On average, about 25 percent of students leave higher education (HE) institutions annually in South Africa because they are excluded on academic and financial grounds. To resist such putouts, student boycotts and protests are common despite the fact that student organizations were incorporated into decision-making processes at HE institutions (defined as universities and technikons in South Africa) in 1997. By examining recent student protest behaviour, this paper explores the dimensions of various protests and examines some of the effects of student participation in HE governance structures.