with 11 vice-chancellors in the country. His conclusion is: “In a nutshell, there is no future and what we are witnessing is a full system meltdown.”
There are several problems with Jansen’s apocalyptic thesis.
Firstly, for a scholar of Jansen’s calibre, the analysis lacks a broad comparative perspective. His main reference point is the story of failing universities on the rest of the continent.
Jansen doesn’t make any comparisons to student protests across the globe – in Hong Kong, Canada, Chile, the UK, the US and Turkey, to name a few. These were also characterised by occupations of leaderless movements, threats of violence by police and militant students.
A more thorough comparative analysis of what is happening in South Africa in relation to continental and global trends could have led to a more constructive conclusion instead of a “no future” story.
The more serious problem with Jansen’s “no future” thesis is that it’s irresponsible. Someone of Jansen’s profile has tremendous power to shape the narrative. And how South Africans interpret the events of the past two years shapes how the sector will go forward. His conclusion has consequences. Why would academics stay if they believed Jansen’s predictions with the certainty that he projects them? Why would students apply? Why would donors invest?
What the book does offer is a view of university leaders under crisis – a largely unedited perspective of 11 VC’s “under fire”, in some cases, literally. This is why the book will be of interest to anyone in higher education management.
The book presents a view of leaders in a lose-lose situation. The reader gets a closeup view of the ways in which they worked tirelessly to defend their institutions and were battered from every side. And Jansen is right to expose the extreme pressure and the personal costs that the VC’s and their families paid.
What South Africa’s universities need from their leaders now is deeper reflection on the transformative potential of this difficult historical moment. ● This article first appeared in The Conversation. Suellen Shay is Dean and Associate Professor at the University of Cape Town. Shay does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond the academic appointment above. ● As by Fire – The End of the South African University is available from loot.co.za for R280.