The book, Achieving Nelson Mandela University?, was launched alongside the newly-established Mandela University Press.
Co-edited by the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sibongile Muthwa, and historian Dr Denver Webb, it has contributions from a cross-section of authors from different backgrounds, disciplines and generations.
Speaking at the launch, Dr Webb – who, along with Prof Muthwa, is a contributor – said it had been a genuine collective effort.
“The richness of the various contributions in the book derives from the wide diversity of academic disciplines from which the contributors are drawn, and the different methodological approaches adopted around the core themes,” he said.
“I hope Achieving Nelson Mandela University? will change how we approach the ongoing evolution of the University, how we assess the foundation that was laid during and after the merger process, how we understand the Africanisation and decolonisation project, how we approach issues of inclusion and exclusion and of institutional culture and, most importantly, how we view the future trajectory of Mandela University.”
The book is a critical reflection on the journey that Mandela University has travelled and its future trajectory. It places the University within the contemporary historical moment from which it emerged and examines its evolution as well as its future intent.
It is arranged in three parts; the first dealing with the origins of the institutions that became Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, the second delving into the post-merger transformative reconstruction of the University and the third zooming in on the #MustFall protests and their impact and influence on the institution.
“In the first chapter, I explore the origins and pre-merger histories of the predecessor institutions and locate them within their historical context, what their founders’ intended of them, whether these were achieved and what influence this had on the merged university – what they contributed to the DNA of Mandela University, as it were,” said Dr Webb.
It then goes on to examine the organisational identities of the pre-merger institutions, as well as the political and cultural baggage they brought into the new university, as per Professor Shervani Pillay’s contribution.
Professor Heather Nel rounds off Part A with an insider view of the dynamics of the organisational design process of amalgamating the different parts into Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
A chapter in Part B, co-authored by Professor Denise Zinn, Ilse Olckers and Allan Zinn, explores institutional culture and the innovative Institutional Culture Enlivening Process (ICEP), which consciously sought to build a new institutional culture.
In a chapter in the final part, Prof Muthwa outlines the broad transformation of higher education since 1994, highlighting the inconsistencies and unresolved issues that led to the #MustFall student protests of 2015 and 2016, as well as the “chronic instability” in the sector that has followed.
Scholar and former student leader, Dr Pedro Mzileni, authored a chapter giving a student perspective on the game-changing student protests, and also contributed to a chapter alongside Dr Lebogang Hashatse and Dr Wendy McCallum on the University’s landmark decision to insource previously outsourced service functions.
Other contributors include former Vice-Chancellor Professor Derrick Swartz, sociologist and author Professor Crain Soudien, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education Prof Shervani Pillay, activist lawyer and an organisational development facilitator Ilze Olckers, institutional researcher and a PhD candidate at University of the Free State Taabo Mugume, former Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Engagement at Mandela University and current Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mpumalanga Professor Thoko Mayekiso, and Research Associate at the Stellenbosch University’s Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST) Wendy McCallum.
Adjunct Professor Verne Harris concludes the book with both a consolidation of the discussion and a reflection on the future trajectory of Mandela University, and extends the discussion on the purpose of the university of the future, posing a set of questions on “the university to come”.
The book is on sale at the Nelson Mandela University Shop and will also be available at major retail bookstores at R435 a copy.