Afrocentric, inclusive, socially relevant
academic ‘evolution’ at the University of Cape Town
https://www.uct.ac.za/dailynews/?id=10155
Emeritus Prof. Tim Crowe
Many universities world-wide are in turmoil and, worse still, in
crisis. Sadly, South African
universities fall into the latter situation.
Only the most reactionary
cling to the Eurocentric structure of universities dominated by
‘racially’-privileged patriarchs and divided into myopic academic departments
dedicated to intellectual
pursuit disconnected from the practical concerns of everyday life. At the other end of the ideological spectrum
are Afrocentric ‘decolonialists’ who demand replacement (destruction?) of an
archaic, racist/sexist, irrelevant, exclusionary and elitist structure. This outcry makes certain sense to, and
fuels the passions of, large numbers of what Frantz Fanon considered as educationally
‘disabled’ university students desperately in need of high-quality education
and financially viable and ‘meaningful’ careers.
Despite these calls for Afrocentric,
academically/demographically inclusive and socio-economically relevant
transformation at South Africa universities, there a few concrete examples of
success stories. What is needed to
produce them is “academic
synergy”. To illustrate how this can be
done, I describe the genesis and development of University of Cape Town’s M.Sc.
Programme in Conservation Biology within one of its archetypal, ‘Ivory Tower’ structures,
the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology (The “Fitztitute”) - my
academic ‘home’ for 40+ years. A major
consequence of this academic adaptation was the subsequent recognition of the
Fitztitute as one of the handful of South Africa’s Department of Science and
Technology/National Science Foundation’s Centres of Excellence and the creation
of an endowed chair dedicated to conservation biology. It has also attracted significant funding
from overseas through the world-renowned, US-based John D. and
Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. At the same time, the Fitztitute has achieved
and retained status as one of the world’s three top centres of research on
avian biology. Yes, you can have your
academic ‘cake’ and eat it too!
In the
beginning
In 1990/91, after consultation with current and past post-grad students,
a range of colleagues and end-users/potential employers, the Fitztitute developed
a new, one-year, MBA-like, coursework/research, M.Sc. programme in conservation
biology (the CB Course).
The aims of the CB Course are to produce graduates with a
broad understanding of conservation challenges and to provide them with the
scientific background and tools to be able to analyse and solve practical,
conservation-related problems. Its focus
is on the long-term preservation of biodiversity and more immediate human benefication.
To do this, the Fitztitute has aggressively recruited
students from a broad spectrum of humanity to cater for and exploit their
knowledge (e.g. from currently employed conservationists) and passion (e.g.
from recent B.Sc. Hons. graduates). From
its beginnings, administrators of course have striven to attract ‘black’ and
female students from South Africa, Africa and elsewhere globally. CB class size ranges from 12 to 15, with
South Africans occupying half of the places and the remainder shared between
students from elsewhere in Africa and further afield. This mix of humanity has been critical to the
CB Course’s success.
Academic structure
The CB Course is divided into two major components. First, there is an intensive programme of
interactive, ‘taught’, interlinked modules spanning just over five months and
run by carefully selected experts from within and outside of UCT. This is
followed by a six-month research project aimed at producing a peer-reviewed
scientific publication. The CB Course
has an Afrocentric, inclusive, holistic approach encouraging problem-solving
through exposing its students to a variety of disciplines/topics: philosophy/ethics,
evolutionary biology, genetics, ecology,
population/community/landscape/invasive/restoration biology, climate change,
ecological-statistics/mathematical-modelling, conservation economics and
community conservation.
Emphasis is also placed on developing oral, written and IT
communication skills. This broad approach to postgraduate education produces
graduates who compete successfully in the job market and go on to make a
difference in the field. Although emphasis is given to solving conservation
challenges in an African context, students are provided with a broad-based
education that will stand them in good stead throughout the world.
Delivering the
goods
During its 24-year history, the CB Course has had a high Darwinian
academic ‘fitness’. More than 80% of the
nearly 300 graduates to date have found relevant employment and published +-130
peer-reviewed scientific papers. Thus,
in cold financial terms, the CB Course more than earns its keep through the
generation of government subsidies for published papers and graduated students.
In terms of government demographics, 25% of CB grads so far have
been ‘black’ and 52% female. They hail
from 43 countries, 23 African. Some of the
noteworthy graduates found careers as: Deputy Chair of
the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, Programme Co-ordinator Nature Conservation & Game Ranch
Management, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University), Head – Biodiversity Network Unit, WWF South
Africa, Chief Director –Conservation Gardens &
Tourism, South African National Biodiversity Institute, Director - Natal
Museum, Professor/Curator of Birds, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of
California, Berkeley, senior lecturer in Geography – University of
Stellenbosch, Director
and Coordinator: Invasive
Species, Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux International and Director - BirdLife
Botswana.
Here is a comment
from a current CB student, Elelwani Nenzhelele, who came to us from the University of Venda. Her research project is being supervised by Professor
Timm Hoffman of the Plant Conservation Institution at UCT and Simon Todd an
ecologist at CSIR who himself was was a CB student 20 years ago.
“It
is important because we learn a lot from each other more than we did in the
class. We learn from each other’s experiences and knowledge about conservation
issues, culture and traditions from all the people of different backgrounds. It
is so nice to be in a diverse class because as much as you think you are
different at the end of the day we are the same HUMANS and our common goals is
to make a world a better place.”
Indeed, several pairs of CB
Course graduates fell in love, married and had families! If that’s not a measure of success, we don’t
know what is?
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