Author: Nola Jones

A well-constructed student center attracts a certain kind of energy. Students in between classes, groups gathering around tables, and the quiet hum of people working things out in real time are more authentic than the forced enthusiasm of an orientation brochure. That energy is carried by Western Michigan University’s Western Student Center. It is located in the center of the main campus, and whether or not that placement was deliberate, it proved to be significant. Structures such as this one often show the true values of a university. What it prioritizes in terms of square footage and concrete, not what…

Seeing a Grammy-winning pop star perform “Love Story” in front of a group of professional football players in Nashville is truly strange. However, that is precisely what occurred this past Tuesday, and for some reason, it didn’t feel out of place at all. This week at Nashville’s FirstBank Stadium, Tight End University, a yearly three-day event started in 2021 by George Kittle, Travis Kelce, and Greg Olsen, concluded its sixth year. What began as a fairly simple football summit—tight ends from all over the league training together, exchanging strategies, and forming bonds—has progressively evolved into something more difficult to define.…

Walking around Ann Arbor on a weekday morning is subtly impressive. Students travel between structures with architectural styles spanning two centuries. Before most people have finished their coffee, researchers are already in the labs. It’s hard to distinguish between the university and the city because they are so entwined. It’s not by accident that something has a sense of permanence, of being made to last. For more than 200 years, the University of Michigan has been doing this. Michigan predates the state itself, having been founded in 1817. It started out as something called the Catholepistemiad, a term that roughly…

It began with a courteous notice. Parents and guardians were asked to enter a Cape Town primary school “neatly and appropriately dressed at all times.”” Clothing with offensive language, dressing gowns, sleep bonnets, and pyjamas were all prohibited. The school even took the time to specify what constitutes appropriate clothing, including dresses, shirts, long pants, jeans, and clean shoes. The entire situation was presented in a delicate, almost contrite manner. However, in a matter of days, the notice sparked a discussion that extended far beyond the school’s boundaries in Cape Town. The fact that a memo regarding adult clothing choices…

Along with members of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department and City Power security staff, representatives from the Revenue Protection Unit of City Power arrived at Curro School in Noordwyk, Midrand, early on Tuesday, June 23. The Curro Sagewood campus’s electricity supply was quickly cut off. At least for an hour, the school, which is a part of one of the most well-known private education groups in South Africa, went dark. What transpired was not a low-key administrative issue. With statements flying from both sides, a High Court intervention, and inquiries that directly addressed how billing accountability functions between institutions and…

Every year at this time, a certain level of tension arises over the N3 Toll Route. Hundreds of thousands of South Africans start the well-known migration between KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng as schools close and bags are packed. It’s almost routine. However, that is not how the road handles it. The road safety authorities’ warnings arrived in tandem with the traffic on Friday, June 26, the start of this year’s winter school holidays. The N3 Toll Concession (N3TC), which oversees the 415-kilometer stretch between Heidelberg in Gauteng and Cedara in KZN, acted swiftly to warn drivers. The message was clear: avoid…

Gert Sibande TVET College has something noteworthy about it that isn’t mentioned in any brochure. It is located in Mpumalanga, a province that is frequently overlooked when discussing educational and economic opportunities. Since 2002, it has been producing graduates in fields that genuinely lead somewhere while doing steady, unglamorous work. It chose to remain pragmatic early on, not because it had the greatest resources or the most well-known reputation. Three distinct organizations—the technical colleges of Ermelo, Evander, and Standerton—combined to form the college. It’s reasonable to assume that those initial years had some conflict because school mergers are rarely smooth.…

When you read about Hilton College, you’ll notice right away that it has its own declared nature reserve, which distinguishes it from almost every other school in South Africa. Not a garden. There isn’t even a tiny green area behind the science block. Teenagers are studying for exams somewhere nearby in this 650-hectare wilderness where giraffes, zebras, servals, and caracals roam freely and about 300 species of birds go about their daily lives. It’s a peculiar combination. It also provides some crucial information about the nature of this institution. Located close to the small town of Hilton in the KwaZulu-Natal…

When you consider that the University of Zululand started out in 1960 with 41 students—five of whom were women—in a region of South Africa that the majority of the academic community had at the time chosen to ignore, there is something worth stopping to think about. Over 16,000 students visit its campuses every day. The proportion shifted. It appears that the ambition has evolved even further. The institution, known as UNIZULU, is located in KwaZulu-Natal, north of the uThukela River. This geographical detail may seem insignificant, but it was once used to delineate the boundaries of formalized higher education in…

One type of institution doesn’t make a big announcement about itself. It doesn’t have the name recognition of older, more illustrious universities or make weekly appearances in international headlines. Nevertheless, it is hard to overlook the Durban University of Technology when considering what is going on in KwaZulu-Natal. There, something is slowly, methodically, and quietly taking shape. In 2002, two technikons, Technikon Natal and ML Sultan, merged to form DUT, as most people refer to it. It wasn’t a glamorous start. During that time, mergers in South Africa’s higher education system were frequently complicated, politically charged, and challenging to handle.…