154 Ethics in Higher Education: Values-driven Leaders for the Future
universal values and a too easy resort to identity is what lies at the root
of the demands placed on higher education in South Africa today.
The view adopted in this paper is that the purpose of education,
especially higher education, has to cultivate that critical mind that
discerns the societal trends, and applies a critique that seeks to sustain
the values of freedom, critical consciousness and human prosperity. It is
suggested that such values are now entrenched in the recently adopted
2030 Global Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations
General assembly in 2015. It is also suggested that once one embraces
these ideals one can then approach the questions of the opportunities and
challenges for leadership in higher education institutions.
I have prefaced this address in the manner that I have done because I
sincerely believe that the role of a leader in higher education institutions
is not about dictatorship but rather it is recognition that higher education
institutions are spaces for free thought and radical experimentation.
They exist as places where ideas are challenged and received notions are
tested, and new knowledge(s) emerge. This is what makes higher
education leadership unique, exciting and challenging. It begins with the
one who leads. She/he has the burden of setting the tone for the
institution as a whole.
It is challenging for a different reason. It is that a leader and manager
of a higher education institution is not and should not be elected by
popular will. This brings the freedom of knowing that one is not
beholden to any interest groups from within or without. But to govern
without the democratic will of one’s peers, also holds the prospect of
having support withheld, sensing a lack of confidence in one’s abilities
or motives and, ultimately, having to contend with open rebellion. The
head of the institution manages with the confidence of the highest
governing body of the institution, the Council of Governing Board and
with the support of the academic community, mainly through Senate.
The institution must establish and the community must honour