Student representation and multiparty politics in African higher education

Abstract

The transition from one-party rule and other forms of authoritarianism to multiparty democracy in the 1990s has had a profound impact on the organisation and role of student politics in Africa. Against the background of student involvement in African politics in the twentieth century, leading up to student participation in Africa's 'second liberation' in the early 1990s, the paper analyses the organisation of student governments, student representation in institutional and national governance, student unionism and the emergence of political parties in student politics in the 2000s. Proceeding from Munene's argument regarding a shift in oppositional politics in Africa away from students to multiparty politics, this paper finds that party politics is also increasingly implicated in African student politics with varied results. The paper concludes by proposing a tentative framework for understanding the impact of high levels of resource exchange between student leaders and political parties on student representation.

Student Politics

“…There has been prolific research on student involvement in student organizations based on surveys on student engagement (Kuh 2009;Mayhew et al 2016) which in margins touches also on student political engagements and orientations. Finally, there is burgeoning research on student political participation which looks at student voting behavior and participation in party political student organizations (see review in Klemenčič and Park 2018) and analyses crossovers between student politics and party politics (Luescher-Mamashela and Mugume 2014).…”

The characterization of management processes in higher education institutions in Mozambique.

“…Podemos, pois, concluir que existe, no geral, um deficit de participação dos diversos grupos constituintes da comunidade universitária e de outras IES. Esta circunstância não permite uma participação efetiva no processo de tomada de decisão e na gestão dessas mesmas instituições para além das falhas de carácter democrático que se registam (Luescher-Mamashela & Mugume, 2014;Zavale et al, 2017). Apesar desta situação geral, mesmo assim pode-se considerar que em alguns casos existe uma reveladora participação dos docentes devido, sobretudo, à sua preparação profissional que conduz a um certo ascendente relativamente a outros grupos da comunidade académica.…”

Student representation and the relationship between student leaders and political Parties: The case of Makerere University

“…and Luescher-Mamashela and Mugume (2014) proposed an adapted version for studying partisan student politics in Africa. In the latter adaptation, political parties take the place of BIAs with which student leaders freely associate.…”

“…Most research in Africa has focused on student activism; only recently has scholarly attention turned to the study of student representation in higher education decisionmaking (Munene 2003;Luescher-Mamashela and Mugume 2014;Luescher, Klemenčič and Jowi 2016). Nonetheless, that partisan politics on African university campuses creates problems is well known, and a number of countries (such as Tanzania) and universities (such as the University of the Free State, South Africa) have prohibited partisanship in student elections (Soudien 2008;United Republic of Tanzania 2005).…”