IAPCHE REGIONAL CONSULTATION

23 October 2007

LJ du Plessis Building

Prof. Annette L Combrink, Rector, Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University

 

The existence of the Potchefstroom University, with or without its “surname”, has always been postulated within the context of the notion of Christian higher education. From its very humble beginnings as a theological seminary in Burgersdorp in the North-Eastern Cape in 1869, with the initial notion of training ministers for the Reformed Church, to the development of a first Literary Department aimed at training teachers (in 1877), this institution has been inextricably bound to the notion of education in the light of God’s Word, exemplified and emblematized in the motto, In thy light (Psalm 36:10).[1] There is a very fraught history of the early years of the university, after the transfer to Potchefstroom in 1905, about the use of the “surname”. The triumph of 1951, when the University gained autonomy as the “Potchefstroomse Universiteit vir Christelike Hoër Onderwys” was sustained for almost fifty years, not without great difficulties, until the merger in 2004 which put paid to any such formal ideal. On the obverse side of the coin one should also acknowledge that the approval of the Private Act giving the University its status as a university was done by the Nationalist Government which came to power in 1948, so that the (often highly negative) responses to and perceptions about Christian higher education vis-à-vis Christian national education can be understood to a large extent. This would also explain the way in which the surname of the University has been regarded over a long time in terms of its perceived baggage as an instrument of the apartheid government.

 

The South African higher education landscape has undergone dramatic changes in the course of the past five years, and part of that has impacted radically on our University. The most radical, in terms of our earlier history, has been the removal of the surname from the name[2] of the University. The use of the “surname” had been possible in terms of the Private Act of the University, but in the new dispensation all the private acts of all the Universities have been repealed, and replaced by the Higher Education Act, 101 of 1997. This Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of faith and creed explicitly. Therefore, the Statute of the NWU, which cannot be in conflict with the Act, does not refer to CHE.  However, the University has formally adopted a values-driven approach across all the campuses within the ambit of which much can be accommodated that is held dear by students, staff and especially alumni.[3]

 

Formally, therefore, the CHE has disappeared from the name of the University. In the screening of personnel for employment one also now cannot use religious criteria (as the PU for CHE used to do – in the early days this was quite rigorous, prescribing Protestant if not Calvinist Christianity). The selection of students[4] can likewise not be done on religious grounds. However, all this does not mean that the ideal of CHE on the Campus has died. The banners and signage have (all but) disappeared, but this has not really changed the hearts and minds of the people who work and study on this Campus. Christian perspectives and viewpoints are now simply packaged differently (perhaps better, because it is incumbent upon us to defend it). Let us by way of illustration refer to various aspects of our core business, and the inextricably link between those activities and our commitment to the Christian ideals.

 

Student life

Student life at the Potchefstroom Campus is still strongly embedded in Christianity. It is sometimes bemusing to realize that in the minds of students and their parents this University is still statutorily Christian! In spite of the secular forces impinging on the University, as in all societal relations, this has persisted and been supported. In the Students’ Representative Council, in the student societies, and especially in the residences the Christian ethos is explicitly present, and interestingly enough not attacked by members of the other faiths and creeds. In fact, it is sometimes humbling to see that members of other faiths attending graduation ceremonies act in full respect towards the observances of Scripture reading and prayer that are in place for all formal university functions. It is very clear that the students do not pay any attention to the statutory constraints that have been imposed on them and are quite rigorous in observation of Christian devotions. What is sometimes worrying is that students of very rightwing persuasion hijack Christianity to justify their beliefs and actions, in rhetoric strongly reminiscent of the heyday of apartheid (with less finesse and poorer spelling than the erstwhile politicians, one might add!).

The Students’ Representative Council of the Potchefstroom Campus strive, in their leadership of the student body, to apply and actively promote the values which have become embedded within the old and the new University culture. In this regard, the SRC portfolio of Principial Guidance plays a central role in the way in which they offer guidance about the place and realization of values. Examples of the projects and actions offered under the guidance of this committee include the following:

*           The religious singing competition in which residences sing Christian hymns to each other and also in concert. The Sêr, or serenade tradition, is strongly entrenched in student life and culture, and according the Christian version such a slot attests to the importance that is attached to it.

*           The students have also, since 2004, done a values march through the streets of the Bult, during which they fly placards extolling the values that they adhere to, and which

*           Youth groups of different denominations work together to effect better communication within the study body about effective communication within the student body about spiritual issues and events.

*           In 2006 this committee arranged for the internationally renowned gospel group “Tree 63” to do a performance on the Potchefstroom Campus apart from other performances in the country. This was done in the Amphitheatre on the Campus.

*           This committee launched a journal, “Relevant 007” that publishes in both Afrikaans and English positive and constructive articles about topical issues such as premarital sex, marital counselling, etc.

*           In 2007 the committee organized a values week during which various values were focussed on. Speakers could share ideas with the students about value-laden topics such as Man of God, The life of a Christian within a secular society and so forth.

*           The Pro Ecclesia Bursary Fund is used to help fund undergraduate students, especially students hoping to become teachers, to study at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University.

 

Teaching

1          The University chose some years ago to create a School of Philosophy as part of the strategic imperative to take special trouble with the inculcation in students of knowledge of and traditions pertaining to the foundational bases of the different subjects. The School of Philosophy still functions broadly within the Reformational tradition.

2          Lecturers in all faculties who are committed Christians, have the right and academic freedom, within the constitutional context of academic freedom, to state and live by their Christian views and positions on academically relevant issues. Without a great fuss being made of the approach being an approach embedded in the Christian tradition, this is the context within which many programmes are offered, and students trained to understand the notion that there cannot be value-free or neutral academic work – they come to a good understanding of the role of worldview and belief within the work of academe. 

3          Two compulsory modules on worldview-related issues (one at the second and one at the third-year level) are offered to all under-graduate students. The study content contains discussion of worldview and ideology, worldview and science and critical life issues, which offer a platform for the formation of a worldview that will equip the student to think about such philosophical issues at a sophisticated level that will also inform their lives and choices. It is considered important that the School of Philosophy should be intimately involved in all these developments within other faculties and schools so that the level of philosophical engagement can be academically acceptable. It is considered to be very important to offer such modules at a level that is academically respectable and sophisticated – without an approach that implies academic rigour it would be all too easy to fall into a trap of homely cliché and truism.

4          SAQA’s[5] CCFOs[6] offer a statutory basis for the worldview-based moulding of students which make it possible to continue offering such modules even within the new dispensation in education, so that even though there are various statutory constraints here at least there is space for development of something that will stand the students in good stead throughout their lives.

5          New lecturers are made aware of metatheoretical and ethics foundations of their subjects in the course of a study course for new lecturers.

 

Research

1          The School of Computer, Statistical and Mathematical Science has created a sub-programme on Foundations and Ethics where they reflect on an inter-disciplinary basis and within a Christian framework on the foundations of the natural sciences.

2          Within the Life Sciences there is an interdisciplinary discussion group that has held a series of seminars about the origin of life and the validity of evolution theory. The papers have been published in the interdisciplinary journal Koers.  .         

3          There is a strong Trust Fund, the Pro Reformando Trust, established to finance CHE-related activities, now that this cannot be done officially by the University any longer (within the context outlined above). 

4          The CHE Prize, which used to be awarded by the Committee for Reformational Scholarship, is now known as the HG Stoker Prize and the prize money of R20 000 is provided by the Trust. This is awarded annually for a publication within the broad field of Christian scholarship.

5          Within the School of Philosophy there is a Centre for Faith and Science that stimulates and co-ordinates reflection and research on issues of faith and science and which seeks to develop capacity in this context in staff members. The CFS also makes it possible for lecturers to attend national and international conferences in their own fields where the issue of Christian frameworks of thought is central.  The CFS is also responsible for maintaining historical links with other institutions espousing the ideal of Christian scholarship.

 

Ultimately, retaining the notion of a Christian higher education institution has to live in the hearts and minds of people. It is a matter of the heart, of the soul, of conviction and commitment, because statutory constraints and other human structures might well at times seem to be impassable impediment. It is up to us and others like us to ensure that we remain on the radar.

[1]          Interestingly, the New International Version has this version:  “...in your light we see light”, while the new Afrikaans translation has replaced “In U lig” with “... deur u lig lewe ons”.

[2]          While there had been vociferous opposition from the Mafikeng colleagues about the mere notion of retaining the surname in the new name of the University, the North-West University, the reality is that Christianity is alive and real on that campus as well, and the conventional observances, such as opening meetings with a prayer, have been retained.

[3]          Alumni responded with shock and horror when the merger was originally announced, and there are still fairly aggressive responses from alumni when one addresses them during reunions and other alumni functions. The fact that the University tried at the time to enlist legal means of opposing the merger does not really help matters in the eyes of the diehards – there are alumni who feel betrayed, and it is doubly difficult for management members who are equally sad about the loss of the “surname” to have to justify it.

[4]          We do have a very organized student religious setup on the campus, with upwards of twenty ministers and pastors involved with the spiritual and pastoral care of students meeting on a regular basis with the vice-chancellor and the rector to discuss issues pertaining to improved involvement with and care of the students.

[5]          SAQA:  the South African Qualifications Authority

[6]          Critical Cross-field Outcomes – intended to provide a framework for a fully-rounded engagement with subject matter, so that metatheoretical issues can have a proper place and involvement in the curriculum.