Around the world, higher education is faced with a fundamental question: what is the basis for our claim of societal legitimacy? In this book, the authors go beyond the classical response regarding teaching, research and community engagement. Instead, the editor puts forward the proposition that the answer lies in responsiveness, the extent to which universities respond, or fail to respond, to societal challenges. Moreover, because of its intractable legacy issues and crisis of inequality, the question regarding the societal legitimacy of universities is particularly clearly manifested in South Africa, one of the most unequal countries in the world.
The Responsive University brings together contributions on the issue of responsiveness from a number of international university leaders, half of them specifically addressing the South African situation within the context of the international situation as presented by the other authors.
In the global discussion about the role of universities in society, this book provides a conceptual framework for a way forward.
Chris Brink is a logician, Emeritus Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University UK, and former Rector of Stellenbosch University. He is the author of
The Soul of a University: Why Excellence Is Not Enough (Bristol University Press, 2018).
Notes on Contributors
Introduction
Chris Brink
PART 1: Global Context
1 An Irredeemable Time? The Rising Tide of Hostility toward Universities
Glyn Davis 2 Mobilising the Full Resources of Universities for Civic Engagement and Responsiveness: The Comprehensive Infusion Strategy of Tufts University
Robert M. Hollister 3 Towards Creating the Truly Engaged, Responsive University: Penn’s Partnership with the West Philadelphia Community as an Experiment in Progress
Ira Harkavy, Rita A. Hodges and Joann Weeks 4 The Journey of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University from a Local Trade School to a Socially Responsible Global University
Angelina Yuen and Miranda Lou 5 Counter Innovations: The Responsibility of Universities to Act on the SDGs
Eivind Engebretsen, Anna Wahlberg and Ole Petter Ottersen 6 The Permeable University: Moving beyond Civic Engagement to Transformation
Mary Stuart 7 The Newcastle Helix
Nick Wright 8 Teaching, Reaching and Preaching: Towards a Realistic Utopia
Yael Yuli Tamir
PART 2: South Africa
9 Reimagining South Africa’s Universities as Social Institutions
Ahmed Bawa 10 The Transformative, Responsive University in South Africa
André Keet and Sibongile Muthwa 11 Protests and Pursuits: The South African University in Turmoil and the Search for a Decolonial Turn
Siphamandla Zondi 12 South African Universities between Decolonisation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Lis Lange 13 The Fourth Industrial Revolution in Higher Education
Tshilidzi Marwala 14 The University of the Western Cape: Educating towards and for a Changed Society
Larry Pokpas, Loïs Dippenaar and Nasima Badsha 15 Poverty, Inequity and Decolonisation: Are Business Schools Responsive to the Challenge?
Millard W. Arnold 16 Reflections and Conclusions
Chris Brink
Index
All interested in the global identity crisis of higher education, the societal role of universities, and the manifestation of these issues in South Africa.