Research publication when I was a student in the late 1960s and early 1970s was a big deal. Once accepted, an article could stack for five years before seeing the light of day. Only the top scholars published. The rest just taught. Published articles drew vigorous peer critique and the objective was to impact the discipline, to develop theory and offer explanation. Now, publishing is primarily about meeting performance assessment, auditing requirements and bottom lines.

Keyan Tomaselli is a University of KwaZulu-Natal emeritus professor and fellow and is currently based in the office of the dean of the faculty of humanities, University of Johannesburg. This is an extract from a book Contemporary Campus Life: Transformation, manic managerialism and academentia, published by HSRC Press and based on columns in the UKZNdaba Griot published between 2010 and 2019.

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