Only clear purpose can prevent institutional failure, VC says

The challenging task of establishing a new university can be achieved only by communicating a clear purpose for the institution and continuously engaging the staff to ensure their effective participation in pursuit of this, says Professor Thoko Mayekiso, who has been vice-chancellor of the University of Mpumalanga in South Africa since it enrolled its first cohort of students in 2014.

“You must be clear about the institution’s purpose and values so that it is not diverted from its core mission,” she said.

However, such clarity can be difficult to perceive and implement when the new university is founded through the transformation of another institution – in the University of Mpumalanga’s case, an existing technical college, the Lowveld College of Agriculture. That college was founded during the height of apartheid in 1973 to provide education to students mainly from local white farms.

In such instances, as Mayekiso discovered, the new leadership may be confronted by entrenched views regarding the institution’s mandate and the performance of its staff that can waylay it.

In particular, she encountered resistance to her efforts to implement a transition from the educational culture of the former college, which was based on promoting practical skills, into a new, more comprehensive educational culture that included inculcating students with theoretical knowledge and a capacity for original research.

Different institutional demands

“In the early days, the colleagues from the college were in the majority, which made it difficult to change the culture of the institution as a whole,” Mayekiso said. “There was resistance from this group, many of whom did not appreciate being part of a university and having to adapt to the different demands of such an institution.”

In response, Mayekiso describes how it was necessary to adopt a firm stance: “One must be clear that the aim is not to meet the needs of this group or that group with their own parochial agendas. Rather, there must be clarity that the aim is to establish this institution and that there is no other goal. In this way, one can never go wrong and the prospect of a slide into failure, which seems so common in South Africa at present, can be averted.”

At the same time and in pursuit of the main goal, she identified the underlying concerns of the existing staff, many of whom lacked the qualifications required to teach in an academic environment and feared that they would be sidelined as a result. In response, she reassured them that they would be given time and receive appropriate institutional support to advance as scholars.

She introduced biannual writing retreats and research methodology workshops “with the aim of demystifying the idea and practice of research and promoting popular engagement among the staff in the process of knowledge production”.

Greater opportunities

The ‘handholding’ Mayekiso undertook also entailed the deployment of external research expertise to motivate the academic staff to conduct research on several key themes.

Slowly, through such measures and the recruitment of new staff who included PhD graduates and professors, the agenda at faculty and other staff meetings shifted from the issue of harmonising existing and proposed educational provision and infrastructure towards addressing academic matters.

In relation to the new university’s educational provision, Mayekiso emphasises the importance of offering greater opportunities for learning at a higher level to current and prospective students. A decade after its establishment, the university offers a range of programmes, from diplomas to bachelor degrees to PhDs in several subjects, which include mainly agriculture, but also hospitality management; education; economics and business science; information, communications and technology; and health sciences, in line with the demands of the local economy.

The idea is that students can enter higher education at a range of levels, transferring to more advanced studies as they qualify along the way. “So, [for example], students can follow the diploma route and, once they reach the masters level for their diploma, they can converge with the students who undertook bachelor degrees,” Mayekiso said.

Practical skills, academic rigour

Furthermore, the content of the educational provision offers students both knowledge and skills. “The idea is to equip them with practical skills through work-integrated learning so that they can pursue a career but also to produce individuals who have a theoretical grounding and an understanding of the rigours of research, which enables them to undertake a masters at a later stage.”

In this regard, the programmes in hospitality management are supported by “state-of-the-art facilities, including teaching kitchens and a four-star hotel with 25 beds, a restaurant and a conference centre”. Similarly, the university has maintained its relationships with the commercial farms in the area, which provide agriculture students with work-integrated learning opportunities.

Reflecting on her role as a changemaker, transforming a former agricultural college into Mpumalanga province’s landmark comprehensive university, Mayekiso highlights the importance of leading by example.

“For instance, I always attend the research and writing retreats that are convened by the university; and I write research articles for publication, maintaining my own research rating – the message being that, if the vice-chancellor can maintain her research rating, then so should the rest of the academic staff.”

Projecting an African ethos

She also emphasises the importance of involving colleagues across the whole spectrum, including emerging as well as the established researchers, and encouraging them to collaborate – “which can have the effect of fostering innovation”.

Reflecting on the original mandate for establishing the University of Mpumalanga as “an African university seeking to foster sustainable development through innovation”, Mayekiso argues that the task of establishing such an identity can be achieved only over time.

“The notion of an ‘African’ university is about more than geographical location,” she said, “it is about projecting an African ethos, an African identity – a university that is rooted in its context while also benefiting from world views that come from elsewhere.”

In this regard, Mayekiso emphasises the evolution of institutional identity as a process that unfolds over time.

For example, she points to the difficulty of introducing African languages as a medium for teaching and learning at the university, given the plethora of languages spoken in the province – Siswati around the campus at Mbombela; isiNdebele around another campus in the south of the province; and Sepedi in another nearby area, as well as a few other less commonly spoken African languages.

“So, the university faces difficult choices around which African language or languages it may want to develop,” she said.

“Even though the goal is to be an African university, that is yet to be achieved. Meanwhile, the aim is to position the institution as an African university that is rooted in its context.”

This article is based on an interview conducted by Professor Crain Soudien and Professor Thierry Luescher for the ‘The Imprint of Education’ project, which is being implemented by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), South Africa, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation. This project, which includes a series of critical engagements with experienced scholars and thought leaders on their reimaginings of higher education in Africa, investigates current and future challenges facing the sector, including best practices and innovations. Thierry M Luescher and Mark Paterson edited the transcript for focus and length. A full transcript of the interview can be downloaded from the HSRC’s website.