There are several different ways to approach democracy. Polls, elections and referenda all feature, but they’re not the only way to deepen democracy.
Articles on #feesmustfall
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Economic models suggest that South Africa’s GDP would fall, inequality would deepen and unemployment would rise if university graduates don’t enter the labour market in 2017.
Clashes between student protesters and armed security (whether public or private) compel South Africans to consider the role of use of force in the context of protests.
The foundation founded by Nelson Mandela in 1999 has done a major revision - it has written off most of his reign as comprising “grand symbolic gestures”.
There is a very real risk that South Africa’s major research projects will stumble and the whole research machine will be shut down by ongoing student protests.
Protest movements become radicalised by two factors: escalating policing and competitive escalation between political adversaries and other protesting groups.
Universities are so busy trying to make ends meet that there’s no time to listen to their communities’ stories. It’s crucial to develop safe spaces where tough conversations can happen.
Higher education is a resource intensive enterprise. It cannot effectively function without a massive injection of resources in a sustained and escalated manner.
Student activists are losing faith in the legacies of anti-apartheid heroes like Nelson Mandela. Perhaps all South Africans should do the same. It may just be what the country needs for its future.
It’s unlikely that student protests are directly affecting South African universities’ rankings. Instead, decades of government underfunding in higher education may be at least partly to blame.
People risk being physically harmed during violent protests. But there is also an emotional element at play.
South Africa’s higher education minister has dealt with fee increments for 2017 but sidestepped students’ fundamental issue: an ongoing call to make higher education free for all.
South Africa’s universities have been told to set their own fee increases for 2017. That’s good news for institutions, but it hasn’t been well-received by many students.
The podcast has emerged as a promising medium for facilitating ongoing debate about issues that need more time than mainstream, profit-oriented media or the changing tides of hashtags might allow.
The decolonisation debate in South Africa’s universities raises critical issues about the relationship between power, knowledge and learning.
Academia is being asked to do less for more, and universities are at financial breaking point. This has implications for all South Africans.
South African students’ demands for free university education are not going away. Nor are the country’s economic realities.
Decolonisation of the curriculum doesn’t have to mean the destruction of Western knowledge, but it’s decentring. Such knowledge should become one way of knowing rather than the only way.
Sections of South Africa’s student movements regard transformation as a complete failure. Responding to this perceived failure, some have adopted an anti-democratic stance.
South Africa needs to build a mental infrastructure that will allow people to individually and collectively engage in a bold, courageous and trutfhul dialogue.
Top contributors
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Professor, University of Cape Town
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Senior Researcher in Labour Studies and Education, University of Johannesburg
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Researcher, Social Sciences, University of Fort Hare
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Director of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation and Associate Professor of Education, University of Johannesburg
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Distinguished Reserach Professor, Southern Centre for Inequality Studies, University of the Witwatersrand
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Associate Professor, Department of International Relations, University of the Witwatersrand
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Chief Director: Tshwane University of Technology – Institute for Economic Research on Innovation; Node Head: DST/NRF SciSTIP CoE; and Professor Extraordinary: Stellenbosch University – Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology., Tshwane University of Technology
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PhD Scholar, Wits School of Education, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor of Urban Governance, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor of International Affairs and the Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President (Academic), Carleton University
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Professor and Head of Department of Political and Conflict Studies, Nelson Mandela University
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Professor of Digital Society, University of Glasgow
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Senior Research Associate, University of Johannesburg
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Distinguished Professor, Stellenbosch University
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Research Associate in Higher Education Policy and Planning, Ali Mazrui Centre for Higher Education Studies, University of Johannesburg