Led by Prof Puleng LenkaBula, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, a Unisa delegation is currently participating in the Times Higher Education (THE) Africa Universities Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. The summit brings together delegates from more than 150 organisations and universities from across the continent.

South African Minister of Higher Education, the Honourable Buti Manamela, delivered opening remarks on the first day, alongside Kenya’s higher education leadership. Unisa has become synonymous with the core value of dignity in diversity, as driven especially by its Vice-Chancellor, who is unwavering in her vision for a gender-conscious, women-affirming world. These were sentiments supported by Minister Manamela in his opening address. He said that equality, diversity and inclusion needed to be at the heart of Africa’s higher education systems. "There is no neutral education system," he continued. "Education either reproduces the world as it is or helps us to transform it. That is as true for questions of gender and disability as it is for questions of class, race and power. Consequently, African higher education should stop treating equity as a matter of optics and start treating it as a measure of institutional justice."

One of the many highlights experienced by Unisa at the summit was the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Africa International University (AIU), based in Nairobi, Kenya. The agreement, entered into on behalf of their respective institutions by LenkaBula and Reverend Dr Nelson Makanda, AIU Vice-Chancellor, will focus on harnessing intellectual capital to advance collaborative research, innovation and capacity development across Africa, with Unisa’s catalytic niche areas driving a transformative, impactful and interdisciplinary partnership.

From left: Prof Puleng LenkaBula, Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor, and Reverend Dr Nelson Makanda, AIU Vice-Chancellor

The Unisa delegation will participate in several key panel discussions, including the following:

• Harnessing Africanisation, internationalisation and decolonial knowledges for emancipatory and global impact
• Interdisciplinarity as the new fabric of higher education
• Connecting agendas: Towards transformative research collaborations and reparatory justice in higher education
• Building Unisa – African strategic partnerships for impact

The summit continues until 31 March – please watch this space for further reporting.

* By Philip van der Merwe, Editor, Department of Institutional Advancement