The University of the Free State (UFS) Vice-Chancellor and Rector Professor Francis Petersen says the institution should constantly look at ways to improve its curriculum in order to stay relevant and not just focus on the decolonisation of its education as it is too limited.
Petersen says the decolonisation of the curriculum should feature as a component of a broader project to improve its education so that it’s not overtaken by time and other developments.
The UFS Vice-Chancellor said this on Tuesday in response to a question from the audience during the Charlotte Maxeke Business Breakfast and Public Lecture at the University.
The lecture was presented by the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Thokologo Didiza.
“What I have said is that the university should always renew their curriculum,” said Petersen in his response on the issue that remains topical in the country.
“I don’t want to call it a decolonisation project. I call it a renewal project. Decolonisation is a component of that. Decolonisation is how do those voices that were marginalised in the past, find their way into the curriculum,” he added.
Petersen said it’s important for the university not to limit its scope and look at the broader picture of renewing its curriculum because society is changing everyday and it’s therefore important to move with the times and teach more relevant stuff.
“The point of departure for any academic is that they need to renew their curriculum on a regular basis. If we don’t do that, we will be outsmarted and become an old curriculum or an old type of university learning entity. But decolonisation will embed how we include those marginalised voices,” he explained.
The Vice-Chancellor said there were various projects across the university in different faculties that focus on decolonisation. The aim was to ensure that the university did not remain stuck in the past but rather focus on what’s happening today because that’s what the students and the society at large can identify with.
Turning to the vision of the university, he said it strives to fit into the global community in order to stay abreast with developments elsewhere.
The university also values regional engagement as it helps it stay in tune with what’s happening within its immediate environment.
“Our vision is that we strive to be a research-led, regionally engaged and student-centred university. That regional engagement means that although as a university you also have to engage globally, to what extent do you apply what you practice, what you engage with globally, at a local level.
“At the University of the Free State, we teach and learn, we do research and also innovation. And then we ask the question, to what extent do we appropriately apply the knowledge that comes out of the teaching and learning and out of our research innovation to our society. That’s the reason we use the term engaged scholarship,” he pointed out.
Petersen noted in addition to the regular engagements which include conferences and colloquial dialogues on curriculum renewal, the university will hold a debate towards the end of the year, on the strategies to be pursued by the institution in decolonising the curriculum as well as improving its teaching and education approach.
