Saleem Badat is a South African sociologist, higher education policy specialist, and researcher. He is Research Professor in Humanities at the University of Kwazulu-Natal.

Early politics

Badat was eighteen years old when the 1976 Soweto Uprising occurred, which shaped his political consciousness and eventually his student activism. Badat served on the student wages commission and the Release Mandela Committee. He was initially aligned to the

Black Consciousness Movement The Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Afri ...

, and later joined the charterist United Democratic Front (UDF) following its founding in 1983. Badat was the editor of the Western Cape community newspaper, ''Grassroots''.

Career

Badat started his professional career as researcher into

higher education policy Higher education policy refers to education policy for higher education institutions such as universities, specifically how they are organised, funded, and operated in a society. According to Ansell (2006) there are "three different institutional f ...

at the

University of the Western Cape The University of the Western Cape (UWC) is a public research university in Bellville, near Cape Town, South Africa. The university was established in 1959 by the South African government as a university for Coloured people only. Other un ...

under the tutelage of

Harold Wolpe Harold Wolpe (14 January 1926 – 19 January 1996) was a South African lawyer, sociologist, political economist and anti-apartheid activist. He was arrested and put in prison in 1963 but escaped and spent 30 years in exile in the United Kingdom. ...

. Upon Wolpe's untimely death, Badat took over as the Director of the Education Policy Unit. In 1999, he became the founding CEO of the South Africa
Council on Higher Education
a position which he held until 2006. In his role as CEO, he built the Council up to serve as statutory advisory and national accreditation body for higher education in South Africa. From June 2006 until July 2014, Badat served as the first black

vice-chancellor A chancellor is a leader of a college or university, usually either the executive or ceremonial head of the university or of a university campus within a university system. In most Commonwealth and former Commonwealth nations, the chancellor ...

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public research university located in Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the province's oldest ...

in Grahamstown, South Africa. Badat holds Bachelors and Honours degrees in the Social Sciences from the

University of KwaZulu-Natal The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a university with five campuses in the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It was formed on 1 January 2004 after the merger between the University of Natal and the University of Durban-Westville. ...

, a Certificate in Higher Education and Science Policy from

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology from the University of York. Between August 2014 and December 2018, he was the Program Director of the International Higher Education and Strategic Projects program at the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...

. His portfolio encompassed grant making in the arts and humanities to research universities in South Africa, Uganda, Ghana, Egypt, and Lebanon and to pan-African and pan-Arab institutions working in higher education. Over the course of his career, Badat has also served on numerous boards, commissions, and committees, including as chairperson of Higher Education South Africa (now: Universities South Africa) and the Association of African Universities Scientific Committee on Higher Education. Badat has received several honorary degrees during his career. In 2004, the

University of the Free State The University of the Free State is a multi-campus public university in Bloemfontein, the capital of the Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa. It was first established as an institution of higher learning in 1904 as a tertiary se ...

awarded him an honorary doctorate for his contributions to higher education policy, followed in 2008 by an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the University of York, and eventually in 2015, he received an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University.

Publications

As a critical sociologist, Badat's core research and writings deal with the politics of transition from an apartheid society to a socially just, democratic society, typically but not exclusively with special reference to the education sector. Based on his PhD, Badat published in 2002 ''Black Student Politics, Higher Education and Apartheid from SASO to SANSCO, 1968-1990'' (HSRC Press, republished in 2016 by Taylor & Francis)''.'' In 2009 he published ''Black Man, You are on Your Own'' (Steve Biko Foundation / STE Publishers 2010)'','' and 2012/2013, ''The Forgotten People: Political Banishment under Apartheid'' (Jacana Press and Brill). In addition to his book publications, Badat published over 50 scholarly articles and numerous policy briefs and recommendations.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Badat, Saleem Living people University of KwaZulu-Natal faculty Rhodes University academics 1957 births People from Durban Vice-Chancellors of Rhodes University