The East African School of Higher Education Studies and Development (EASHESD) on Friday 27th January 2023 hosted Prof. André Keet, who gave a lecture on Advancing Critical University Studies across Africa.
Prof. Keet is the Research Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation (CriSHET) and is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Engagement and Transformation at Nelson Mandela University.
Critical University Studies (CUS) is an approach to the study of university that critically explores the taken-for-granted assumptions of higher education. The study seeks to examine other ways of addressing issues in the university. “When you critique your institution, you are making it better,” Prof. Keet said.
Prof. Keet said there are divergent traditions and views about CUS. One such tradition says Institutional CUS is founded on the premise of a fundamental change in the ontology of the University from the onset of global neoliberalism in the 1990’s.
There was, according to this view, a time when the University was a utopic space and criticism ought to work towards that realising that utopia once more.
According to Prof. Keet, another ‘tradition’ of critical work in the University can be traced to critical pedagogy, decolonial studies, and critical internationalization studies. There has always been a critical tradition, one which acknowledges the University was never a utopic space, but always exclusionary and unjust.
The Abolitionist University Studies scholars argue, therefore, that for CUS to be truly emancipatory and meaningful, these traditions must be acknowledged and built upon.
Prof. Keet has established a network to advance CUS. The network is called CriSHET.
While addressing the participants, the Principal of CEES, Prof. Anthony Muwagga Mugagga, who also represented the Vice Chancellor called on the scholars to crtically think about how we can better our education system. He argued that with the privatization of education in Uganda, we had many universities opening up and with that came many students that are not up to the task and yet universities have to groom these students. He called for critical ways in which this training can be done. “How come our education was able to produce the Kenneth Kaunda, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Nelson Mandela and the like, yet today the people leaving the university are corrupt, selfish individuals? We need to rethink our education,” he said.
Dr. Jude Ssempebwa, who organized the public lecture said the topic was important for it allows people to think of new ways to solve challenges within the university and education sector at large.
Brief Profile of Prof André Keet
Prof. Keet currently holds the Research Chair for Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation (CriSHET) and is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Engagement and Transformation at Nelson Mandela University. He is a former Visiting Professor at the Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality, Carnegie School of Education, Leeds Beckett University, UK and the 2018 Marsha Lilien Gladstein Visiting Professor of Human Rights at the University of Connecticut.
Prof. Keet served as Director and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and on the Commission for Gender Equality, before joining the university sector. Since entering the higher education field, André has held professorial positions at the universities of Pretoria, Fort Hare and Free State. He has been serving as transformation advisor and practitioner in various capacities in the sector.
Prof. Keet’s research and post-graduate supervision focus on radical approaches to the study of higher education, such as critical and abolitionist university studies.
