Category: Podcast
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39: Cycle-Versities
Photo Cred: Susan Yin South African universities suffer from serious traffic congestion, lack of parking spaces and high pollution levels. Even though many staff and students aspire to own a car, arguably the bicycle offers huge potential to transform the environment and culture of campuses. In this episode Prof Mehita Iqani and Dr Njogu Morgan, a post-doctoral…
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38: Academic Mentorship in Higher Education
Photo Cred: Garrett Garms In 2016 the Department of Higher Education released a report which stated that almost half (47.9%) of the students who start university do not finish their degrees and a large majority of these are black. Dr Nosipho Mngomezulu took time to discuss these statistics with Leila Abdool Gafoor, the Team Leader…
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37: Community-Engaged Scholarship
Photo Cred: Marianne de Klerk Are universities stuck in an ivory tower, cut off from day to day reality? In this episode, Prof Mehita Iqani discusses how research should and could be engaged with “communities”. The guest is University of Cape Town Associate Professor, Tanja Winkler, deputy dean of the Faculty of Engineering and the Built…
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36: Online Learning in Higher Education
Photo Cred: Juliette Leufke Online learning takes the form of a virtual classroom in which students from across the globe can watch, listen to a lecture at a time convenient to them, at their own pace. It allows participants to interact with one another and engage with resources in work groups. The University of Cape…
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35: Student Resistance in India
Photo Cred: Biswarup Ganguly The fight for access to public universities is also taking place in India, where much unrest and protest has been experienced in its universities. At the root of the protests in India, despite student unions being banned in a majority of colleges and universities, is an unprecedented mobilization against discrimination in…
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34: Women in Science
Photo Cred: Suvan Chowdhury Women scientists have a critical role to play in Africa’s development. They have made significant strides in Science making incredible progress across the continent. Yet, despite this advancement, the reality remains that many countries are simply not equipped, or prepared, to accommodate this growth. In a 2016 Unicef funded study looking…
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33: Universities and Medical Aids
Photo Cred: FreeStocks.Org Despite policy initiatives aimed at structuring affordable low cost health care funding products, medical schemes have remained unaffordable, and therefore inaccessible, to the majority of South Africans. Universities, through insurance companies, provide medical aid with high premiums to their staff. Coupled with high tuition, international students attending South African universities also have…
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31: Disseminating Research
Many people are of the view that academics only write for academics. They conduct and carry out research into complicated issues where the findings often end up confined to journals. As a result, most people do not have access to some of these important research findings and if they do, their use is often beyond the…
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26: Why Basic Education Matters
Parliamentary Liaison Officer for Equal Education, Andile Cele, joins the podcast to highlight the importance of primary and secondary education in the transformation of the higher education sector. Problems stemming from access and resources, to racial and socio-economic differences define the space of education and the experience of the learner. Cele explains how this creates academic challenges, financial difficulties or total barriers to entry in higher…
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25: Protest – A View from UKZN
Dr Lubna Nadvi shares some insight into the #FeesMustFall student protests at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (UKZN). Speaking from Howard College campus, where she is based, Nadvi expands on some of the grievances of students, the recent surges in violence and clashes with campus and private security, and the university shutdown. Nadvi places emphasis on the importance of university communities coming together and…
The Academic Citizen 