Author: K Kefale

Categories
Challenges Key Insights

How five blind spots have trapped higher education in a fog of its own making

There is a powerful sense of déjà vu that haunts the halls of higher education. We are, by any measure, in a state of perpetual, frantic activity. Our calendars are […]

Categories
Commentary Core Theory Key Insights

The Paradox of Precision: How Ranking Frameworks Re-engineer Reality Through Observation

Institutional ranking frameworks, like India’s NIRF, successfully drive measurable improvements (e.g., more research, higher faculty qualifications) by defining specific metrics. However, this very act of measurement creates a new reality […]

Categories
Commentary

Building with Borrowed Blueprints: The Paradox of African Higher Education’s Quest for Autonomy

How can African higher education genuinely ‘Africanize’ internationalization when foundational initiatives and long-term sustainability are still heavily influenced, if not funded, by external partners? The call to “Africanize” the internationalization […]

Categories
Challenges University World News Contributions

On overcrowding and infrastructure: The ‘great unlearning’

This article first appeared on University World News Massification has a triumphant sound. It suggests inclusion, a democratic widening of gates that were, for too long, kept narrow. Photographs cooperate: […]

Categories
Commentary Core Theory

The Re-Description of Higher Education: From Autopoietic Enclosure to Geopolitical Operability

A response to the University World News article: Southern African universities build more scholarly bridges The contemporary higher education system, historically observed as an entity primarily defined by its internal […]

Categories
Commentary Core Theory

The Regulator’s Paradox: How the Quest for Order Creates Systemic Disorder

A primary function of any governance structure is to observe the system it regulates and introduce distinctions that reduce complexity, thereby ensuring stable and predictable operations. When a regulatory subsystem, […]

Categories
Commentary

AI: The Unflattering Mirror

Recent articles on AI in higher education highlight its potential to deepen institutional inequality, reveal flaws in current teaching practices, and expose the fragility of the university’s business model. However, […]

Categories
AI Commentary Core Theory

From Sovereignty to Systemic Curation: The University’s Second-Order Imperative

The discourse surrounding universities and artificial intelligence has coalesced around a seemingly robust concept: “AI sovereignty.” As articulated in recent analyses and presented by the University World News, this involves […]

Categories
Challenges University World News Contributions

On outdated curricula: How to stop teaching yesterday

This article first appeared on University World News There is a ritual familiarity to curriculum reform in many African universities. A committee meets. It requests a review. It calls for […]

Categories
AI Commentary

The Steering Problem: Why Universities Are Teaching the Wrong Lessons About AI

Universities are treating AI as a crisis of cheating, when it’s really a crisis of assessment. The essay was never the learning itself, just a convenient proxy for it—and that […]