The Nature of Students’ Activism in Higher Education Institutions with a Focus on Universities in Kwazulu-Natal

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-630-7_25How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Capability approach; Student activism; Poverty; Entrepreneurship

Abstract

Black students’ academic progress and completion rates at South African higher education institutions are affected by the complex problem of student activism. Since many students are unable to pay the ever-increasing tuition fees, they have agitated for Free Higher Education (FHE) through the broad-based #FeesMustfall movement that gained traction in 2015-2016. Although financially challenged students receive some assistance through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), there are several aspects of poverty that need to be recognised. With a focus on agency and urgency, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 seeks to eradicate poverty in all of its manifestations globally. This study interrogates the type of activism among South African students to establish how it affects their social, psychological, and intellectual well-being. This article examines students’ activism through the capability approach from a multifaceted and intersectional perspective. By taking this stance, we investigate the effects of student action from various perspectives while keeping alert to the well-being of the student as an agent. This study is desktop research that utilises the interpretive research paradigm. This research sheds light on the complex nature of student activism in South African higher education institutions and proffers suggestions for lowering student poverty and raising wellbeing among students. The study’s conclusions inform policy choices and advance the more general objective of eradicating poverty in all its manifestations on a global scale.

Copyright

© 2024 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Gumede Fairhope Ntokozo
AU  - Makwara Violet
PY  - 2024
DA  - 2024/12/31
TI  - The Nature of Students’ Activism in Higher Education Institutions with a Focus on Universities in Kwazulu-Natal
BT  - Proceedings of the Focus Conference (TFC 2024)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 468
EP  - 481
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-630-7_25
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-630-7_25
ID  - Ntokozo2024
ER  -