Minister addresses students’ decolonisation call

South Africa’s Higher Education Minister Naledi Pandor convened a one-day meeting in Boksburg last week to discuss advancing transformation in the sector after the South African Union of Students reiterated its call for the decolonisation of higher education in the country, reports Radio 702.

Pandor said students and academics agree that the increased number of women and black people in higher education does not answer the full question of what the ministry seeks to achieve with the notion of transformation. “Issues of institutional culture, curricula reform, who is actually a knowledge producer, also matter as part of giving concrete meaning to this notion of transformation,” said Pandor.

Speaking on the plight of black academics affected by the lack of transformation in some institutions, Pandor says matters of leadership have come up as very important areas for universities to look at. “We need to begin to discuss the commitment of our university leaders to attending to these perpetual problems that are referred to even by the most senior academics,” Pandor said.
Full report on the Radio 702 site