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STAFF REPORTER
THE politicisation of top governance in South African universities is an entrée to corruption, and if left unchecked, the “growing swamp” will destroy higher education and snuff out the lamp of learning for generations to come, said Professor Jonathan Jansen.
Jansen is Distinguished Professor of Education at Stellenbosch University and the president of the Academy of Science of South Africa. His research is concerned with the politics of knowledge in schools and universities.
He was speaking at a University of Cape Town (UCT) Summer School Extension Series event earlier this month, in conversation with UCT’s Anwar Mall.
Mall is a medical biochemist and an Emeritus Professor of Surgical Research in the Faculty of Health Sciences.
The discussion, “Why universities are not exempt from corruption”, explored themes from Jansen’s recent hard-hitting book, Corrupted: A study of chronic dysfunction in South African universities.
An alarmingly high number of the country’s 26 higher education institutions are already at risk, Jansen said.
The example of politically motivated assassinations and attempts on the lives of vice-chancellors and senior staff at institutions such as the University of Fort Hare had illuminated the reality of criminal syndicates operating with impunity.
Governance bodies had been infiltrated by individuals’ intent only on bleeding these institutions dry, Jansen said.
The conversation was part of the Summer School Extension Series.
Jansen said that while the threats to higher education were considerable, he doesn’t believe “the game is over with respect to a love of learning”.
“UCT [for example] is lucky to have those values in place and has some of the world’s leading scholars, some of the most productive laboratories for science and medicine with great thinkers in philosophy, literature and so on. But there’s a worldwide problem of reducing teaching and learning to ‘best outcomes’.”
Universities across the world are in constant struggle with what social scientists call the neoliberal university, he said.
“Get as many students across the line as possible, turn research into production units and ensure we
optimise the publication subsidy of the university.”
“We must train the next generation of professors so that they can step into a classroom and engage students to come to love the intellectual property. Because if you don’t, the swamp is going to grow.”
In this endeavour, universities need strong academic leaders at the helm, with a clear vision of their task, Jansen said.
“Take Fort Hare, where vice-chancellor Professor Sakhela Buhlungu understands the value of learning. We forgot what universities are called for … It’s a particular kind of institution set up for an enduring purpose.”
“As I said to a group of vice-chancellors I met with recently, ‘How many of you have stood up at orientation or graduation and told the students what a university is for?’ South Africans equate a degree with getting a job.”
Therein lies a problem, Jansen noted. The goal of higher education is to provide students with a skill set, not prepare them for a specific job, except for the narrowest of professions.
But when it comes to good leadership, the cupboard is bare, Jansen noted. The crisis has impacted on councils, senates and other university governance bodies. And if avoided, problems “at the top” create havoc within the institution.
“A vice-chancellor is only as good as their second tier,” Jansen said. “And we’re dealing with a set of very serious issues about where the next generation of leaders will come from.”
Jansen said that while universities train emerging professors, introducing new, young blood to the academic corps for continuity, similar advancement programmes should be in place for university leadership roles.
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