With Prof André Keet filling the Chair, CriSHET has played a key role in advancing key transformative projects and invigorating the University’s intellectual culture across knowledge domains. Seeking to be a premier national, regional and international site for critical studies in higher education transformation, the Chair has a notable research record and nurtures networks and partnerships across South Africa, the African continent and the globe.
The core thematic areas of the Chair’s research are Higher Education Transformation and Critical University Studies. In the area of Higher Education Transformation, CriSHET leads a collaborative team across South African universities in developing an Online Resource for Higher Education Transformation (ORHET), which will serve as an archive and interactive platform, and, ultimately, facilitate education and training. The Chair endeavours to develop Critical University Studies (CUS) as a radical approach to the study of higher education, through two key projects. The first is the ACUSAfrica network, coordinated by Nelson Mandela University, Queen’s University Belfast, and the University of Ghana. The second initiative maps the fields of Higher Education Studies, Higher Education Transformation Studies and Critical University Studies to explore rethinking the university in liberating ways against neo-liberal dictates.
This report reflects the highlights of
CriSHET’s work over the past four years in developing critical scholarship; advancing epistemic freedoms and knowledge democracy; initiating programmatic work; supporting strategic projects; serving the revitalisation of the humanities whilst working across the sciences; contributing to national and international transformation discourses; and driving the intellectualisation and professionalisation of higher education transformation work through seminars and colloquia.
Read more about the work of the Chair.