Universities, institutional autonomy and the global knowledge commons
- Zeblon Vilakazi
With global uncertainty, universities remain one of our greatest intellectual assets. It must draw on the best global minds but keep an eye on social redress.
We live through precarious times in a world that scholars increasingly describe as a polycrisis — the convergence of ​climate change, pandemics, and geopolitical ​instability and conflicts​, technological disruption, unemployment ​and social inequality​, among other risks.
These are major global challenges that cannot be solved in isolation and that require the public and private sectors, academia and civil society to collaborate across disciplines, institutions, sectors and borders in order to tackle the enormity of these problems.
Higher education exist to generate new knowledge, to encourage critical thinking and to enable the free exchange of ideas across physical and intellectual disciplines and cultures. In this sense, universities are not merely national institutions but rather a part of a global knowledge commons.
Internationalisation is therefore not an optional add-on to higher education. It is foundational to the modern university. From the earliest centres of learning in Alexandria and Timbuktu to medieval European universities and contemporary global research networks, scholarship has always depended on the circulation of talent and ideas. Knowledge advances when scholars collaborate across disciplines, countries and intellectual traditions.
This is particularly true in an era of complex ​global challenges. The​ ​development of​ clean ​energy technologies, ​of artificial intelligence and emergent quantum technologies and the advancement of the health sciences all require international collaboration and the best expertise that the world has to offer. No single country or institution can solve these challenges alone.
A great example of such collaboration was South Africa’s approach to tackling the Covid-19 pandemic. Our leading researchers collaborated with their counterparts across the world to develop new vaccines and led the way in sequencing the Omicron variant. Data scientists and epidemiologists helped model the spread of infection to guide policy responses. Academics collaborated on prevention, education and treatment options and, through partnerships with government and civil society, helped to save millions of lives.
In particular, our academics and researchers formed part of the global knowledge commons and were able to collaborate with partners across the Global South and Global North, contributing to international scientific and intellectual debates while remaining deeply rooted in African realities, proving why it is important to have strong local institutions with global reach. These achievements were possible because of open scientific exchange and international collaboration.
Similarly, South Africa’s leadership in fields such as HIV/Aids research, astronomy through the , and emerging technologies such as green hydrogen depends on the global circulation of knowledge and talent. Universities must attract the best expertise in the world, whether those scholars come from South Africa or elsewhere. In many cases, South African academics who emigrated have returned through global collaborations, contributing to the academy and reversing elements of the brain drain.
Internationalisation also enriches the intellectual life of universities. The diversity of people, ideas, pedagogies and experiences strengthens scholarship. Scholars from different countries and disciplines bring new perspectives that deepen debate and expand understanding. Universities thrive when they are places where ideas move freely and intellectual disagreement is welcomed.
Having said this, there are some who are of the view that universities are using the internationalisation narrative to avoid their obligation to historical redress, while others believe that an employment equity discourse may crudely and expediently be appropriated and deployed by some to mobilise support based on narrow ethno-nationalist politics.
It is also deeply disappointing when public discourse begins to slide into xenophobic narratives that frame international scholars and students as threats rather than contributors. Such popular rhetoric misunderstands the nature of universities and the global ecosystem of knowledge in which they operate. Universities are, by definition, international spaces of inquiry, not just in Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) areas, but across all disciplines.
Universities must be able to pursue knowledge and the truth without fear or political interference. History provides sobering lessons about what happens when that autonomy is threatened. During the apartheid era, many academics and students, including some from 91¿´Æ¬Íø University, stood courageously against injustice, often at great personal risk. Universities became intellectual sites of resistance where some scholars challenged the moral foundations of apartheid. Here at 91¿´Æ¬Íø, (a lawyer and activist killed by a parcel bomb) paid with his life for the struggle for justice, as did (an academic) and many others.
Globally, universities have endured through some of the darkest chapters of human history. Historic institutions such as Heidelberg and Göttingen survived and outlived the Nazi tyranny. Universities outlast rulers, governments and political fashions because their purpose is larger and longer than any single moment of political power and other temporary masters of their time.
For more than a century, universities like 91¿´Æ¬Íø have weathered profound national transformations. It has seen the rise and fall of apartheid, the birth of democracy and the continuing evolution of South African society. Throughout this history, the university, albeit not perfect on all fronts, has sought to uphold the values of intellectual freedom and diversity, critical inquiry and institutional independence and an unremitting commitment to excellence.
These values are not negotiable. Universities must remain open spaces for debate, inquiry and the pursuit of truth. They must also remain globally connected institutions that draw on the best minds from across the world while remaining firmly anchored in the societies that they serve. Internationalisation, of course, must be balanced with the important directive of social redress in a country like ours.
South Africa’s higher education system is widely respected across the world, and we should hold on strongly to some of the jewels of our nation in order to guarantee the future of those that follow. Our universities have demonstrated that they can work constructively with the state, the private sector and civil society in moments of national crisis while maintaining their independence as institutions of scholarship.
In this time of global uncertainty, universities remain one of our greatest intellectual assets. We must continue to create new knowledge and innovation, develop ethical leaders from different walks of life, encourage critical thinking, impact society and exchange knowledge across intellectual, pedagogical and physical boundaries to advance our economy, our democracy and our ability to address the great challenges of our time.
Professor Zeblon Vilakazi is the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of 91¿´Æ¬Íø University. The was first published in the .