{"id":260891,"date":"2018-07-25T11:40:53","date_gmt":"2018-07-25T09:40:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=260891"},"modified":"2018-07-25T11:40:53","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T09:40:53","slug":"incoming-uct-vice-chancellor-expects-more-student-protests-and-brain-drain-of-graduates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/260891\/incoming-uct-vice-chancellor-expects-more-student-protests-and-brain-drain-of-graduates\/","title":{"rendered":"Incoming UCT vice-chancellor expects more student protests and brain drain of graduates"},"content":{"rendered":"

The University of Cape Town\u2019s (UCT) incoming vice-chancellor, Mamokgethi Phakeng, has admitted that she will need to draw on her deep love of mathematics to tackle a number of challenges over the coming months.<\/p>\n

In an article posted on the University’s website<\/a><\/strong>, Phakeng indicated that UCT is under pressure from all sides in the wake of the Rhodes Must Fall protests, which began in 2015 as a campaign to remove the statue of British imperialist Cecil John Rhodes from the campus.<\/p>\n

These protests led rapidly to a wider movement to “decolonise” education and make tertiary institutions more accessible to students from poor households.<\/p>\n

She noted that this instability led to an unprecedented exodus of top academics, and a sharp decline in revenue-generating foreign students.<\/p>\n

Phakeng added that there is a lull in student protests, thanks to former president Jacob Zuma\u2019s announcement of free higher education for students from poor and working class households. However she expects some push-back next semester, when UCT considers its fee increases for 2019.<\/p>\n

“There is anger and impatience across the country, as (people) witness the fact that in our country the only way you get heard is if you destroy.<\/p>\n

“We see that over and over again. That is why in my leadership style, I try to listen, to hear people from where they come from, and not to come with a mindset that says \u2018you are this or that\u2019,” she said.<\/p>\n

Zuma\u2019s promise of free undergraduate education has created a headache for universities who now need to find ways to support students at postgraduate level. More black researchers are desperately needed, but UCT does not yet have a deal for them, said Phakeng.<\/p>\n

Phakeng added that she is also grappling with a postgraduate brain drain, and is trying to figure out how to persuade young talent to stay put, carve out a career in academia here in South Africa, and train the next generation of researchers.<\/p>\n

“There\u2019s something wrong with having our best researchers train outside the country. Brain circulation is important, but it\u2019s not right to send our best to the West,” she said.<\/p>\n

“At the same time, the institution has to find a way to retain its top academics.<\/p>\n

“As we work on our institutional culture and move towards the transformation agenda, it will be my business to make sure academic staff know just how valuable they are,” said Phakeng.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Read:\u00a0Big changes in latest South African university rankings<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UCT’s incoming vice-chancellor, Mamokgethi Phakeng, has admitted that she will need to draw on her deep love of mathematics to tackle a number of challenges over the coming months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":99926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26,7138],"class_list":["post-260891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline","tag-uct"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260891"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260905,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260891\/revisions\/260905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}