Speaking about the recent challenges facing academic freedom and the humanities was the idea behind the seminar on the topic about Academic Freedom which took place at the Durban University of Technology last Thursday (16 November 2017).
The Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT) invited all DUT members of staff and students to attend a seminar on Academic Freedom in South African Higher Education, as part of its seminar series.
At the beginning of 2017, during the first Senate meeting, CELT was tasked to set up an academic freedom forum. Before setting up the forum, CELT had to write a brief draft paper on the notion of academic freedom and the related topic of institutional autonomy.
In his introduction on the context of the seminar, CELT Director, Professor Thengani Ngwenya said that academic freedom and institutional autonomy are generally concepts that are taken for granted.
“We (CELT) were specifically asked on the limits of academic freedom. We subsequently wrote the paper with Crispin Hemson from ICON, along with CELT staff and put together the draft concept paper which was tabled at the last Senate meeting. When the paper was discussed at Senate, the vice-chancellor and principal, Prof Thandwa Mthembu pointed out that we (CELT) seemed to be focusing on academics and their freedom to teach and to express their views without fear of harassment. He then asked us (CELT) to involve students and that is why it was vital to have some students at this discussion seminar as we (CELT) wanted to hear the voices of the students,” said Prof Ngwenya.
He also added that the DUT Draft Paper on Academic Freedom reads like a legal document because academic freedom is a legal issue but also provides the global, national and institutional context framing of key issues on academic freedom.
Speaking on the contentious issue, who is an expert in the field and guest speaker at the seminar, Professor John Higgins, who is from the University of Cape Town.
He is the author of the book called: Academic Freedom in a Democratic South Africa. He holds the Arderne Chair in Literature, and has worked in the department since 1986.
Prof Higgins gave an overview on academic freedom in South Africa which he defined constitutionally was not as an institutional practice, but as an individual right. “This makes it possible for students, academic staff and other members of the DUT community to express their views on any issue without any fear of harassment of any kind,” he said.
Furthermore, he (Prof Higgins) gave more insight into the definition of academic freedom and spoke about the troubled history of academic freedom in South Africa starting with key debates raised during pre-apartheid through to post-apartheid government policy.
Prof Higgins said his own work for a long time has been trying to argue against some of these currents and some of these received ideas on academic freedom and to try and think of a different way to address these things.
“South Africa is unusual in having a constitution in which academic freedom is named as the specific right that people have. It is like a good thing but it’s also complicated. In a way it’s very simple, the core of the right to academic freedom is the right of the individual to do research without government interference,” he said.
The seminar was hailed as a crucial vehicle that will stimulate many more debates on the contentious issue of academic freedom and institutional autonomy.
Pictured: Professor John Higgins, from the University of Cape Town, speaking on academic freedom, at the seminar.
Waheeda Peters
