Page 12 - Transformation Indaba Report

(Shirley Walters and Anna James) on how the Barometer baromeTer: a proxy
tried to make sense of the entire edifice of transformation poli-
cies and laws. The Barometer pulled together the ideals of the The Barometer is a ‘proxy’ that provides some universities with
White Paper III and policy developers, resulting in the emer- a way to escape their responsibilities because the implementa-
gence of ITPs with a rich educational and conceptual history.
tion of the monitoring and evaluation model that was supposed
to emerge within the formal structures of the Department
He acknowledged the slow pace of university transformation failed to happen. The Barometer is paradoxically ‘both there
due to vested historical interests and universities being com- and not there’ because, despite people indicating that the
plex institutions. Since the late 2010s, the TMF, a community Barometer was underlying their work, upon analysis, the
of practice of Transformation Practitioners within Universities thematic areas and indicators are absent from their work.
South Africa (USAf, previously HESA), experienced many frus- However, Mandela University has not fared poorly as far as
trations as practitioners in the sector, with many members the above was concerned.
having experienced very difficult lives in their respective univer-
sities. Added to this frustration was the lack of a clear picture a firmer idea of Transformed and
of all the leverage points one should focus on within a univer- TransformaTive
sity to advance the transformation project. Most of the time,
the focus was deliberately directed to the equity imperative; While some people suggest universities lack a firm idea of
as powerful as it may be within legal formulations, this was what a transformed university should look like, Prof Keet
only one small element of the bigger transformation project.
emphasised that universities do have an idea of what a trans-
formative university should look like and have a firmer sense
conTradicTions and complexiTies
of where they are heading in terms of transformation. The
above reports covering two decades have been analysed
disjuncTure
within the context of the National Development Plan 2030,
the Africa Agenda 2063 and Global plans, e.g. 17 SDGs of
In 2019, the Transformation Oversight Committee (TOC)
2030. He pointed out that South Africans do, in fact, enjoy
analysed 26 Annual Reports (2019) and found both a positive
massive resources to draw from and that these outline and
uptick in the Transformation Barometer Framework and a huge
guide the overall transformation process. He did, however,
schism related to transformation reporting and dashboards
indicate that the centrality of the transformation of the knowl-
and suggested the sector acquire tools for measuring account-
edge project was absent because we underestimated the
ability. The TOC of July 2021 recommended greater standard-
knowledge transformation project. This project did not involve
isation and more comprehensive reporting of transformation.
the disembodiment of disciplines but rather how we engage
He nonetheless felt we shouldn’t criticise the slow pace of
with the political construction of disciplines and the kind of
transformation in the Ministry as several other priorities were
institutional cultures it reproduced within the universities,
demanding attention, including the different sets of complexi-
apart from lived experiences of staff, students, and the
ties or contradictions around transformation work in the sector.
communities with whom we, as the University engage.
groWTh in concepTualising sTudenT formulaTions
TransformaTion in The he secTor

The conceptual transformation frame was occasioned by
Prof Keet highlighted that the conceptual transformation student protests, an Afrocentric space, the advancement of
framing had undergone growth, occasioned by: transformation decolonisation of knowledge, just pedagogies, access and
plans; higher education summits; various reports such as the success, black students, demographic representation, and
Soudien Report (2008), the South African Human Rights Com- democratic and non-repressive institutional cultures. In other
mission (SAHRC) Report (2016), the Commission for Gender words, a pro-poor decolonised system. The authors of the
Equality (CGE) Report (2017/18), analyses of the ITPs and Transformation Barometer integrated these aspects to make
Annual Reports across the sector, the #FeesMustFall move- it easier for universities to respond to them.
ment and other activist formations’ appeal for a free, afford
able, pro-poor and, decolonised higher education system.

NelsoN MaNdela UNiversity • traNsforMatioN iNdaba • 2022 6