JONATHAN JANSEN: Things we lost in the fire (and it’s not just university buildings)
After this week, the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has joined the ranks of the chronically dysfunctional universities of SA. In fact, it is now questionable whether this once famed institution is a university in all but name.
Many of its top academics have fled the violent campuses from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. The top matriculants from the province routinely bypass the once distinguished Howard College or Westville campus to be scooped up by leading universities in Cape Town and Johannesburg. In my previous job, I happily interviewed an A-rated scholar desperate to get away from UKZN, and one of the top matrics from a top boys’ school in Durban’s leafy suburbs told me he would accept admission to the Free State medical school (he was admitted to study medicine everywhere) on condition of mentorship...
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