Abstract:

Since the eruption of the 2015 student protests in South Africa, universities started to brace themselves for the inevitable transformation. The ‘Must Fall Movements’ represented by #FeesMustFall and #RhodesMustFall led students who cherished a dream of revamping the way the South African universities ran their business. Not only did the students seek the actual colonial mining magnate Cecil John Rhodes’ statue to be uprooted at the University of Cape Town, but they also sought to decimate vestiges of colonisation within the citizens. The more pernicious effigy was the one that lodged and had captured the mind. The Student Movements were intent on obliterating epistemic violence, linguisticides and culturecides. When they replaced the concept Transformation with Decolonisation it was a conscious effort to bring forth a new era where all ecologies of knowledge would be accommodated by all higher education institutions that sought to lead in epistemic freedom and a truly liberated society. Furthermore, the students demanded liberatory education that would entrench critical thinking and liberated consciousness.

This presentation focuses on Unisa’s Change Management Unit’s efforts to work for change and transformation. Situated in the Vice Chancellor’s office, the Unit’s mandate is to lead and strive for change whilst working with various role-players at the university. It has produced a series of documents that have helped in initiating debates in the institution. Here the discussion focuses on the Unit’s eight dimensions of transformation drawn in 2018. The presentation examines how these dimensions are congruent with transformation and decolonisation of the university. They also explicate why transformation needs to cut through the university changing institutional cultures, scholarship, human resources and leading ways.

Keywords:

Decolonisation, Epistemic Freedom, Higher Education, Institutional Culture, Transformation.