Restoring wellbeing after student protests: lessons from #FeesMustFall and its aftermath

Abstract

The book "Restoring wellbeing after student protests: Lessons from #FeesMustFall and its aftermath" starts with a moving historical account of our collective trauma of student activism and university unrest of 2015/2016 in South Africa, but even more so it offers us lessons learnt - lessons that are critical for Student Affairs and higher education in South Africa and beyond. Restoring wellbeing after student protests is a powerful and unique read for higher education leadership indeed for everyone, not only in South Africa but also up continent and beyond, who seeks to create a context for higher education living and learning that is conducive to the development of engaged, responsive and responsible citizens. The levels of violence experienced in South Africa are among the highest in the world, devastating and brutalising our country and feeding into a vicious cycle of violence. This violence also finds itself onto our university campuses, creating conditions that are traumatising to all: students, administration, academic staff and leadership and staff. Styled as a; Manual for Student Affairs and Services professionals, the book proposes four practices for Student Affairs and higher education leadership to minimise violence: accountability, engagement, responsiveness and care. It also reflects on practices that can restore and enhance student wellbeing in the aftermath of exposure to violence: counselling, mindfulness, objective wellbeing and innovativeness. These offer a coherent framework for engaging with students and university leadership prior to escalation and offer ways of resolution in the aftermath of conflict. The concepts are familiar to Student Affairs theory and practice and, as presented here, could be developed into a de-escalation framework for higher education. Student Affairs may want to develop this quasi-framework and consolidate it with practices and programmes that equip students, student leaders, Student Affairs practitioners and university leaders to observe and practice these steps.