Original Research - Special Collection: Neoliberal Turn in Higher Education

Decolonisation is not even a footnote: On the dominant ideologies and smokescreens in South African higher education

Savo Heleta, Isha Dilraj
Transformation in Higher Education | Vol 9 | a416 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/the.v9i0.416 | © 2024 Savo Heleta, Isha Dilraj | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 19 May 2024 | Published: 15 October 2024

About the author(s)

Savo Heleta, Department of International Education and Partnerships, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa
Isha Dilraj, PEER Network Africa Hub, School of Education, Faculty of Humanities, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa; and, Global Strategy and Visibility Directorate, Research Office, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

The turn to democracy in South Africa brought hope for a higher education sector that would play a key role in tackling racial inequalities and injustices. However, transformation promises ended up being largely smokescreens for maintaining entrenched racist and capitalist logics rooted in colonialism and apartheid. Instead of focusing on epistemic decolonisation, universities became commodified and commercialised neoliberal enterprises focused on the maintenance of Eurocentric epistemic hegemony. In this conceptual article framed within the decolonial theoretical framework, we critically interrogate how two dominant ideologies – the Rainbow Nation and neoliberalism – have sidelined fundamental transformation and epistemic decolonisation in South Africa. Focusing on the Department of Higher Education and Training’s Strategic Plan 2020–2025, we illustrate that decolonisation is not government’s priority and that neoliberal visions continue to dominate strategic planning for higher education. We argue that the lack of political will and policy alignment from the government will contribute to the further entrenchment of coloniality, Eurocentricity and neoliberal logics at universities. We conclude with the call for critical engagement with the history of universities and their role in propagating and supporting colonialism and apartheid and argue that progressive scholars and students must continue to organise within South Africa and beyond and work on the radical dismantling of the Eurocentric and neoliberal universities.

Contribution: While other scholars have engaged separately with neoliberalism and the Rainbow Nation and their impact on higher education in South Africa, in this article, we bring these two ideologies together to show how they have combined to prevent decolonisation of higher education.


Keywords

higher education; university; neoliberalism; Rainbow Nation; decolonisation; transformation; South Africa.

Sustainable Development Goal

Goal 4: Quality education

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