Cape Town - The University of the Western Cape’s (UWC) 8th Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Robert Balfour, is a revolutionary passionate in his vision of creating an ecosystem where the university does not just exist in the community, but is part of it.
He seeks to bring curriculum change as the world of higher education demands diversity and adaptability, where students can one day find themselves employable with the qualifications they hold.
When one meets Balfour, he is not your ordinary academic, as he sports a smart hat and bow tie, making a sartorial statement, according to the university.
Balfour takes over from 7th Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Tyrone Brian Pretorius. He is hungry to create a bridge between the community, students and university.
“My contribution to UWC’s legacy would be to create the climate to revitalise the debate about the relevance of the left in the twenty-first century where capitalism seems hegemonic; it seems to be largely unaccountable, very exploitative and damaging to the environment, to people, and to relations between people,” he said.
“It’s about imagining a better future for ourselves. It’s appropriate for UWC to be the place where that imagination infuses with teaching, community engagement and research.”
He was formerly the Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning at North-West University (NWU) and has experience in academic and administrative leadership spanning almost 20 years in public and private higher education institutions.
He also was the Honorary Professor of Education in the School of Education Studies at the UKZN until 2015 and was reappointed in 2017.
He further held three fellowships at the Institute for Commonwealth Studies at the University of London (2003 to 2005), Clare Hall at Cambridge University (2003), and the Institute of Education at the University of London (2014).
Growing up as an only child in Johannesburg and attending a Catholic School, he shared how he had braved “coming out” as a young gay person.
“It was very clear to me as a young gay adolescent that should you dare to come out in that kind of space, you risked your life. You risked taking your life. I remember one of my contemporaries in that school, a little bit younger than me, who took the risk of coming out in that boys-only boarding school environment, and it provoked extremes in terms of toxic masculinities and violence,” he said.
The university shared that Balfour was expected to carry out different roles in his capacity. He further shared that he hoped to strengthen relationships with colleges and TVET colleges as he looked to the progression and change of the curriculum.