Towards an Ubuntu University

This book explores the argument to reconsider the idea of a university in light of the African ethic of ubuntu; literally, human dignity and interdependence. The book discusses, through the context of higher education discourse of philosophy and comparative education, how global universities have evolved into higher educational institutions concerned with knowledge (re)production for various end purposes that range from individual autonomy, to public accountability, to serving the interests of the economy and markets. The question can legitimately be asked: Is an ubuntu university different from an entrepreneurial university, thinking university, and ecological university? While these different understandings of a university accentuate both the epistemological and moral imperatives in relation to itself and the societies in which they manifest, it is through the ubuntu university that emotivism in the forms of dignity and humaneness will enhance a university’s capacity for autonomy, responsibility, and criticality. This book would be of academic interest to university educators and students in philosophy of education, comparative education, and cultural studies. Yusef Waghid is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy of Education at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is the author of African Philosophy of Education Reconsidered: On Being Human (2013). Judith Terblanche is a chartered accountant and works as an associate professor at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Lester Brian Shawa is a higher education expert and holds an honorary seniorship in Higher Education Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Joseph Pardon Hungwe is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of South Africa’s College of Education. Faiq Waghid is Senior Lecturer in educational technology at the Centre for Innovative Technologies, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa. Zayd Waghid is Associate Professor in business education at the Faculty of Education, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa.