University’s reset buttons

Universities the world over are at a unique fork in the road. They can go back to how they operated, in a world that is nothing like the one we are facing. Or they can reimagine, revise and reinvent a future that is different. In the aftermath of Covid the conversation on higher education has focused extensively on teaching modalities and online learning. But universities are not simply places where students are mere consumers, and the questions cannot just be about pedagogical tools. Universities are places where ideas are shaped and debated; new knowledge is created and dogmas are challenged; and they are also the paces that, every now and then, lead in creating a better, more equal society. Success is not guaranteed and bad leadership, or bad values, allow universities to become the crucibles of hate and exclusion. White-dominated universities during apartheid, particularly Stellenbosch, became intellectual instruments of exclusion and moral failure.

As we debate when, how and in what form should classes resume on campuses, we cannot think only in financial terms. Neither can we assume that the last three months were just a gap and now we should go back to status quo. Instead, we should consider this an opportunity to think how we can restructure our institutions to become more open, more accessible and ultimately better than they were.

In this regard, there are four things that can help us create better, sustainable and more inclusive institutions in the aftermath of the global pandemic.

First, the government has to recognise that there is a serious financial impact on higher education and they are in need of support. Whether this comes in the form of a loan, subsidy, aid or grant or a combination of all of them, universities will need direct support to get back on their feet. Universities and government can and should work together for a plan that allows a transparent mechanism. This would also mean leaving our egos outside the negotiation rooms — egos that prevent Centre and provinces to work together; preclude ministries to create a common framework, and force us to say “me first”.

Second, a university reopening plan should focus on people, not on process or precedence. The plan should think about the impact on students, especially the most vulnerable. Just because there has always been a final exam does not mean that there should be one this year.

Third, the university needs to become more inclusive in its plan moving forward. This means that re-opening strategy should include a myriad voices from faculty and staff, not just the administrative leadership. This is neither easy nor comfortable for university administration that tends to be insular and disconnected from its staff. But the university is what it is because of all its people not just the ones in the highest office.

Finally, HEC needs to recognise that a centralised approach is naïve and completely out of touch with reality. There cannot and should not be a one-size-fits-all. The HEC needs to take a backseat, and let universities come to it with individual plans. More autonomy to institutions will allow for more nuanced policies, and ultimately more ownership of success and failures. We need to have more empathy and less dashboards, more understanding and less allegiance to precedence, more acknowledgement of our diverse challenges and less dictation from a centralised body.

There are two reset buttons at our disposal — a quick one that takes us back to where we were before March 2020 and is all but guaranteed to fail, and the other one that is harder but allows us to rethink governance and structure, with an emphasis on empathy, equality and scholarship. One is about insight and the other about inertia. We all know which one we should press.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2020.

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