Much has been written about the ever-growing demands on university leadership worldwide in the face of increasingly complex changes and challenges from within the academy and beyond. However, as we are reminded by Johan Muller in the Introduction to this book, "there are particular features of time and place that also throw up unique problems". It is precisely 'time and place' that make this set of reflections by university leaders quite remarkable and distinguishes it from the many biographies to be found in the literature on higher education leadership. ... In the main, this collection spans two decades, the 1990s and 2000s, of unprecedented levels of change in South African higher education. Leaders in universities, as well as those responsible for higher education policy in the government and associated statutory bodies, had no neat script to work off, nor 'manuals' or prescripts of 'good' leadership or practice. Instead, there was palpable excitement about collectively imagining and nurturing a new post-apartheid higher education system, which would contribute to the social and economic development needs of the country, the deepening of democracy and which would also be globally relevant. Most reflections touch on the coalface of leadership, which is the face-to-face interactional dimension, dealing with staff, with students, with council chairs. What comes through clearly, is the importance of what are sometimes called 'people skills'. In these accounts this is not simply presented as a human relations aptitude, for a number of reasons, first of which is the special nature of universities and their occupants. More than one points out the special challenge of managing the talented people that are academics, and their inbuilt distaste for bureaucracy, their reluctance to be managed or told what to do. The message here is consistently one of needing to be completely open with academics, the importance of maintaining the distinction between 'collegial' and 'executive' management (avoiding 'managerialism'), and the critical importance of winning and holding their trust. The inspiration for this collection arose in late 2013 in the Council on Higher Education's (CHE) Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, the directorate responsible for conducting research on the higher education landscape and monitoring the state of the sector. They noted that conditions besetting universities had grown increasingly complex, both globally but more especially locally, and the question arose - how had this altered the challenges to university leadership over the period between the new political dispensation and the second decade of the new millennium? More particularly, how had leaders with a proven track record of visionary and strong leadership during this period faced these challenges? How did they see the main changes that needed dealing with? What challenges did these changes pose and how were they successfully overcome? What did they think, looking back, were the main constituents of successful leadership and management? What wisdom could be distilled for posterity? The Directorate decided to invite a range of vice-chancellors and senior academic leaders who had completed their terms of office to contribute to a project that set out to gather such reflections and compile them into a publication.

Reflections of South African Student Leaders 1994-2017 brings together the reflections of twelve former SRC leaders from across the landscape of South African universities. Reviews of the previous volume, 1981-2014 suggested that it contributed significantly to a better understanding of the stringent demands of visionary and transformative leadership required by university leaders in the fastchanging and increasingly complex public higher education sector. This volume is based on comprehensive interviews with former student leaders, each of whom provided a personal account in their own words of their experience in the position of student leadership. The interviewees are from different backgrounds and of diverse political persuasions. The book is important for current and future leaders of higher education institutions as it provides insights into the thinking, aspirations, desires, fears and modus operandi of student leaders. Such insight can contribute to developing and implementing appropriate strategies for achieving meaningful and constructive engagement with current and future student leaders.

In the USA, racism is the most widespread root of oppression. Black people in America, specifically, have suffered from centuries of discrimination and still struggle to receive the same privileges as their white peers. In other countries, however, there are other groups that face similar struggles. Discrimination and oppression based on religion, ethnicity, socio-economic status, political affiliation, and caste are just a few categories. However, education is a root for widespread societal change, making it essential that educators and systems of education enact the changes that need to occur to achieve equity for the groups being oppressed. Education as the Driving Force of Equity for the Marginalized highlights international research from the past decade about the role education is playing in the disruption and dismantling of perpetuated systems of oppression. This research presents the context, ideas, and mechanics behind impactful efforts to dismantle systems of oppression. Covering topics such as teacher preparation, gender inequality, and social justice, this work is essential for teachers, policymakers, college students, education faculty, researchers, administrators, professors, and academicians.

Role of Leaders in Managing Higher Education highlights the importance of leaders in educational institutions. Showcasing a richly diverse authorship, the collection discusses the autonomy of faculty members based on bonds created through ethics, the style of leadership, and the concept of democracy and social justice.

South Africa’s higher education sector is rooted in the country’s divided past. A significant State-driven restructuring from around 1997 to 2005 resulted in what is largely the current configuration of public universities. But just over two decades later, for a variety of reasons, the higher education sector in South Africa appears beset with numerous challenges. Nelson Mandela University is one of the public universities that emerged from the restructuring process. The university is in an ongoing state of evolution, of becoming. It developed out of the amalgamation of the University of Port Elizabeth, Port Elizabeth Technikon and incorporation of the Port Elizabeth campus of Vista University as Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in 2005. In 2017, it was renamed Nelson Mandela University, after the world-renowned statesman, rather than the metropolitan area in which the university is primarily located. The renaming was conceptualised as more than a marketing opportunity to rebrand the university, but as an opportunity to reorientate the university, to reposition Nelson Mandela University as an engaged and socially-embedded university in the service of society, striving to be the academic expression of the values and ethos of its iconic namesake. Endeavouring to be something greater and different from the norm imbues its strategy, public statements and practices. The determination to ‘achieve Mandela University’ serves, or is intended to serve, as both an organising principle and a lodestar. A cross-section of writers from different backgrounds situates Nelson Mandela University within the contemporary historical moment from which it emerged and examines its subsequent evolution. While Nelson Mandela University has performed the usual work expected of any university, it has also sought to turn the university outwards, to achieve a higher purpose, framing itself as a values-based university on a journey to become something else. In Achieving Nelson Mandela University? the university attempts to give an account of itself. The book is an intellectual and scholarly reflection on where the university has come from and where it is seeking to go.

This volume explores the pressing issues of entrepreneurship education and development in Southern Africa. It discusses the various roles of higher education institutions in enhancing entrepreneurship in localised communities, and provides a systematic solution for improving the Southern African economy by realising the importance of empowering the youth with entrepreneurial skills. In addition, successful development requires effective policies and contemporary approaches to both community engagement and entrepreneurship management. The book uses different Southern African case studies to discuss the various issues and innovations in entrepreneurship in the country.

This open access handbook offers a one-stop-shop for both new and established researchers, educators, policy makers and administrators in the field of open, distance and digital education (ODDE) to gain a comprehensive overview of the history, theory and practice at all levels of ODDE, and at the same time stimulates in-depth discussions on various themes and issues of ODDE for today and future. Researchers, scholars and students in the field of ODDE can use this handbook as a major reference to conduct their own research and learning agendas. To cover the field comprehensively, the handbook is structured following the 3M framework developed by one of the chief editors Zawacki-Richter. The 3M framework categorizes the major research areas and issues in ODDE on three levels. Accordingly, the handbook is divided into six sections in total, two section at each of the three levels: 1) Macro Level – ODDE Systems and Theories, 2) Meso Level - Institutional Perspectives, Management and Organization, and 3) Micro Level – Learning and Teaching in ODDE. This is an open access book.