Transcending the Past and Reimagining the Future of the South African University

Leading and managing any university is a challenging task in the 21st century, but undertaking this responsibility in a developing world context like South Africa, where the managerial and strategic challenges tend to be more acute, is an even more onerous one. Although there have been significant changes and massive state intervention in the last 20 years, South Africa’s post-apartheid higher education lags behind many of its counterparts in other developing countries in terms of both performance and competitiveness. In addition, many of its institutions remain racialised and ‘untransformed’ at both student and staff levels. The higher education system is therefore increasingly seen as neither nationally responsive nor globally competitive. With other sectors of society making increasing demands for scarce public resources, a variety of South African stakeholders are now demanding greater efficiency and effectiveness at universities. The author, the vice-chancellor of a leading South African university and thus very much a practitioner in this field, provides a candid reflection on the evolution and current state of South African higher education, its key challenges and opportunities, and how it needs to repositioned if it is to have greater relevance and responsiveness in South Africa’s third decade of democracy.