Article from ROAPE Volume 20 Number 58
University Crisis and Reform: Reflection on African Experience

I am grateful to the University and the Student Representative Council (SRN) for giving me this opportunity to reflect on a topic which is both timely and important. When I received your invitation to give the annual lecture on ‘academic freedom’ , I was mulling over the situation at the University of Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. The script seemed familiar. A student demonstration was confronted by armed soldiers; 17 students were killed. Forty-two professors and lecturers protested and were dismissed for signing a petition asking for a public enquiry into the killing of students. And then the rest of staff was asked to re-apply for their posts - so the successful may be re-employed on two year contracts! An extreme situation in a small far away African country, some may say. I didn't think so. The events in Addis set me thinking about the contents of this paper. In another week, I found myself witness to a number of meetings and actions at the University of Durban-Westville (UDW, the university I am currently visiting) and called to protest the military and the police occupation of the University of Bophuthatswana. You may still say, ah, it doesn't concern us, this is just ‘homeland’ university, closer to ‘Africa’ than to us. Discusses: Autonomy and accountability; Quality and relevance; Individual access and institutional reform.