Johannesburg - As the universities grapple with the crisis of fee increases, some could soon have to search for new leaders to steer them into the future.
Several prominent university vice-chancellors are set to step down from their posts next year, leaving the institutions with leadership vacuum.
This week, the University of Johannesburg (UJ) announced its search for the successor of its vice-chancellor, Professor Ihron Rensburg.
Rensburg will leave the university next year after 10 years at the helm. He was appointed in 2006, soon after the merger of the former Rand Afrikaans University, the Soweto campus of Vista University, and the Technikon Witwatersrand.
He was tasked with driving transformation and academic excellence.
He told The Sunday Independent during his tenure the demographic profile of the university has changed dramatically with the number of black students rising from 60 percent in 2005 to 86 percent today.
He said UJ was close to meeting its 2020 target of 40 percent black faculty members.
Rensburg said as part of the decolonising of education at the university all first-year students would be introduced to a compulsory Pan African philosophy module this year. “This is important for us to start this transformation. All our students must pass this module to graduate,” he said.
At the University of Cape Town, The Sunday Independent understands that knives are out for Vice-Chancellor Professor Max Price whose term of office ends next June. Price has served two terms of his contract at the university.
University spokesperson Elijah Moholola confirmed Price’s contract was coming to an end next June but said the process to either renew or find a successor had not begun.
He said a selection committee would meet this year to decide on the search methods for a new principal.
Asked how the transition from Price to his successor would impact on the university’s transformation project, Moholola said it would continue to be pursued by the university executive.
“The first of the five goals is to forge a new inclusive identity that reflects a more representative profile of students and staff, and the cultures, values, heritage and epistemologies of the diversity of UCT,” he said.
At Wits, Professor Adam Habib’s term would come to an end in March next year.
Speaking to this newspaper last year, Habib said he once contemplated quitting before his term ended. That was at the height of the #FeesMustFall protests. But Wits spokesperson Buhle Zuma said the university council and senate would deliberate on a possible second term for Habib, and the search for the new principal at a date yet to be announced.
During his tenure, according to Zuma, Habib has recorded a 41 percent increase in research over four years. “This is partly as a result of cultivating a research-friendly environment which has allowed our academics to generate new knowledge that is both locally and internationally relevant.
“In 2015, the university announced an accelerated plan to advance transformation through a number of key strategies.”
Last year, the University of Free State saw the departure of Professor Jonathan Jansen, who stepped down as vice-chancellor. Jansen has been lauded for bringing stability during difficult and complex times such as racism storm around the Reitz hostel incident.
The university has since appointed Professor Francis Petersen.
He faces a mammoth task in taking forward the transformation agenda of the university.
According to a report on transformation at universities by the SA Human Rights Commission, the university authorities have to develop clear human resources policies that prioritise recruitment of under-represented persons, particularly academics and leaders in senior posts.