Vice-chancellor on a Tightrope PDF Download

Author: Stuart Saunders
Publisher: New Africa Books
ISBN: 9780864864581
Category : Academic freedom
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Author: Council on Higher Education
Publisher: African Minds
ISBN: 1928331092
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Much has been written about the ever-growing demands on university leadership worldwide in the face of increasingly complex changes and challenges from within the academy and beyond. However, as we are reminded by Johan Muller in the Introduction to this book, "there are particular features of time and place that also throw up unique problems". It is precisely 'time and place' that make this set of reflections by university leaders quite remarkable and distinguishes it from the many biographies to be found in the literature on higher education leadership. ... In the main, this collection spans two decades, the 1990s and 2000s, of unprecedented levels of change in South African higher education. Leaders in universities, as well as those responsible for higher education policy in the government and associated statutory bodies, had no neat script to work off, nor 'manuals' or prescripts of 'good' leadership or practice. Instead, there was palpable excitement about collectively imagining and nurturing a new post-apartheid higher education system, which would contribute to the social and economic development needs of the country, the deepening of democracy and which would also be globally relevant. Most reflections touch on the coalface of leadership, which is the face-to-face interactional dimension, dealing with staff, with students, with council chairs. What comes through clearly, is the importance of what are sometimes called 'people skills'. In these accounts this is not simply presented as a human relations aptitude, for a number of reasons, first of which is the special nature of universities and their occupants. More than one points out the special challenge of managing the talented people that are academics, and their inbuilt distaste for bureaucracy, their reluctance to be managed or told what to do. The message here is consistently one of needing to be completely open with academics, the importance of maintaining the distinction between 'collegial' and 'executive' management (avoiding 'managerialism'), and the critical importance of winning and holding their trust. The inspiration for this collection arose in late 2013 in the Council on Higher Education's (CHE) Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, the directorate responsible for conducting research on the higher education landscape and monitoring the state of the sector. They noted that conditions besetting universities had grown increasingly complex, both globally but more especially locally, and the question arose - how had this altered the challenges to university leadership over the period between the new political dispensation and the second decade of the new millennium? More particularly, how had leaders with a proven track record of visionary and strong leadership during this period faced these challenges? How did they see the main changes that needed dealing with? What challenges did these changes pose and how were they successfully overcome? What did they think, looking back, were the main constituents of successful leadership and management? What wisdom could be distilled for posterity? The Directorate decided to invite a range of vice-chancellors and senior academic leaders who had completed their terms of office to contribute to a project that set out to gather such reflections and compile them into a publication.

Author: William G. Bowen
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 9780813933399
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 476

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Thomas Jefferson once stated that the foremost goal of American education must be to nurture the "natural aristocracy of talent and virtue." Although in many ways American higher education has fulfilled Jefferson's vision by achieving a widespread level of excellence, it has not achieved the objective of equity implicit in Jefferson's statement. In Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education, William G. Bowen, Martin A. Kurzweil, and Eugene M. Tobin explore the cause for this divide. Employing historical research, examination of the most recent social science and public policy scholarship, international comparisons, and detailed empirical analysis of rich new data, the authors study the intersection between "excellence" and "equity" objectives. Beginning with a time line tracing efforts to achieve equity and excellence in higher education from the American Revolution to the early Cold War years, this narrative reveals the halting, episodic progress in broadening access across the dividing lines of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The authors argue that despite our rhetoric of inclusiveness, a significant number of youth from poor families do not share equal access to America's elite colleges and universities. While America has achieved the highest level of educational attainment of any country, it runs the risk of losing this position unless it can markedly improve the precollegiate preparation of students from racial minorities and lower-income families. After identifying the "equity" problem at the national level and studying nineteen selective colleges and universities, the authors propose a set of potential actions to be taken at federal, state, local, and institutional levels. With recommendations ranging from reform of the admissions process, to restructuring of federal financial aid and state support of public universities, to addressing the various precollegiate obstacles that disadvantaged students face at home and in school, the authors urge all selective colleges and universities to continue race-sensitive admissions policies, while urging the most selective (and privileged) institutions to enroll more well-qualified students from families with low socioeconomic status.

Author: Jonathan D Jansen
Publisher: Wits University Press
ISBN: 1776147952
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Through investigatory reports and interviews, Jonathan Jansen reveals the structural conditions for chronic dysfunction in a sample of South African universities. He reveals the political economy at work and the intense competition for resources on campuses. He also provides interventions for these fragile institutions. Why do some universities seem to be in a constant state of turmoil and dysfunction? Jonathan Jansen explores the root causes of chronic instability in a sample of South African universities. Through scrutiny of investigatory reports and interviews with more than 100 university managers and government officials, Jansen finds that at the heart of the dysfunction in universities is an intense and sometimes deadly competition for resources especially on campuses located in impoverished communities. It is not the lack of institutional resources but their concentration in a university that draws a mix of corrupt actors from local politicians and taxi operators to members of council and management into a never-ending run on the material (such as money for infrastructure) and symbolic (namely, graduation certificates for sale) assets of these institutions. Jansen argues that the problem won't be solved through investments in 'capacity building' alone because the combination of institutional capacity and institutional integrity contributes to serial instability in universities. Jansen makes an important intervention to understanding the root causes and offers interventions to produce stabilities such as the depoliticisation of university councils and appointing academics of integrity and capacity in the management and leadership of these fragile institutions. This groundbreaking and long overdue study will offer a promising way forward for universities to better serve their communities and the country more broadly.

Author: William G. Bowen
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691158088
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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An insider's account of higher education from a legendary university leader Lessons Learned gives unprecedented access to the university president's office, providing a unique set of reflections on the challenges involved in leading both research universities and liberal arts colleges. In this landmark book, William Bowen, former president of Princeton University and of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and coauthor of the acclaimed bestseller The Shape of the River, takes readers behind closed faculty-room doors to discuss how today's colleges and universities serve their age-old missions. With extraordinary candor, clarity, and good humor, Bowen shares the sometimes-hard lessons he learned about working with trustees, faculty, and campus groups; building an effective administrative team; deciding when to speak out on big issues and when to insist on institutional restraint; managing dissent; cultivating alumni and raising funds; setting academic priorities; fostering inclusiveness; eventually deciding when and how to leave the president's office; and much more. Drawing on more than four decades of experience, Bowen demonstrates how his greatest lessons often arose from the missteps he made along the way, and how, when it comes to university governance, there are important general principles but often no single right answer. Full of compelling stories, insights, and practical wisdom, Lessons Learned frames the questions that leaders of higher education will continue to confront at a complex moment in history.

Author: Judith Lutge Coullie
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 9780824830045
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 512

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Wide-ranging and engaging, Selves in Question considers the various ways in which auto/biographical accounts situate and question the self in contemporary southern Africa.The twenty-seven interviews presented here consider both the ontological status and the representation of the self. They remind us that the self is constantly under construction in webs of interlocution and that its status and representation are always in question. The contributors, therefore, look at ways in which auto/biographical practices contribute to placing, understanding, and troubling the self and selves in postcolonies in the current global constellation. They examine topics such as the contexts conducive to production processes; the contents and forms of auto/biographical accounts; and finally, their impact on the producers and the audience. In doing so they map out a multitude of variables--including the specific historical juncture, geo-political locations, social positions, cultures, languages, generations, and genders--in their relations to auto/biographical practices. Those interviewed include the famous and the hardly known, women and men, writers and performers who communicate in a variety of languages: Afrikaans, English, Xhosa, isiZulu, Sesotho, and Yiddish. An extensive introduction offers a general framework on the contestation of self through auto/biography, a historical overview of auto/biographical representation in South Africa up to the present time, an outline of theoretical and thematic issues at stake in southern Africa auto/biography, and extensive primary and secondary biographies. Interviewees: Breyten Breytenbach, Dennis Brutus, Valentine Cascarino, Vanitha Chetty, Wilfred Cibane, Greig Coetzee, J. M. Coetzee, Paul Faber, David Goldblatt, Stephen Gray, Dorian Haarhoff, Rayda Jacobs, Elsa Joubert, K. Limakatso Kendall, Ester Lee, Doris Lessing, Sindiwe Magona, Margaret McCord, N. Chabani Manganyi, Zolani Mkiva, Jonathan Morgan, Es’kia Mphahlele, Rob Nixon, Mpho Nthunya, Robert Scott, Gillian Slovo, Alex J. Thembela, Pieter-Dirk Uys, Johan van Wyk, Wilhelm Verwoerd, David Wolpe, D. L. P.Yali Manisi.

Author: Graham Dominy
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003815405
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Deneys Schreiner was an academic, a scientist and a man of strong liberal principles, with a good sense of humor and widespread interests in the sciences, arts and public affairs. In his steady way, he transformed the University of Natal and the community around it. Between the 1960s and 1980s, Schreiner supported and initiated several endeavors to promote constitutional futures other than those imposed by the apartheid government. One of the most significant was the Buthelezi Commission, which he chaired. This biography sets out the context of the times in which Schreiner lived and his life from his ancestors to his tenure as Vice-Principal. This book is created with extensive archival research, supported by interviews with family members, former colleagues, friends, and journalists. Schreiner was a man who made a considerable contribution to the struggle for democracy in South Africa. And then there is the story of his beard, once described as a potent symbol of his presence and implacable integrity. Print edition not for sale in Sub Saharan Africa.

Author: South African Democracy Education Trust
Publisher: Unisa Press
ISBN: 9781868884063
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1006

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v. 3: The third volume in the series examines the role of anti-apartheid movements around the world. The global anti-apartheid movement was very successful in creating awareness of the liberation struggle in South Africa, and in contributing to the downfall of the apartheid government. This volume, in 2 parts, brings together analyses which in the main are written by activist scholars with deep roots in the movements and organizations they are writing about.

Author: Patricia L Rosenfield
Publisher: PublicAffairs
ISBN: 1610394305
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 403

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The age of international philanthropy is upon us. Today, many of America's most prominent foundations support institutions or programs abroad, but few have been active on the global stage for as long as Carnegie Corporation of New York. A World of Giving provides a thorough, objective examination of the international activities of Carnegie Corporation, one of America's oldest and most respected philanthropic institutions, which was created by steel baron Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support the “advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding.” The book explains in detail the grantmaking process aimed at promoting understanding across cultures and research in many nations across the world. A World of Giving highlights the vital importance of Carnegie Corporation's mission in guiding its work, and the role of foundation presidents as thought and action leaders. The presidents, trustees, and later on, staff members, are the human element that drives philanthropy and they are the lens through which to view the inner workings of philanthropic institutions, with all of their accompanying strengths and limitations, especially when embarking on international activities. It also does not shy away from controversy, including early missteps in Canada, race and poverty issues in the 1930s and 1980s related to South Africa, promotion of area studies affected by the McCarthy Era, the critique of technical assistance in developing countries, the century-long failure to achieve international understanding on the part of Americans, and recent critiques by Australian historians of the Corporation's nation-transforming work there. This is a comprehensive review of one foundation's work on the international stage as well as a model for how philanthropy can be practiced in a deeply interconnected world where conflicts abound, but progress can be spurred by thoughtful, forward-looking institutions following humanistic principles.

Author: Michael Cardo
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
ISBN: 1868428028
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 712

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This book will surely be the most readable, best informed, most complete account of Harry Oppenheimer's life there is ever likely to be.' – Bill Nasson, historian and author As chairman of Anglo American and De Beers, Harry Oppenheimer held sway over his family's gold and diamond empire for a quarter of a century. He combined a passion for commerce with a streak of creative genius. In this, the first comprehensive biography of Oppenheimer, Michael Cardo has produced a vivid portrait based on unrestricted access to his subject's private papers and interviews with Oppenheimer's relatives and associates. Cardo brings to life the places, people and events that shaped Oppenheimer's career at the intersection of business and politics. From the diamond fields of Kimberley, where his father, Ernest, arrived to seek his fortune in 1902, through his long apprenticeship as heir apparent, to Harry Oppenheimer's emergence on the world stage as a magnate and monarch in his own right – the 'King of Diamonds' and the man with the Midas touch – Cardo tells the story of a dynasty. As a financier, philanthropist and public figure, Oppenheimer straddles the history of 20th-century South Africa. In the 1950s the National Party regarded him as a threat to Afrikanerdom, the sinister embodiment of English 'money power'. Forty years later, Nelson Mandela praised Oppenheimer as a nation-builder, a key figure in South Africa's transition to democracy. Yet nowadays, Oppenheimer is demonised in some quarters as the archetype of 'white monopoly capital' and blamed, in part, for democracy's disappointing dividends. Meticulously researched and superbly written, this authoritative work sheds new light on the multifaceted legacy of a renowned South African industrialist.