The Responsive University and the Crisis in South Africa

Book excerpt: Around the world, higher education is faced with a fundamental question: what is the basis for our claim of societal legitimacy? In this book, the authors go beyond the classical response regarding teaching, research and community engagement. Instead, the editor puts forward the proposition that the answer lies in responsiveness, the extent to which universities respond, or fail to respond, to societal challenges. Moreover, because of its intractable legacy issues and crisis of inequality, the question regarding the societal legitimacy of universities is particularly clearly manifested in South Africa, one of the most unequal countries in the world. The Responsive University brings together contributions on the issue of responsiveness from a number of international university leaders, half of them specifically addressing the South African situation within the context of the international situation as presented by the other authors. In the global discussion about the role of universities in society, this book provides a conceptual framework for a way forward.