“Learning is a lifelong process” writes Prof Margie Maistry and Claire McCann, editor and deputy editor of the African Journal for Higher Education Community Engagement in the publication’s third and latest edition.
“In other words, life itself is a process of continuous learning. Firstly, this requires an awareness of its lifelong nature, and secondly, an openness to learn. When we are open to learning, we are also open to unlearning and relearning.”
This holistic approach to education contradicts the current discipline-based format of higher education that primarily prepares students for careers and economic livelihoods—not for life. Compartmentalised academic disciplines and rigid institutional cultures often limit opportunities for unlearning and relearning. As a result, the potential for individual, collective, and institutional growth is lost.
The third issue of the AJHECE set out to explore these tensions. Through four articles, the journal investigates how Universities can be spaces to cultivate humanity by shifting paradigms, encouraging dialogue and innovation, and facilitating mutual learning. Key themes of decoloniality, social innovation and wellbeing emerge strongly in this edition, introducing an emerging new vision for humanity that the AJHECE suggests can be cultivated through Community Engagement.
The third edition features articles from:
- Nigel Machiha (University of Johannesburg, South Africa)
- Grey Magaiza, Geoffrey Mukwada and Jerit Dube (University of Free State, South Africa) and Jesse Lutabingwa (Appalachian State University, USA)
- Lindsay Kelland (Rhodes University, South Africa)
- Sr. Margaret Aringo and Odhiambo Kevin Odongo (Tangaza University, Kenya)
The edition also features a thought piece by Prof Peter Clayton reviewing a section in a recent book published in CE scholarship, Bridging Knowledge Cultures edited by Tandon and Hall.
Unpacking the AJHECE third edition
Providing a platform for emerging and early career academics is a key focus of the journal. A recent Rhodes University graduate, Nigel Machiha opens this issue with an critical exploration of the Nine-Tenths Mentoring Programme which pairs Rhodes University mentors with final-year learners from marginalised high schools in Makhanda, South Africa. During his studies at Rhodes, Machiha was involved in engaged citizenry volunteering and was a finalist in the CE Awards in the Student Volunteer of the Year and Student Researcher of the Year categories.
Drawing on insights from 12 former mentees, his research urges us not to overlook the shortcomings of traditional university classrooms in realising their full liberatory potential. Machiha demonstrates the value of creating enabling ecosystems for development that integrate stakeholders from various sectors. In his findings, he notes that University CE initiatives cannot exist in isolation.
“Community engagement programmes … can only do so much within the confines of the existing structures. While these programmes may help individual students improve their academic performance or gain access to resources and mentorship that they would not otherwise have, they are often unable to address the underlying structural inequities that persist within the education system. True decolonisation requires more than access, it demands structural change to create an inclusive academic environment. It must remain a transformative goal, not reduced to token efforts or ‘decolonial washing’.
Social Innovation and Enterprise Development as a form of CE is increasingly becoming a focus for Universities. Social innovation speaks to how Universities can leverage their core functions to create networks and scale up lived experience knowledge. Storytelling is a component of social innovation that seeks to facilitate cohesion and healing alongside development.
Grey Magaiza, Geoffrey Mukwada, Jesse Lutabingwa, and Jerit Dube present a methodological approach to engaging youth on social entrepreneurship in the rural community of Thibella, South Africa. Using storytelling, collage-making, and photovoice, the study demonstrates innovative ways of collecting data in engaged research.
“This study stresses that young people are competent and responsible beings in their own right, capable of making decisions in the research that would impact their lives. Life history narratives, collages and photovoice approaches used in this study enhanced self-empowerment and conscientised youth about their situation.”
Integrating community engagement as a core value in higher education offers a powerful opportunity to drive systemic change. By nurturing environments that encourage ongoing co-learning, unlearning, and relearning, institutions can challenge colonial legacies and cultivate more inclusive, democratic spaces. This vision can only be realised through sustained, thoughtful efforts — including long-term partnerships, continuous self-reflection, and transformative shifts within curricula and institutional cultures.