SOUTH AFRICA - South Africa’s dysfunctional universities: the consequences of corrupt decisions [The Conversation, 2023]

Title:

South Africa’s dysfunctional universities: the consequences of corrupt decisions

 

Author:

Jonathan Jansen

Distinguished Professor, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

 

Published:

The Conversation, 31 January 2023

https://theconversation.com/south-africas-dysfunctional-universities-the-consequences-of-corrupt-decisions-198677

 

From the article:

What happens when those responsible for managing universities cannot trust each other to act with integrity? In a nutshell, as I discuss in my new book, Corrupted: A study of chronic dysfunction in South African universities, dysfunction is the consequence.

Relocating the education reform movement: how have universities in Taiwan experienced Neoliberalization? [Scholarly Article - Asia Pacific Education Review, 2022]

Title:

Relocating the education reform movement: how have universities in Taiwan experienced Neoliberalization? 

Author:

Ming-Te Peng

Department of Sociology, Goldsmiths, London, UK

 

Published:

Asia Pacific Education Review, 6 May 2022

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12564-022-09765-6 

 

Abstract:

Based on the higher education reform experience in Taiwan, this research elucidates the conditions for the marketization of universities. It draws on critical discourse analysis to explore power relations between higher education, society, and the government and suggests that the university has always been considered a valuable resource for state development. By analyzing the heterogeneity of discourses used in official documents and the academic literature, this research identifies the social contradictions that triggered the education reform movement in the 1990s, including humanistic resistance against economic utility, educational inequality, and demand for academic autonomy. Neoliberalization in higher education is shown as a contemporary model for mobilizing academic resources in indirect but effective ways, with the aim of mapping both neoliberal practices in Taiwan and their connections with the global trend of marketizing higher education.