Approaches to the university, place and development

Abstract

In public debates and interviews, students generally seem to view universities as places of learning, set apart from the surrounding community, which are supposed to cater to their educational, accommodation, food and even entertainment needs. Accordingly, the decolonised ideal may be similar to that of Rhodes University or the University of Cape Town, but without the white, English-colonial heritage and the fees. However, such a transformed but disconnected model for the South African university fails to acknowledge the larger developmental issues faced by the society at large, as well as by individual higher education institutions