Student Representation and Modes of Institutional Stakeholder Interaction Platforms. Reconciling University Councils and their Student Stakeholders

The stakeholder relationships between any university leadership and its university student clientele are important indicators of effective governance. In the post 1994, South African higher education dispensation, and of the 2015 the Rhodes must fall and fees must fall university students across the South African universities, the key symbolic characteristics of these stakeholder relationships between the stakeholder governed university councils and the university students has been the discourse of animosity, university protests, disruption of learning and destruction of university properties. Subsequently, in light of the 2015 fees must fall and Rhodes must fall university student movements, the role of the university councils in bringing effective governance as a result has come under heavy review. As a consequence, this paper examines the extent to which the relationship between university student representation in the university council and modes of institutional engagement platforms of the university council with its stakeholders are contributing to effective governance in the former historically black South African universities. This paper argues that there are strong stakeholder's influences on the kinds of institutional governance processes and procedures used to enhance or coordinate university student representation and engagement relationships between the university council and its different stakeholders in this case university students. As such to engage with these institutional contexts requires the university council to understand the relationship between modes of student representation in institutional governance and the ways of institutional engagement platforms between the university councils and its key stakeholders the different university student's formations across the university campuses. The paper used the concept of culture as a guiding framework to bring understanding of the ways the relationship between student representation and the modes of institutional engagement by stakeholder governed university councils can be used to improve governance practise. The date for this paper was collected from documentarily sources, interviews with the members of the university council and surveys of the university staff and students. The paper ends with a re-imagination of governance practises that enhance sustainable university student representation and suitable engagement avenues as enablers of good practise.