Cape Town

Any opinion on what constitutes the good is unlikely to be objective, and any attempt to make it so is likely to be boring. Plato reputedly once gave a public lecture titled ‘On the Good’, but since he delivered his discourse in mathematical terms most of the audience had left before he eventually reached the gnomic conclusion that ‘the Good is One’. An opinion on what makes a good university, particularly from a practising academic, is even less likely to be objective. At some point in a discourse on the good university, therefore, there should be a declaration of interest – some reference to the personal circumstances and social conditioning of the author which may impact on their judgement. For that reason, this chapter has a more personal slant, and relates some experiences of quality and equality. The first tale is about the University of Cape Town in the 1990s, and is set against the background of mathematics.

To understand why mathematics is relevant to equality and diversity we have to go back to what happened in the South African Parliament in June 1954. This was when Dr Hendrik Verwoerd, Minister of Native Affairs, introduced a piece of legislation called the Bantu Education Act. Dr Verwoerd addressed the Senate as follows: