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Conjuring the spectre of authorship, considered passé in continental philosophy and contemporary 'western' criticism for some time, may provide a valid and poignant ethical reference point for studies of higher education in a globalised world. In this paper, it is argued that the concepts of author, text and reader allow for a re-consideration of taken-for-granted discourses and interpretative approaches in higher education, particularly for those with academic concerns. Informed by the author's drive to be responsive to an ethical obligation to the global South and in contexts with legacies of conflict and inequality, surfacing the politics and problematics of authorship poignantly brings to bear that which is de/legitimised between the gazes of the local, national, global. The ways in which the concepts of author, text and reader are constructed, and their roles positioned, may enable us to deliberate the sub/text of the macro-, meso- and micro-curricula of higher education in varied contexts, and, in turn, put us in a better position to analyse the significance of what we ourselves design, as such texts operate beyond our own intentionality in the world.

What influences, informs and impacts on the development of 'teaching' in higher education, reflects the ways in which the purpose of higher education is negotiated. This talk will consider dominant constructions of the roles and responsibilities of the academic in South African universities in the wake of that country's negotiated political settlement, which pivot around how teaching has grappled with notions of access. Questions will be posed about whether approaches to 'access for success' should continue to be positioned within myths of advancement in this field of professional practice, or whether such impulses thwart the more radical equity projects of 'access to challenge' in a context burdened with legacies of injustice from colonialism, apartheid and the cold war.

This paper offers insights into the deliberation process of one particular agent who coordinated the curriculum development process of a Higher Education Studies programme aimed at connecting diverse international contexts. In this paper, she shares four specific 'questions of authorship' which she consciously identified as important before the programme's inception, which she then revisited when engaging stakeholders and collaborators, in her attempts to be responsive to an ethical obligation to the global South. Continually negotiating the politics and problematics of authorship, may be a poignant way to bring to bear that which is de/legitimised in the assessment of content, methods, assessment and contexts chosen for inclusion in such a programme. The presentation is intended as an 'opening' to fellow researchers, teachers and students in this field, to consider the significance of such conceptual framing for thinking and practices across borders.

Underpinned by an awareness that education systems inherently maintain the status quo, this article explores a paradox at the heart of fine art studio teaching, learning and assessment in the postcolonial context of South Africa. The content of most current curricula evidences a concern with power, and the politics and problematics of representation. As such, encouragement of student engagement around and negotiation of notions of transformation, critical dialogue and identity is espoused. However, in the article it is argued that current approaches to assessment often unquestioningly replicate inherited systems, and in so doing, unwittingly reproduce systems of cultural capital that may be non-transformatory and non-pluralistic. Thus, because of the way assessment is practiced, that which is taught may be radically different from that which is experienced and thereby learnt in the studio.

Explorations of the seen and unseen social changes within the academy underpin the Counter// Narratives' project, where in 2019-2020 the life history narratives of first generation academics from Angola, India, South Africa and Syria were engaged with by visual artists from the collective Analogue Eye: Video Art Africa, many of whom are themselves first generation university-educated. In each of these contexts, a critical mass of those from groups and knowledge systems misrecognised and oppressed have negotiated radical changes in the figures and institutions of authority in their countries. Authorship is central to such power and to agency. This paper deliberates such questions and politics of authorship alongside those entanglements of author-ing inherent to the interpretative processes of storytelling, artistic research and interpretation within The 'Counter // Narratives' Project itself - which sought to explore how counter-stories may see a way through the myopia of the social delegitimation of the western-oriented academy, provide challenge to reproductions of internalised oppression, and openings to engagement with more just notions of authority. Against the dominant hero narratives of social mobility and exceptionalism, and the looming spectres of colonial universities' mythologies of quality, the artists grappled with the ethico-historical responsibility of bearing witness, but also creating generative and equitious imaginaries through their creative arts research practice. Drawing on reflective interviews with the artists, participants and ourselves as the research-curatorial team, in this video we offer a synopsis of the paper for this conference. Within it, we highlight insights into the layers of narration negotiated, including the relations between those layers and the visual discourses and micro-textuality of the final videos. Excerpts and stills from the video artworks, and extracts from correspondence, transcripts and audience reception responses are referenced by the research-curatorial team, to provide a rich and complex dialogue about the im-possibilities of representing and visualising emancipatory imaginaries.

Recognising that the university is a site of struggle for democracy and justice, this paper prevents insider insights into academic citizenry within four Indian universities over 70 years after the country's independence. Drawing from data generated from academics within four Indian universities, we analysed responses that revealed the limits and possibilities of academic freedom as 'professional freedom' within teaching, research, community engagement, governance and administration. Insights were gained into the politics of participation between academic citizens within this transforming sector. Intersectional analysis revealed varied experiences of identification, in addition to constraints to exercising power. Substantial differences in 'being' and 'belonging' in academic functions emerged in relation to academic position and social location.

Research Background: When it comes to social justice, leadership plays a significant role in fostering vision, ensuring compliance with policies and their implementation, in addition to embodying a responsibility for institutional growth. This is important in the current global drive to address gender inequality, one of the Sustainable Development Goals of United Nations. Public institutions of authority, particularly higher education institutions (HEIs), play a significant role for the public good in this regard. However, the staff composition of Indian public HEIs presents a dismal picture with women occupying only 7% of positions of leadership. Objectives: The paper aims to study the role of institutional leaders in implementing, monitoring and evaluating gender policies. It further wants to understand the individual and systemic constraints faced by leaders in their efforts to attain the vision of gender equity in their institutions. Methods: We present findings from a collaborative research project studying the dominant cultures within universities in the post-colonial contexts of India and South Africa. It draws from data generated through mixed methods in 2019, with participation of 185 academic staff and leaders. Findings: While the leadership ensured the existence of gender policies in their universities, mechanisms of implementation, monitoring and evaluation were weak and left much to be desired. The rhetoric of gender mainstreaming covered up for the lack of awareness of the intentionality of policies for gender equity. The policies were considered more of a constitutional obligation rather than being looked upon with a politico-ethical vision to include those marginalized with regard to gender and its intersections with caste, sexuality, ability and language. The resources of 'ghettoised' areas of specialization were not utilized to the optimum therefore rendering the institutional functioning to remain exclusionary, elitist, sexist and casteist.

Dina Zoe Belluigi, Andrea Alcock, Veronica Farrell and Grace Idahosa reflect on figurative imagery in their research practices to expose the "hidden curriculum of higher education". Their reflection recounts discursive processes in an attempt to "make sense" of "the modes of politics" in which they engage.

By now, concerns about how equity and inequality are playing out in the 'pivot' to remote teaching and learning are common in the press and most mainstream political and policy discourses. But early on, questions about the risks to equity and the related responses to such risks within institutions of higher education were being raised. Of these, which concerns for the future post-pandemic persist? As teaching and learning professionals and academics from 15 diverse universities in South Africa, we deliberated through collective reflection what we were experiencing, observing, designing and trying to mitigate in Emergency Remote Teaching and Learning (ERTL). Collecting our reflections and raising critical concerns, we collated these in May 2020 during the first semester of the academic year in South Africa, as the country entered a sudden State of Disaster with severe lockdown restrictions. Nine themes emerged from our reflective narratives that provide insight, from the diverse and unequal positions we found ourselves in, into the current status of responses to Covid-19 with regard to teaching and learning through an equity lens.