A university without ruins : some reflections on possibilities and particularities of an African university
Date
2017
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
HESA
Abstract
Ron Barnett’s (2016) Understanding the university announces that 'the university is a task without end … [and] since the university is always on the move, always moving in its spaces – economic, social, political, cultural, institutional and so on – its possibilities will always be moving on' (Barnett 2016, 9). I concur with Barnett’s cogent analytical take on the contemporary university, and draws on his three-pronged analysis, namely that a university is an institution and an idea; it is an institution in the present with future possibilities; and that it embodies a set of particulars and universals. The particulars and universals want to offer, firstly, a defence of a university as a democratic institution. Secondly, in line with Jacques Derrida’s (2004) novel thoughts on a contemporary university, I make a case for a university as a responsible institution-in-becoming within an African context, thereby bringing into contestation the notion that a university can ever be ‘in ruins’.
Description
CITATION: Waghid, Y. 2017. A university without ruins : some reflections on possibilities and particularities of an African university. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(3):1-5, doi:10.20853/31-3-1337.
The original publication is available at http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/sajhe
The original publication is available at http://www.journals.ac.za/index.php/sajhe
Keywords
University cooperation -- Africa, Higher education -- Social aspects -- Africa, Universities and colleges -- Research -- Africa, Universities and colleges -- Developing countries
Citation
Waghid, Y. 2017. A university without ruins : some reflections on possibilities and particularities of an African university. South African Journal of Higher Education, 31(3):1-5, doi:10.20853/31-3-1337