The Deputy Vice-Chancellor: People and Operations at the Durban University of Technology (DUT), Dr Vuyo Mthethwa, officially launched her first book titled: Students participation in university governance in South Africa at the Coastlands Musgrave Hotel in Durban on Thursday, 30 November 2023.
Dr Mthethwa holds a PhD in Student Governance, conferred by the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2018. Since her graduation, she has published research articles, a book chapter and Dr Mthethwa has presented a paper at Queens’ College, Oxford University in England.
She is passionate about student development and success, which resonates with her conviction that students are the future and it is critical to explore ways to assist them in advancing their careers and ultimately, opening opportunities.
Sharing her journey and highlights from the book, Dr Mthethwa revealed that her book emanates from her Doctoral study which she conducted in 2015, during the controversial #FeesMustFall campaign. Dr Mthethwa had interviewed several Student Representative Council (SRC) members from various universities across South Africa. Her aim was to explore the academic objectives of the SRC and determine what the SRC could do to improve their academic performance.
She indicated that the purpose of the book was to examine the academic experiences of students who participated in university governance in South African universities.
“Scrutiny is placed on the alignment of Student Representative Council constitutions and university statuses with the actual experiences students had in discharging their academic progress. Through a multi-site case study design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of the SRC who participated in university governance and supported, by document analysis and observations, to generate the data,” said Dr Mthethwa.
She spoke at length about the challenges she faced when interviewing the SRC at some universities, recalling interviewing one SRC President who was 32 years old and had served in the SRC for three terms.
Dr Mthethwa indicated some SRC members were forgetting that they were students first, before being SRC members and that their main goal was to achieve their academic objectives, while advocating for the students.
Sharing her message of support was Professor Cheryl Potgieter, Director, Research and Doctoral Leadership Academy (RADLA), who highlighted that RADLA supported scholars who wished to be rated or publish. She praised Dr Mthethwa for being student-centered in her work and philosophy.
“Any of you that that have been in management, whether at a school or university, you would know that it is difficult to do anything outside of your key portfolio. Even if you are not in any leadership position, once you have finished your PhD, you are just too exhausted to do anything about it,” said Prof Potgieter.
At the launch, a robust panel discussion about the book and student governance in general, had ensued. It was Chaired by Professor Phumlani Myende, Associate Professor in Education Leadership at UKZN and consisted of Dr Mthoko Ntuli, Student Development Practitioner at Mangosuthu University of Technology; DUT SRC President, Mr Solomzi Zoleka; the first female SRC President of the University of Western Cape and a contributor to Dr Mthethwa’s research, Ms Akhona Landu; and Dr Mthethwa’s PhD supervisor, Prof Vitallis Chikoko, Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Guests who attended the book launch were also given an opportunity to engage on the discussion, as Dr Mthethwa wanted to use her book to develop the student leaders and to encourage them to strive for academic excellence.
In her closing remarks, Dr Mthethwa emphasised the need for the SRC to be mentored and provided coaching in their roles. She believed that the SRC should be given an opportunity, especially at their first Council meeting, to share with other stakeholders what they looked forward to contributing and learning, on behalf of students.
She further added that amendments to the SRC constitution should consider mechanisms to support student leaders, to balance their roles in governance and commitment to their studies; consideration that students who are better able to contribute in governance should be post-graduates, given the level of maturity and having graduated, which was amongst other recommendations revealed in her book. Dr Mthethwa looked forward to leading seminars that would advance student development and their academic success.
Dr Mthethwa’s book is available on the open-access platform with AOSIS BOOKS, books.aosis.co.za. To download the book, please follow the link:
https://shorturl.at/fsSWY or scan the QR code:
Pictured: Deputy Vice-Chancellor: People and Operations at DUT, Dr Vuyo Mthethwa, launched her first book titled:Students participation in university governance in South Africa.
Simangele Zuma
