By Omar Mubin and Muneeb Imtiaz Ahmad. Robots are increasingly being used to teach students in the classroom for a number of subjects across science, maths and language. But our research shows that while students enjoy learning with robots, teachers are slightly reluctant to use them in the classroom. More...

By Sahal Yacoob and Karen Jacqueline Cloete. The South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS) has decided it is time to speak out about the country’s higher education crisis. The academy constitutes 50 young academics and 20 alumni from multiple disciplines – including health sciences, natural and social sciences, engineering and the humanities. More...

By Caroline Southey. We have removed an article about the history of maths from The Conversation site. The reason for this is that the editing procedures we normally follow were not adhered to in this instance. More...

By Anné H. Verhoef. “Transformation” is a word regularly in global higher education research. It normally implies deep change in knowledge and curriculum. It often entails questions about inclusion, identity, diversity, power, intellectual traditions and intellectual justice. More...

By Nadira Omarjee. In his seminal 1970 work, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire wrote:

The students … never discover that they educate the teacher.

In the past year and a half, I have worked closely with students from the University of Cape Town. More...

By Mashupye Herbert Maserumule. One of the narratives that has fuelled continuing protests at South Africa’s universities is that students have been promised the right to free higher education. More...

By Rene Swart. A number of smart suggestions have been offered to plug South Africa’s higher education funding gap. One that’s been mooted involves innovative long term development bonds. More...

By Tracey Banivanua Mar. Recent media coverage of Victory in the Pacific Day has highlighted the way Indigenous peoples of the Pacific remain invisible in our public memory of the Pacific War. We sometimes recall the deeds of the so-called “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels” of Papua New Guinea. But the wider impact of war on Pacific Island worlds should also be part of our collective memory. More...

By Emmanuel Mgqwashu. My concern with grand narratives such as “decolonisation” is that they tend to silence what I would call “local narratives”. They are often accompanied by populist, often overwhelming rhetoric in ways that silence (if not obliterate) smaller narratives about who we are, where we are, how we got there, and how we can move forward. More...

By Shanade Bianca Barnabas. In 2015 the decolonisation debate, epitomised by the #RhodesMustFall campaign, took centre stage in South Africa. The protests sought to remove all vestiges of racism and colonialism from university campuses. Below is my selection of the top five books that those interested in decolonisation might find helpful. More...