From exclusion to informal segregation: The limits to racial transformation at the University of Natal
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Date
2004
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Abstract
In the context of higher education transformation in South Africa, this paper
attempts to capture a series of observations about transformation at the
forme r University ofNatal. From a descriptive, multidisciplinary perspective
it critiques racial transformation at the University as driven by concerns of
representivity over the need for desegregation. We base this discussion on
three sets of observations: an analysis of institutional policy, a review of
demographic change in the staff and student bodies and a study ofstudents '
lived experiences of segregation on campus. During the past decade a great
deal ofchange has occurred in the overall racial demographics of the student
and staff bodies. While demographic transformation efforts at the University
do echo national trends, a closer inspection ofthe policy, practice and lived
experience oftransformation at the University reveals that all is not well. In
particular, institutional policy with respect to transformation has tended to be
reactive and superficial and students experience camp us as a segregated and
racialized space. Thus, racial transformation at the University has only been
partially successful: while overt racist exclusion is withering, informal
segregation and attendant racialization remain.
Description
Keywords
Informal segregation, Racial transformation, University of Natal, Effects of apartheid, Demographic transformation
Citation
Piper, L (2004). From exclusion to informal segregation: The limits to racial transformation at the University of Natal. A journal of African studies, 30(1), 141-169