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Chris Jones asks what Nelson Mandela and some of his contemporaries and predecessors would have said about the situation at some of our universities – where there is ruthless and sometimes deadly competition for resources.
On 18 July, South Africa joins the rest of the world in celebrating former President Nelson Mandela's birthday, which was declared Nelson Mandela International Day in 2009. Observing this day reminds us of our individual power to make an imprint in our society and change the world around us.
One of the Nelson Mandela Day Goals for 2019-2029 is education and literacy. Some of his most famous quotes, as we know, precisely focus on education because it is, according to him, "the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world".
Because one of Madiba's great legacies was his contribution to education, we should embrace and cherish our educational institutions. Although schools are very important – and much has been written about them, including the dysfunctional ones – the focus of this article will be on universities.
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I recently read Professor Jonathan Jansen's latest book, Corrupted: A study of chronic dysfunction in South African universities, in which he analyses the nature of universities and examines how corruption can seep into academic institutions.
I kept thinking of Mandela and some of his contemporaries and predecessors and wondered what they would have said about the situation at some of our universities – where there is ruthless and sometimes deadly competition for resources.
Before I elaborate on this, I must admit that we do have excellent and well-functioning universities that are highly regarded internationally. They are, like schools and other tertiary training institutions, so important for our nation's prosperity. Sadly, they are also places where young people’s hopes and dreams are stolen by corrupted university officials and criminals. We should vehemently oppose this capture of our higher education institutions.
Lack of capacity
Since the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994, there have already been 20 interventions by the government at universities plagued by governance and management failures.
At least three book-length publications of note and three reviews of assessor reports have been published on this issue. However, according to Jansen, they are not enough to understand deep, chronic malfunction at universities. Hence his book.
He quotes a vice-chancellor of one of these dysfunctional universities: "How can we tell the world that we are doing well when we find it difficult to perform the simple professional act of acknowledging receipt of business letters; when it takes months to fill a vacant post; when we make decisions that we do not implement; when our campus protection service sits back and watches millions of rand's worth of goods being stolen from us? When staff in the kitchen fight over carcasses of meat; when payday is a holiday; when a large number of teaching staff go home at midday; when some students think that to be radical is to be rude; when the failure rate is so high that some 3 500 students have to sit supplementary examinations; when the research and publishing rate is the lowest in the country; when some of us expect to earn higher salaries for low productivity".
There are numerous other examples of unacceptable behaviour, such as a staff member of the administration at a university who uses his position to sell fake certificates and a councillor who sits on a tender committee to award a contract for student transportation services to his business partner outside the institution.
READ | Bernadette Johnson: Our universities are caught in the snare of a leadership crisis
In this very good documentation of how and why so many South African universities have lost their academic purpose, Jansen reasons that the lack of capacity – in other words, the ability of a university to deliver on its core duties – and a set of ethical values, of which integrity is probably one of the most important, play a decisive role in the emergence of dysfunctional and corrupt institutions such as universities.
The academic project of a university must be oriented towards and firmly rooted in ethical values. Dysfunctional and corrupt universities almost invariably lack strong institutional integrity, honesty, and transparency.
Furthermore, chronic corruption is often strongly based on a political economy framework – where "power and resources are harmfully entangled" – and is one of the most important players in a dysfunctional university, according to Jansen.
A dysfunctional university can be defined as chronically unstable, where frequent protests (which violently damage property) take place and which result in campuses having to close. So, there are cycles of disruption. This has direct consequences for such a university’s reputation and credibility, especially regarding the awarding of degrees.
Micropolitics
Micropolitics within universities is also a driving force of malfunction – especially the everyday use of power at universities (at different levels) to achieve certain goals.
These micropolitics at universities often goes hand in hand with the macropolitics of the larger society and the state. Macropolitics (of the state) can have a strong influence on the behaviour within institutions such as universities. The intersection of micro and macropolitics best explains chronic dysfunctionality at some of these institutions.
There is also the social and economic context(s) which play a significant role in the lives of students/staff/employees connected to a university. Linked to this are the class interests of the new elite (in post-apartheid South Africa) who came into positions of power not only in the public service, but also at universities.
Considering this, we just realise how important whistleblowing at universities has become – although very dangerous – and that lasting change regarding dysfunctionality and corruption within universities is essential. Short-term government intervention, as referred to earlier, is important but not enough. What is needed is that the rules of the game, the culture and politics that feed dysfunctionality and corruption, must be addressed, and permanently eradicated.
On Mandela Day, it is important to reflect on another saying of this icon: "It is easy to break down and destroy. The heroes are those who make peace and build".
In order to build and maintain a high standard of excellence in our universities, we’ll have to continuously recreate and restructure higher education, depoliticise university councils, and appoint academics, managers, and leaders of integrity with the necessary skills and ability to govern our universities so that we can better serve and develop our communities and country.
Because, in the words of Madiba: "Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that the son of a mine worker can become the head of the mine; that a child of farm workers can become the president of a great nation".
- Dr Chris Jones is Chief researcher in the Department of Systematic Theology and Ecclesiology, and also head of the Unit for Moral Leadership at Stellenbosch University.
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