Transforming university culture: A human-centred approach through Ubuntu

Abstract

The transformation of universities has focused on the systems of governance, epistemologies and pedagogies to the detriment of people who are drivers of transformation. This lack of focus on people results in assimilation into the existing institutional culture, which is Western. Notably, Western culture is individualistic in nature and privileges profits over life. This is what many scholars have called a dehumanising culture. There is a need, therefore, to think about transformation from different epistemologies that centre a person. This conceptual article uses Ubuntu, an African philosophy that privileges life over materiality. From an African epistemology, umuntu [a person] is understood as an enabler of Ubuntu because umuntu is an embodiment of ethical existence. To ensure this ethical existence, the restoration of a person is embedded in the everyday language and cultural practices that correct human behaviour. This article argues that Ubuntu provides an opportunity to think about an institutional culture that centres a person. This leads to the transformation of the systems that will be concerned with the ethical person.
Contribution: The article recommends that before we can imagine a transformed university, the focus should be on the institutional culture to ensure that it nurtures ethical existence. As such, let us make humans who will drive the transformation agenda.