Many of my colleagues have asked me to give them the ‘map’ to building working relationships between my department and the College of Law. Although I have tried to share my experiences, I did not see the ‘a-ha’ moment going off in their minds. I thought this was a failure on my part to communicate the process. Giving someone a map showing the route from Johannesburg to Cape Town, when they are interested in touring Europe, is obviously futile, but if you share some of your experiences of the journey (eg looking for significant landmarks) with someone, they might be better ‘prepared’ for their journey. Do not, however, expect them to experience exactly what you did. Everybody's journey is unique.

This chapter contains personal experiences and reflections about the processes underlying the establishment of a working relationship with the College of Law over a period of about seven years at a higher education institution (HEI). The references included are not all the latest research in the area, but are some of the readings that have supported me in my relationship-building journey. At times I will use quite a number of quotations, as I feel that I would be able to make certain statements much better through them than in my own words. In addition, these quotations have led to many of my ‘a-ha’ moments.

Background to my journey

In 1996 I started the journey, on the other side of the table, as a lecturer in Psychology at an HEI in South Africa. In my seven years of being an academic, I learnt through personal experience the negative effects that result from a lack of support on the part of professional departments, particularly in student support. Too much is expected of the academics: they are given roles and responsibilities that their years of study never prepared them for (Herman & Mandell 2006:7; Ntshoe, Higgs, Higgs & Wolhuter 2008:392; Vardi 2009:499–500). I tried to do my best for my students who came mainly from disadvantaged backgrounds, were ill-prepared for higher education studies and were made promises that never materialised (Bakker et al 2000:26–48; Unisa 2007:2).