During the past two decades, higher education in South Africa has been affected drastically by transformation. An issue that has specifically been influenced is master's degrees. A significant increase in the demand for access to course work master's degrees has been experienced, while universities themselves have been confronted with a new…

In this article I contend that we cannot divorce affirmative action from issues about race and racism. Further, debates on affirmative action have to acknowledge the power of words/concepts/definitions and how they can be constructed and used for the purposes of domination or liberation. I argue that, in debating affirmative action, we have to…

South African society is characterized by high levels of poverty and unemployment. South Africa has an embarrassingly uneven distribution of income as reflected by the Gini-coefficient. While much of the country's economic ailments can be attributed to poor and selective application of economic policies during the apartheid era, there is a growing…

Many schools in South Africa are dysfunctional, or at least do not function optimally. This statement could be substantiated by just citing statistics about failure rates, school drop-out rates, school violence, matric pass rates, learner absenteeism, educator absenteeism or the incidence of discipline problems and the effect thereof on educators.…

Our analysis of the phrase "social space" first of all concentrates on the modal or functional nature of the different aspects of reality, including the social and spatial aspects. Subsequently this leads to an analysis of the problem of modal analogies--one way in which an answer is given to the perennial philosophical problem…

The question "When am I educated?" had a fairly simple answer in the modern era. The "minimum" requirement was a degree from one of the "recognised" universities of the world, and the degree initiated the individual into the different "official" canons of knowledge. The majority of those canons were Western in origin and represented Education…

Yusef Waghid (2006) in his response to Martin Hall (2006) argues that Martin Hall offers a better way of making sense of some of the conceptual and pragmatic links between academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Nevertheless Waghid critiques Hall's uncritical treatment of prominent theoretical positions for his claims, which Waghid thinks…

Within the broad theoretical context provided by debates on the South African education reforms and the civic engagement agenda in higher education, this article focuses on service learning in higher education and portrays complex relationships between the service-learning office and different existing structures within and outside the University…

Management in universities has had to change, as the demands on universities have demanded different skills. One consequence has been a backlash against what is perceived to be an emerging culture of managerialism. This conceptual article argues that a balance is needed between collegial and more corporate style management if a university is to…

In this article I highlight the challenges facing a law lecturer in a multicultural society in transformation where the student is being prepared to serve society in different occupational fields as a professional person. I indicate that the law itself cannot effect change. For this we need properly trained lawyers. For an effective transformation…

Argues that there is an urgent need to develop and agree upon a theory of knowledge able to direct human actions on defensible grounds, offers a brief statement of the essentials of such a theory, and summarizes the implications of accepting such a theory, particularly for teaching and for systematic criticism of intellectual performance at all…

Examines the concept of a "people's university" in the South African context, focusing particularly on the role of historically black universities. Argues that South African blacks feel universities in general do not reflect their views, values, and aspirations, and that black universities should be more representative in their…

Discusses issues associated with the establishment of a distance education branch of a technical institute in Qwaqwa, a new, formerly self-governing portion of the Orange Free State (South Africa). Focuses on design and utility of the system itself and on implementation of such a technologically advanced project in a Third-World context. (MSE)

Examines reasons for the shift from binary to unitary systems of higher education in Australia and Great Britain, and problems encountered with that change. Argues for retention of the binary system in South Africa and urgent restructuring of the ailing technical college sector as the main focus of a initiative for change in South African higher…

A study in the Vaal Triangle (South Africa) investigated the extent of Vaal Triangle Technikon students' participation in economic and social development activities on campus and within the surrounding community, identified community projects and development activities in which students might participate, and assessed student attitudes about…