Exploring How Colonial Legacies Are Re(produced) in Admission Criteria of South African Universities of Technology

• In Event: Modernity, Coloniality, and Indigenous Knowledges

Abstract

The South African student Fallist movements in 2015 demonstrated dissatisfaction with university efforts to redress historical inequalities. Since then, decolonising efforts have focused on curricular and teaching practices. This paper aims to examine the mechanisms through which colonial hierarchies get (re)produced in university structures and cultures with a particular focus on the criteria of admission to Universities of Technology (UoTs). UoTs remain under-examined but have made significant contributions to widening access in South Africa with less stringent admission requirements.
Drawing from a conceptual framework that recognises the interplay between coloniality and neoliberalism, I analyse national and institutional minimum admission policies to identify mechanisms through which colonial hierarchies are (re)produced in admission criteria at UoTs.

Authors

• Lyndall E. Kemm-Stols, Durban University of Technology
  Presenting Author

• Roxana Chiappa, Universidad de Tarapaca
  Non-Presenting Author