Putting Rhodes University on the tracks of transformation may not be easy, writes Peter Dickson, but it appears the right man to do so is now at the helm
THERE was a time in the 1980s when Rhodes University stood at the forefront of apartheid resistance on South Africa’s liberal English-speaking university campuses.
But with the death of apartheid it was the Afrikaner-dominated University of Port Elizabeth, created by the Broederbond in the mid- 1960s to rival Rhodes, that was the first university to transform its administration into a more representative mirror of society.
Rhodes, remarkably, has been the last to contemplate change. Its students were the first, as usual, to take to the streets earlier this year in a nationwide student protest against entrance criteria, perceived racism against black students and the slowness of administrative change.
Prior to this, Rhodes Vice-Chancellor Derek Henderson appeared to take his time in retiring after 21 years, while a transformation forum died in the misery of debate, delay and delirium over student calls for Rhodes to be renamed Ruth First University. It appeared that while Rhodes had a “radical” student body, its administration was quite conservative.
After this year’s protests – which saw armed police on campus for the first time since 1986 when students armed with pot plants and pens fought a vicious pitched battle with riot police curiously addicted to sjambokking the breasts of young women – the transformation process was revived in earnest and a steering committee representative of the entire community will soon be elected.
Into this spiral of no return, his mission to steer the Rhodes ship from oblivious ivory towerism to the stark realities of South Africa’s fast-approaching 21st century, has stepped no less than an A-rated scientist. Microbiologist Dr David Randle Woods, new Rhodes vice-chancellor and principal whose tradition-breaking inauguration last month came complete with praise singer, kudu horn band and President Nelson Mandela, is acutely aware that a university which once prided itself on resistance has little choice but to reset its sights on reconstruction. Practical and down to earth, Woods means business, and has wasted little time in getting down to it.
Looking like he needed a laboratory and virtually buried in a soft chair next to the fireplace and dining table that dominate the enormous colonial-style office he inherited from his predecessor, a no-nonsense Woods set out his vision for Rhodes this week, confident that “we are well on track as far as transformation is concerned”.
Unlike other major South African universities, there are two distinct faces to Rhodes: the 92-year-old Grahamstown residential university with 4 000 students, and the 15-year-old East London city campus with 920 students. Black students comprise 47% of the combined Rhodes student body.
It is the East London campus, Woods says, that “has major potential for expansion, serving a huge hinterland”. To the delight of the impoverished industrial city at the Buffalo River mouth, he publicly promised as much in his inauguration address.
Its almost 1 000 students, 63% of whom are black, are drawn largely from East London’s vast dormitory township of Mdantsane, the country’s second biggest after Soweto. An estimated one million people live within a 10km radius of the campus, making it imperative that Rhodes bridge the education gap, Woods says.
On the cards for East London are the expansion of technology and management courses, and it “will soon have a faculty of education that will also assist municipalities in rural areas which are crying out” for expertise in skills training.
The Grahamstown campus will see “expansion in selective areas of research”, Woods says, and research and scholarship studies will be fostered.
What is a veritable South African luxury, and what Woods describes as Rhodes’s “great strength and asset”, is the average student:lecturer ratio of 12:1. At worst, it is 14:1.
“We want more students in the science faculty,” says Woods. “This is a national problem. We could take at least 500 more.”
These are not just the to-be-expected words of a world-renowned researcher, who has been listed by the Foundation for Research Development as an A-rated scientist every year since 1985, who is the current chairman of the International Division of Bacteriology and Applied Microbiology, who has co- authored more than 200 scientific papers, and was head of the microbiology departments at Rhodes (1974-80) and the University of Cape Town (1980-88), where he was also deputy vice-chancellor from 1988 until securing what he calls “the hot seat” at Rhodes this year. Woods is deeply concerned about the historical disadvantages in South African education – hence society – and his conversation and plans for Rhodes are infused with ways of redressing imbalances.
“We have academic development or bridging in curricula development, while academic support structures have bridging courses that are becoming mainstreamed as the responsibilities of departments,” he says.
“The Rhodes University Transformation Forum is on stream, and a major academic planning exercise is under way, in line with the national higher education proposals.
“A new SRC has been elected, in a 45% poll that is quite remarkable for South African universities, and after meeting these academically excellent people I think we have a really good chance of working together. We are setting up a committee with students to look at the entire student support service.
“We are also establishing relations with technical and community colleges. Technikons are under capacity – only 30% of students are getting technical diplomas – and this is worrying. We have a major task to produce internationally competitive graduates. We are part of the global village, and we can’t compete with inferior personnel.”
But Woods is also a realist, aware that success is no overnight phenomenon: “Our strategy at Rhodes is, and will be, differential entry, plus differential process and progress, but equal exit.” In effect, “differential process and progress” means “bridging courses, as it’s unlikely that a disadvantaged Transkei student, for instance, will get a degree within three years”.
Woods is also aware that bridging the learning gap is the least of the problems facing universities. One of Rhodes’s biggest headaches – the task of Woods and the university’s marketing and communications division – is fund-raising.
In “total onslaught” times, the apartheid lords often hinted at withdrawing or cutting government subsidies, as a weapon against errant campus hotbeds of protest. That stick has only become potentially lethal now. Without “a viable loan from the government next year”, Woods says, Rhodes and most other universities will face probably their greatest battle.
“It’s tough out there. Government subsidies have not kept pace with costs. We have had to increase fees – they average between R17 000 and R20 000 a year – so financing of students is a major problem.”
Already, 99% of black students at Rhodes are totally dependent on bursaries and loans for their education. Woods believes a national loan scheme, which has proved successful in Australia, is the answer for South Africa.
So vital is simple cash to the process that a rumoured surplus of available bursary money for disadvantaged students had Rhodes switchboard operators in virtual nervous breakdown with the flood of inquiries at the start of the academic year in February. Indeed, the flashpoint for this year’s student protests was the perceived racism and disinterest of Rhodes dean of students Dr Moosa Motara when black students made bursary inquiries.
The effects of this experience, which profoundly brought home the desperate hunger for education, still linger. Woods says firmly: “That was a lie – we have no surplus at all, none. We have contributed out of our own funds.”
At Woods’s inauguration a fortnight ago, a praise song in his honour concluded: “We’ve got one request to make … that Rhodes should be accessible to all the children in our time. Open the doors – we’re knocking at admission’s doors.
“They talk about Swedish points – we talk about exemption. They talk about matric points – we talk about education. The fees are unaffordable – we have no one to turn to. Usher in transformation, then education will follow suit.”
Dave Woods, that much is clear, speaks the same language. – Ecna
* It was announced this week that Woods will be presented on October 9 with the Herschel Medal for outstanding contributions to science. The prestigious award, first made in 1984, is presented by the Royal Society of South Africa to scientists who make considerable multi-disciplinary contributions.
Woods is the first microbiologist to receive the award, named after Sir John Herschel, who made a major contribution to South African astronomy in the early 1800s.