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Masters Degrees (Development Studies)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10413/6663

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Development Studies) by Subject "#FeesMustFall."

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    Higher education at the precipice : financing higher education: a stakeholders’ perspective at Howard College.
    (2017) Maphumulo, Gugu Dada Cindy-Carol.; Mtapuri, Oliver.
    The #FeesMustFall campaign of 2015 was a result of social dynamics which placed South African universities between a rock and a hard place. The fixing of the problem revolves around National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), therefore, student funding needs rethinking as student academic choices must not be constrained by their socio-economic status. The aim of this study was to gain insight and understanding into the dynamics of higher education and funding using Howard College (University of KwaZulu-Natal) as a case study. The tools that were used to collect data include interviews and questionnaires which are compatible with a mixed method approach. This enabled the researcher to use methodological triangulation in which both qualitative and quantitative data was collected in a sequential approach. In-depth interviews were done with five stakeholders and one hundred self-administered questionnaires to undergraduate students at the Howard College campus. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and triangulated. Some of the key findings of this study suggest that while NSFAS is a loan scheme, it was helping to some extent but was insufficient because the demand was huge. Violence by students was a tactic to have their voices heard in the face of a University management that resorted to calling the police instead of engaging with students regarding their concerns. The study also found out that the #FeesMustFall campaign was not targeted at Universities but at the government. By virtue of the fact that NSFAS is a student loan scheme, students prefer other lines of assistance such as bursaries, grants and scholarships as the loan tended to put the students under heavy indebtedness before they have even completed their studies. The study recommends that alternative sources of funding should be found particularly involving the private sector as it is the main beneficiary of the products of universities – the graduates. By going online, NSFAS was disadvantaging the already disadvantaged students who do not have the digital exposure such as most of those who attended high schools and found themselves in the cities. Students saw higher education as a right which the government must fulfil. The study concludes by noting that providing free higher education is a political decision with serious economic repercussions such that reconciling these diametrically opposed perspectives requires cool heads and sober reflections by all stakeholders.
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    Prospects, opportunities and challenges of a decolonial curriculum in South Africa.
    Mbhele, Senzelo Sopatro.; Mtapuri, Oliver.
    The Decolonial curriculum is a contested global education discourse debate on the how best to cater for previously disadvantaged population groups to access and excel in higher institutions of learning. The global view that there is a relationship between education and human prosperity is a pillar on which the calls for a decolonial curriculum lie. With the increase in student protests, political conflicts and economic crises in most countries, students are struggling to access university education, and to successfully undertake and complete their studies. In the most recent cases in South Africa, students have taken to the street to register their anger against the South African government for the slow progress of transformation in universities. Reviewing literature on the South Africa 2015/2016 #FeesMustFall University of KwaZulu-Natal student protest, this study sought to explore the prospects, opportunities and challenges of a decolonial curriculum in South African universities. The research focused on factors that facilitate the effective implementation of a decolonial curriculum as an alternative to the current curriculum and the role that student activists play in shaping the discourse of decolonial curriculum debates and implementation. As such, a desktop qualitative literature review approach was used to analyse students’ sentiments on a decolonial curriculum, against the background of the #FeesMustFall protests. No primary data was collected for this study. Grosfoguel's Model of Coloniality theory and three strategies for decolonial education guided this study. Findings suggest that the there is great need for an accelerated approach to a decolonial curriculum in SA universities in order to deal with inequalities, social injustices and human rights. The changes of the current university establishments would address the colonial injustices brought up by apartheid. In order to minimise the negative effects of inequalities in current university curricula, it is recommended that students, universities, religious leaders, communities, non-governmental partners and the government should work together in implanting a viable and sustainable decolonial curriculum in all universities and other institutions of higher learning.