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Former Unisa vice-chancellor urges universities to be vigilant to challenges

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Former principal and vice-chancellor of the University of South Africa (Unisa), Professor Mandla Makhanya, has urged universities to be vigilant in the midst of the challenges that the higher education sector is facing.

Students at universities across the country including Unisa have been protesting over financial exclusion.

They are also demanding that institutions cancel all the historical debt.

Makhanya who’s revered for steering transformation during his tenure at Unisa was speaking at the launch of his book, ‘Making An African University In The Service of Humanity’.

“At the end of the day what I have actually been trying to communicate is to give an expression that talks about having access to education, alongside that understanding that says we are driving the education system that needs to be sustainable, so that the extent to which we make investments in higher education is the one that will determine the success that we need to talk about as we move into the future.”

“Well, the solutions are there. The major thing for us is to commit ourselves to the solutions that would actually craft for ourselves and pursue them to the latter instead of being half-hearted,” says Makhanya.

South African universities of technology to benefit from a Higher Education Reform project

A three-year project called HERESA or Higher Education Reform Experts South Africa has been launched. Funded by the European Union, the project hopes to strengthen and revitalise the country’s technology-based institutions of higher learning.

It is set to build a network of experts dedicated to positively influencing the higher education sector to achieve better institutional and learning outcomes.

Project Coordinator Dr Sershan Naidoo told SABC News the pilot project will focus on a few thematic areas important to reforming the higher education sector in South Africa:

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