SOAS Research Online

Abstract

The limits of academic freedom are disputed in South African contexts, as elsewhere. The recent Rhodes Must Fall movement has given voice to demands to reinterpret the very idea of the university, as well as to redefine what academic freedom entails. The arguments made in John Higgins’s book Academic Freedom in a Democratic South Africa, published before these recent events started unfolding, reveal the ruptures and continuities in the debates in South Africa. Rhodes Must Fall has implications for academic institutions in the UK, as student solidarity with movements in South Africa has raised these issues on UK campuses. Discussions around academic freedom and the future of universities in South Africa can thus be illuminating for similar discussions in the UK, and serve as a counter-example of the possible debates around access, value and worth.