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Mail & Guardian
Sen Muller

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Sen Muller

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And as South Africa marks Human Rights Day, thirty years after human dignity was written into law, this is the reckoning we cannot postpone.

The poverty of poor economics

The winners of the Nobel prize in economics experiment on poor people, but their research doesn’t solve poverty

Last week a student protest at the University of Zululand led to a police van being petrol bombed.

LETTER: The murder of Prof Kamwendo at UniZulu

Kamwendo’s murder is an incident that is simply at the extreme end of a spectrum of problematic dynamics in the South African academy

Ntombizikhona Valela’s pieces on Winnie Madikizela-Mandela fails to acknowledge fails to acknowledge the likely influence of Dr Babalwa Magoqwana.

Winnie writer ignores key scholar

Ask anyone who was at Rhodes, this specific formulation of uMakhulu was promoted by Magoqwana

Tertiary institutions must initiate change, not pacify donors

The Rhodes Trust tries to mollify criticism of Cecil John Rhodes’s legacy while not offending its wealthy alumni and other donors.

Graphic: John McCann

Long wait for change in our varsities

Substantive transformation is central to UCT’s focus in the wake of the Rhodes statue debacle.

Policy isn’t a great part of our sums

New proposals to train better maths teachers ignore many schools’ resource constraints.

Graphic: John McCann

Transformation is not UCT’s priority

Yet it still claims it is working to change the racial demographic of its academic staff.

Boys’ clubs need a culture overhaul

Wider concerns with racial representation in academia conceal a significant gender imbalance.

Academic privilege is a grey area

The many barriers faced by younger staff unfairly protect senior incumbents.

Left out: Many bright South Africans are graduating, but there is no real interest in integrating them into academic institutions.
(Oupa Nkosi, MG)

No replacement for ageing brains

As older academics retire, there seems to be little deliberate action to bring new blood on board.

The real threat to academe is internal

The phrase ‘academic freedom’ is meaningless without institutional quality and integrity.

The coronavirus pandemic is pushing us to respond to issues that were around before Covid-19, including at schools in poor areas.

Opinion: Will government intervene after Eastern Cape school closures?

Parents in the Eastern Cape have shut down schools because of horrendous conditions. Nomalanga Mkhize asks when the state will step in.

The Great Hall at Wits University. Photo: Supplied

University rankings a flawed tool

The manipulative game of comparison and quantification turns institutions into players, writes Sean Muller.

The NUM has recommended to the commission that the police and the NPA should investigate anyone suspected of being involved in criminal behaviour during the strike.

School corridors of power

Some union-affiliated teachers use their positions as stepping stones to lucrative political jobs.

There is no evidence to suggest a causal link between the number of PhD graduates and economic growth.

More PhDs are not the answer

Proper human resource development and career and succession planning in academia are far more important.

Publish or perish – and damage too?

Publish or perish – and damage too?

The state’s research-funding model does not serve all of academia equally well.