The Emergence and Formation of Universities in South Africa: Shifting Social Compacts. Routledge Contemporary South Africa

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Bibliographic Details
Title: The Emergence and Formation of Universities in South Africa: Shifting Social Compacts. Routledge Contemporary South Africa
Language: English
Authors: Beverley Thaver, Lionel Thaver
Source: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 2026.
Availability: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. 7625 Empire Drive, Florence, KY 41042. Tel: 800-634-7064; Fax: 800-248-4724; e-mail: cserve@routledge-ny.com; Web site: http://www.routledge.com
Peer Reviewed: N
Page Count: 278
Publication Date: 2026
Document Type: Book
Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education
Postsecondary Education
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Universities, Educational Development, Educational History, Educational Trends, School Community Relationship, Governance, Colonialism
Geographic Terms: South Africa
ISBN: 978-1-04-114322-2
Abstract: This book considers the formation of South Africa's universities, more specifically those that evolved as colleges, taking a panoramic view over two centuries, from colonialism to democracy. The book traces their development from incipient hubs of learning to fully fledged universities, and currently into a reconfigured landscape, as the social compacts between community, church, state, capital, and university have shifted. The university is analysed in situ, as an organisational structure, along two dimensions. First, state regulation, institutional autonomy, academic governance and individual-corporate agency. Second, at the epistemic and cultural levels, selected knowledge vignettes are identified, which is then followed by an engagement with different notions of religion, language and approaches to humanity. The book sheds some light on the imprint this has had on university types and the institutional, epistemic and cultural questions confronting the democratic state and contemporary society. Contextualising the South African case in relation to other countries with a British colonial footprint, this book will be of interest to a range of scholars across the fields of higher education, political studies, sociology, anthropology, history, decolonisation, and African Studies.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2026
Access URL: https://www.routledge.com/The-Emergence-and-Formation-of-Universities-in-South-Africa-Shifting-Social-Compacts/Thaver-Thaver/p/book/9781041143222
Accession Number: ED680761
Database: ERIC
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