This year is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nelson Mandela. So it is fitting that – on 27th November 2018 – it will be HEPI’s first ever Annual Lecture on African higher education.
It will be delivered by Professor Ihron Rensburg, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Johannesburg. He has held a dizzying number of senior roles in South African government and civil society. They include:
- Deputy Director General of South Africa’s Department of Education;
- General Secretary of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement; and
- Commissioner of South Africa’s National Planning Commission, which developed the country’s first National Development Plan 2030.
The lecture follows the international theme of our past Annual Lectures, which include:
- Expansion and trends in Asian higher education from the former President of the National University of Singapore, Professor Tan Chorh Chuan (2017)
- Universities’ role in wealth creation in the 21st Century from Barack Obama’s former US Under-Secretary of Education, Dr Martha J. Kanter (2016)
- Measuring the value-added by OECD universities, from the Director of Education and Skills at the OECD, Andreas Schleicher (2015)
Professor Rensburg’s topic is ‘Global Africa: Nelson Mandela and the Meaning of Decolonizing Knowledge and Universities – Problems and Opportunities’.
It promises to be a fascinating evening, providing the perspective from a country where the Rhodes Must Fall campaign started, before spreading to the UK and USA.
The Lecture will be chaired by Professor Sir Ivor Crewe, Master of University College Oxford and Chair of HEPI, and it will be followed by a drinks reception.
To register, visit www.bookwhen.com/hepi.