Systemic dysfunction in South African higher education: an autoethnographic inquiry

This autoethnographic inquiry examines persistent paradoxes in South African higher education through my experiences across five decades in varied educational contexts. Drawing on Bourdieu's habitus and cultural capital, Senge's systems thinking, and decolonial theory, the paper interrogates how universities remain dysfunctional, failing to embrace systems thinking, allowing egotistical leadership to turn institutions into vanity projects while councils abdicate fiduciary responsibilities. Through critical analysis of ten lessons distilled from my experience in teaching, research, and institutional leadership, the paper shows how teaching divorced from the scholarship of teaching and learning perpetuates archaic practices; how decolonial rhetoric functions as ideological refuge from the difficult work of curriculum transformation; and how lowering academic expectations constitutes the greatest injustice we can inflict on students. The analysis contributes to debates on the contradictions of transformation, quality, and sustainability in higher education, bridging practitioner knowledge and theoretical insight in ways conventional research alone cannot achieve.