Moving Towards an African Identity: A Personal Vision for the Future of Rhodes University

I have been reliably informed that it was the habit of a previous Vice-Chancellor of this University to call in prospective inaugural presenters to offer them the sage words that no one else knew as much on the topic as they did. Perhaps this was meant as reassurance, possibly advice, or even licence. Whatever it was, I have chosen to ignore it. My topic is not ‘the state of the discipline’, my individual research interests, or even the state of the economy; at least not directly. Rather, I am going out on a limb to attempt to embrace a wider canvas in which the role of Economics and Economic History will emerge only gradually, once most of the sage heads of colleagues before me have already nodded off. It is now 12 years since the creation of our democracy and nearly 10 years since the publication of the Government’s White Paper on Higher Education in 1997. These have been turbulent times for the sector and the impact on this institution, in particular, also, has been significant. It is thus fitting to begin my lecture with some discussion of where, I believe, tertiary education, including Rhodes University, finds itself and how we as an academic community might begin to map the way forward.