One world, many knowledges: Regional experiences and cross-regional links in higher education

Tor Halvorsen And Peter Vale (Eds)

Description

Various forms of academic co-operation criss-cross the modern university system in a bewildering number of ways, from the open exchange of ideas and knowledge, to the sharing of research results, and frank discussions about research challenges. Embedded in these scholarly networks is the question of whether a ‘global template’ for the management of both higher education and national research organisations is necessary, and if so, must institutions slavishly follow the high-flown language of the global ‘knowledge society’ or risk falling behind in the ubiquitous university ranking system? Or are there alternatives that can achieve a better, ‘more ethically inclined, world’?Basing their observations on their own experiences, an interesting mix of seasoned scholars and new voices from southern Africa and the Nordic region offer critical perspectives on issues of inter- and cross-regional academic co-operation. Several of the chapters also touch on the evolution of the higher education sector in the two regions.An absorbing and intelligent study, this book will be invaluable for anyone interested in the strategies scholars are using to adapt to the interconnectedness of the modern world. It offers fresh insights into how academics are attempting to protect the spaces in which they can freely and openly debate the challenges they face, while aiming to transform higher education, and foster scholarly collaboration.

Informations

• Publié par: African Minds
• Date de parution: 13 mai 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780620557894
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 9 Mo

Extrait

One wor ld, many knowledges
Regional experiences and cross-regional links in higher educationOne wor ld, many knowledges
Regional experiences and cross-regional links in higher education
Edited by Tor Halvorsen and Peter Vale
AFRICAN
MINDSFirst published 2012 by the Southern African–Nordic Centre
University of the Western Cape
Private Bag X17, Bellville, 7535
Tel: [phone]
http://sanord.net
© 2012 Southern African–Nordic Centre
Te views expressed in this publication are those of the authors. In quoting from
this publication, readers are requested to attribute the source of the information to
the relevant author.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior
permission, in writing, from the publisher or as expressly permitted by law.
ISBN: 978-0-620-55789-4 (print)
ISBN: 978-0-620-55788-7 (PDF)
ISBN: 978-0-620-55787-0 (ebook)
Copyediting and production management: Mary Ralphs
Design and typesetting: Scone-i
Cover artwork: Scone-i
Printing: Creda Communications (Pty) Ltd
Copies of this book are available for free download at http://sanord.netd at
www.africanminds.org.za and http://sanord.net
 
ORDERS
For orders from Africa, please contact:
African Minds
Email: [e-mail]
 
For orders from outside Africa, please contact:
African Books Collective
PO Box 721, Oxford OX1 9EN, UK
Email: [e-mail] Contents
Acronyms and abbreviations vii
Introduction: why this book, and what it’s about 1
Tor Halvorsen and Peter Vale
Part I: BACKGROUND
1 Te Southern African–Nordic Centre: from conception
to realisation 9
Stanley GM Ridge
2 Drivers and challenges in the internationalisation of higher
education and research: the case of the Southern African–
Nordic Centre 21
Anne Sørensen
Part II: DILEMMAS OF CHANGE
3 Changes in higher education policy and the Nordic model 39
Risto Rinne
4 University transformation: a crisis for the social sciences and
the humanities 55
Tor Halvorsen
5 Redressing apartheid’s legacy of social exclusion: social equity,
redress and admission to higher education in South Africa 71
Saleem Badat
Part III: INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION
6 Te struggle, global challenges and international strategies in the
University of Fort Hare’s music department 103
Bernhard Bleibinger
7 Te migration of African students to South Africa: motivations,
integration and prospects for return 119
Gabriel Tati
8 Te experiences of Deaf students at a South African university 155
Lucas Magongwa





9 Tradition and modernity: the inclusion and exclusion of
traditional voices and other actors in archaeological heritage
management in Mozambique and Zimbabwe 175
Albino Jopela, Ancila Nhamo and Seke Katsamudanga
10 Steering from a distance: improving access to higher education in
South Africa via the funding formula 193
Pieter le Roux and Mignonne Breier
Part IV: CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
11 Cultural heritage and social context: research and management in
Mozambique 249
Anne Bang and Tore Sætersdal
12 Academic co-operation in a bipolar world:
where does SANORD ft in? 265
Tor Halvorsen
13 Whatever happened to imagination? 267
Peter Vale
About the contributors 303


Frequently used acronyms and abbreviations
CHE Council on Higher Education
CHET Centre for Higher Education Transformation
DDRN Danish Development Research Network
DEAFSA Deaf Federation of South Africa
DHET Department of Higher Education and Training
EHEA European Higher Education Area
GATS General Agreements on Trade in Services
HEMIS Higher Education Management Information System
HSRC Human Sciences Research Council
IAU International Association of Universities
ICT information and communication technologies
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
NCHE National Commission on Higher Education
NORAD Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
NSFAS National Student Financial Aid Scheme
SADC Southern African Development Community
SANORD Southern African–Nordic Centre
SAPSE South African post-secondary education
SASL Sican Sign Language
SIDA Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency
TBVC Transkei, Bophutatswana, Venda and Ciskei
UK United Kingdom
US/USA United States of America
WTO World Trade Organisation
viiIntroduction: why this book, and what is it about?
Tor Halvorsen and Peter Vale
This book builds on the Southern African–Nordic Centre (SANORD)
conference, held at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, in December 2009,
on the theme ‘Inclusion and Exclusion in Higher Education’. Its contents,
however, do not simply replicate the proceedings of that event. Instead,
although the bulk of the chapters were delivered as papers at the conference,
one of the chapters derives from an earlier SANORD conference and others,
including those written by Stanly Ridge and the two co-editors, were written
especially for this book. Tis collection thus stands apart from, and gestures
towards, the themes raised at the 2009 event.
Unsurprisingly, given its title, this book considers the value of academic
cooperation – a notion that has been at the heart of conversations about higher
education since the early 1990s. What is its purpose? Why is it necessary?
What form should it take? And, central to the theme of the Grahamstown
gathering, who benefts, and why?
Tese questions cannot be answered until it is understood that academic
co-operation encompasses an array of interlinked networks that run from
the minor to the meso. Tese criss-cross the modern university system in a
bewildering number of ways: from the open exchange of ideas and knowledge;
to the sharing of research results; frank discussions about research challenges;
and (to pinpoint an increasingly threatened feature of university life) the
creation of cross-regional academic communities, characterised by open
dialogue about the challenges posed by the notion of the global ‘knowledge
society’. In other words, the contributors to this book are interested in the
strategies that universities, in the North and the South, have adopted to deal
with the time–space compression – to use David Harvey’s helpful term –
represented by the interconnected world that has been loosely (and recklessly)
described as globalised.
Hovering in the background, during the three days of the 2009 conference
as well as during the process of compiling this volume, is the question of
whether a ‘global template’ for the management of both higher education
1n
s
and national research organisations emerged after the Cold War. And,
if it did, must institutions slavishly follow its high-fown language or risk
falling further and further behind in relation to its regime of ‘excellence’ and
ubiquitous university ranking system? It is, therefore, not wholly surprising
that these issues arise within the book, too.
Te theme of how the global discourse of higher education and research
is infuenced by the concept of competitiveness appears again and again
throughout these chapters. Competitiveness is said to be essential to the
economic and social health of nations (and indeed the world), but are there
alternatives that can achieve a better, more ethically inclined world than the
supposedly endless growth required to feed the market? Are there other
ways of recruiting students are to higher education? Can new governance
systems be linked to the will of academics, rather than planners, as they
work together across regions to shape alternative forms of knowledge? Will,
for instance, alternative curricula produce diferent outcomes? Can these
change our understandings of the challenges of growing global poverty?
How can universities reach society beyond the formalised and increasingly
institutionalised ‘corporate social responsibility’ model which, because it is
copied from the business world, is preoccupied with the bottom line rather
than with the emancipatory role of knowledge? Of course these, and many
other questions, are captured within the idea of ‘inclusion’ and ‘exclusion’, the
theme around which SANORD had convened its conference.
Te book is organised into four sections, which we have called Background;
the Dilemmas of Change; Inclusion and Exclusion; and Critical Perspectives.
Background
Veteran academic, and administrator of the University of the Western Cape,
Stanley Ridge was central to the creation of SANORD. His lively chapter
covers this story in unambiguous terms: SANORD was the product of a
meeting of minds between old friends and their commitment to institutionalise
their friendship anew. Te network’s goals are clearly discussed, and the
personalities, including Ridge, who gave it shape are brought to life.
Danish academic, Anne Sørensen, takes the story forward by po