REINVENTING
HIGHER EDUCATION We need to rethink higher education by asking what kind of society we want to create. BETH AMATO
W
hen the University of the Cape of Good Hope (now UNISA) was established as an examining body in 1873, it was modelled in the image of the University of London, and shaped by the views and desires of the Philosophical Society of South Africa. The Society’s objective was to “promote original research and record its results, especially as concerned with the Natural History, Physical Condition, Geography, Statistics, Industrial Resources, Languages and Traditions of South Africa.”
NEW ‘KNOWLEDGE ARCHITECTURES’
Fast- forward 148 years to a country altered by immense political and social feats. No longer are lecturers and students, with their drapery and austerity, advertisements for a Rembrandt painting. Education is theoretically open to all, profound questions have been asked about the colonial-era content and format of the academy, technology has infiltrated every aspect of life, reshaping the relationship between institutions and
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