Vice-chancellor says he delivered on a social justice mandate while building a financially sustainable university
In October 2015, fire erupted across university campuses in SA. The flame was ignited at Wits University that summer. What started as a protest against a 10% fee increase would become the biggest revolt in education in postapartheid SA.
It was on this day that some of the most striking images during the protest were seen, with Habib sitting on the floor of what was then known as Senate House, having agreed to stay with the students until an emergency meeting could be held by council, the body that governs the university, to discuss the fee increases.
And on Monday the university announced that Habib, who led Wits through this time, will not finish his term, which was due to end in 2023, and will start as director at the prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies in London in January 2021. Habib was headhunted for the position, and the entire process of his appointment took just three-and-a-half months.
But with the move to SOAS, he will go to another university that faces challenges, which include its finances. Is he going from the frying pan into the fire? He goes straight into the numbers of what has changed since 2013 when he started his first term. The university then had 7,000 graduates, which went up to 9,500 in 2019. From 9,800 postgraduate students in 2013, the number had grown to 15,000 in 2019. In 2013, the university produced 1,200 research units, in comparison with just under 2,000 in 2019, he says. All this while almost doubling its budget.
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