South Africa's democratic state has been clouded by various social and economic ills like joblessness, skills shortage, poverty and crime. These are a result of various complex issues which include the apartheid legacy, misdirected education system and poor planning for long term national priorities. This article looks at the lost opportunities to…

This article charts a research project on higher education and poverty reduction chronologically, mapping the process of thinking through and generating an Index of public-good professional education based on literatures; empirical data from actors-lecturers, students, alumni, professional bodies and NGOs; and participatory dialogue. Amartya Sen's…

The rationale for this article is that the actors in the South African higher education system, and particularly those with the responsibility for leading it, need to be clear about the arguments in the transformation debate and in particular about how these get at what is actually happening within it, and to be-consciously and self-critically…

The article critically re-interrogates three high profile cases of white racism at South Africa's former "open universities" to highlight the way in which existing debates around academic freedom fail to come to terms with questions of racial injustice after apartheid. The cases covered are the Makgoba affair at Wits, the Mamdani affair…

This study set out to explore how academics construct and negotiate their identities within the world of the academe. Identity construction involves different forms of community participation and identification. Utilising the research methodology of narrative inquiry, this article explores how academics came to see themselves across those…

A study of academic staff at a South African university of technology used questionnaires and interviews to understand perceptions and experiences related to inclusion and exclusion. Taking critical race theory as the theoretical framework, the study revealed high levels of anger amongst staff of different racial identities. Expressions of…

In the light of the notorious video made by white students at the University of Free State (UFS) in which black middle aged cleaners were subjected to forms of degradation in a mock initiation ceremony (which included being given food mixed with urine) the Minister of Education authorised an investigation on social cohesion in universities. The…

The relationship between the academic labour market and the global labour market provides an important context for this research. There appear to be growing numbers of part-time lecturers at universities worldwide, which is seen as an extension of casualisation of labour more generally. From a social justice perspective, it is therefore of concern…

There is little research exploring poverty amongst university students, which renders poverty on university campuses invisible. This study aims to begin to understand experiences and constructions of poverty among university students. The qualitative study design uses open-ended, in-depth interviews in which four students from a university in the…

In 2008 the Ministerial Committee under the leadership of Crain Soudien in 2008 had, amongst other tasks, to investigate the promotion of social cohesion at higher education institutions. Numerous studies revealed that the institutional culture of a university or faculty plays a major role in transformation. In transforming the prevailing culture,…

Apartheid-designed higher education institutions continue to have a major influence on students and higher educators in South Africa. There is a need for innovative approaches for engaging with difference in higher education. One means of doing this could be through innovative pedagogical approaches. The Community, Self and Identity project…

Alexander, Van Wyk, Bereng and November (2009) are of the opinion that the purpose of education is the development of human capital towards meeting and achieving the individual and psycho-social needs of learners and communities which should be brought about through a process of transformation. In essence, this would imply that any discourse with…

This article explores the question of the purpose of education within the context of performance and cosmopolitanism in South Africa. The publication of Jean-Francois Lyotard's classic text, The postmodern condition of knowledge in 1984 spawned much debate and controversy about postmodern framings for education, the most significant of which have…

The current state of career counselling in South African institutions of higher education in the 21st century is explored in this article in an attempt to locate current work in the field of career counselling in South Africa in the light of global trends (academic and economic) and in terms of local history and current economic climate. The…

South African institutions of higher education seek to innovate their practices to more inclusively, effectively, and justly serve the needs of a diverse student population. Career counselling shares in this aim in an age of ever-widening globalization and burgeoning information technology. Counsellors around the globe must increasingly move to…