RUCE: Rhodes University Community Engagement

03/06/2026

Rhodes University publishes new book on Community Engagement and the Cultivation of Humanity at this year's CE Conference.🌟

Edited by Dr Margie Maistry, Claire McCann and Diana Hornby, the volume grew out of a May 2025 dialogue at Rhodes that drew together South African scholars and contributors from India. As McCann explained, those who presented agreed to develop their talks into written chapters.

What holds the collection together is that cultivating humanity is not an optional extra for universities; it is not something to be tacked on when budgets allow. It is, as McCann put it, “essential for the purpose of our institutions.” This matters especially in South Africa, where histories of colonialism and apartheid continue to shape whose knowledge counts and whose lives matter.

The book suggests that community engagement, when done with care and intention, can be a powerful humanising force. But it makes no promises: “The book offers no answers, really,” she said. Instead, “it is an invitation” to reimagine higher education, to reconnect knowledge with lived experience, and to participate in what she called “the ongoing, imperfect work of cultivating humanity together”.

Deputy Editor of the African Journal for Higher Education Community Engagement, Claire McCann, opened the book launch of Higher Education and Community Engagement: The Cultivation of Humanity by doing what the book itself asks of universities: she paused to acknowledge the people who had made it pos...

02/06/2026

Professor Jonathan Davy’s SleepCHAMPzzz project is tracking 150 young people across three continents, saliva samples, brainwave electrodes and all in search of answers to one of adolescence’s most underexplored crises.

Every Friday and Saturday night, a group of teenagers walks into a darkened lab at Rhodes University. They sit still while researchers take saliva samples every hour, tracing the slow rise of melatonin, a hormone that tells the body it is time to sleep. They leave just before midnight. The scientists leave closer to one in the morning. This has been happening every weekend, twice a weekend, across a data collection season stretching from February to April.

This is what serious sleep science looks like. And at the centre of it is Rhodes University’s Human Kinetics and Ergonomics department’s Professor Jonathan Davy, whose SleepCHAMPzzz project represents one of the most ambitious longitudinal studies of adolescent sleep and mental health ever conducted in the Global South.

🔗 Read more below

Professor Jonathan Davy’s SleepCHAMPzzzproject is tracking 150 young people across three continents, saliva samples, brainwave electrodes and all in search of answers to one of adolescence’s most underexplored crises.

01/06/2026

We are delighted to announce that the Rhodes University Senate and Council approved the honorary appointment of Kelly Long as a Research Associate at RUCE. 👏

Kelly Long is the Primary Education Programmes Manager at GADRA Education and a part-time lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Rhodes University. Her work focuses on early grade literacy, reading interventions, teacher development, curriculum design, and educational research in under-resourced contexts.

Kelly has extensive experience in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of literacy interventions, particularly through her leadership of the Whistle Stop School reading intervention, QondaRead and QondaConnect programm\es in Makhanda. Her research interests include early grade reading, literacy interventions, child participation in education, and teacher education.

She holds a Master of Education with distinction from Rhodes University and has co-authored several peer-reviewed publications, including work on early grade reading outcomes, service-learning and child participation in primary schools. Kelly regularly presents at national education and literacy conferences and is committed to advancing equitable and evidence-based educational practice in South Africa.

Welcome Kelly, hoping your journey with us is rich and rewarding 😊

Enjoy Kelly's most recent research output https://rw.org.za/index.php/rw/article/view/616/1658

01/06/2026

A young person sits with a matric certificate in hand. On paper, it should represent possibility. In reality, for many South African youth, it can become something far heavier: proof of effort that still fails to unlock opportunity.

Drawing from years of community engagement and participatory research, Prof Leslie Wood from North-West University reflected on how structural inequalities continue to shape the lives of many young people, often leaving them trapped in cycles of hopelessness, exclusion and emotional distress.

Rather than viewing these young people as “problems” or “ticking time bombs”, Professor Wood argued for a different perspective, one that positions them as community assets with unrealised potential. The project she described sought to create spaces where youth could rediscover their capabilities, build confidence and begin imagining new futures for themselves.

🔗Read more below.

A young person sits with a matric certificate in hand. On paper, it should represent possibility. In reality, for many South African youth, it can become something far heavier: proof of effort that still fails to unlock opportunity.

28/05/2026

Exciting times - the launch of two Food Trailers on Campus. ☕️ 🍔
This is a partnership between RU Procurement, Business School, RUCE and Housekeeping Divisions as well as the Assumption Development Centre.

Food business entrepreneurs given life-changing opportunity

Two entrepreneurs have been given a life-changing opportunity after receiving food trailers from Rhodes Community Engagement (RUCE) and places to operate them on campus.

The initiative forms part of RUCE’s broader economic development strategy under the Masakhe project, which focuses on social innovation and enterprise development. According to RUCE Director Di Hornby, the project was designed to address the university’s need for “living and learning spaces” by creating much-needed, affordable social hubs for students on campus while actively tackling local unemployment.

To ensure the initiative's success, RUCE partnered with the Assumption Development Centre (ADC) to carefully select dedicated entrepreneurs with proven track records and the capacity to run the food trailers. Furthermore, to help these small businesses launch successfully, the university is initially covering operational utilities such as water and electricity.

Anelisa Toni, who will be operating The Golden Plate, in front of the Africa Media Matrix, said she has always wanted to be an entrepreneur and that this programme helped her achieve that.

“I’ve always been interested in cooking. I wanted to start my own business, so this programme helped me do that,” she said.

Before receiving the trailer opportunity, Toni had already been baking and selling biscuits. She said the programme has now allowed her to expand her passion into a fully-fledged business.

Toni recalled how excited she was when she received the news, calling it a dream come true.

For Thandolwethu Nombewu, a woman of many talents — an entrepreneur, musician and community practitioner — this is an opportunity to “express [herself] through food”, as she loves cooking. She said she was beyond excited, as she had "been manifesting" this opportunity.

“I’ve always done catering on a small scale here and there, so this will allow me to grow my business,” she said.

“I’m also happy with the location I’m in, as it’s a student hub. Events are hosted around this area, students also spend time here, and business is picking up,” she added.

Nombewu operates Grey Seeds Hearty Meals from the Steve Biko lawns. Her trailer is up and running and sells hearty meals, including African cuisine that “reminds people of home”, as well as healthy food options for health-conscious customers.

Toni’s The Golden Plate is set to open soon. It promises to be a go-to spot for everything, with coffee available as well.

Various university departments also support these businesses. The Journalism Department is actively supporting The Golden Plate by integrating its shaded outdoor seating area, while staff members are also offering direct support by exploring ways to help advertise products.

Grey Seeds Hearty Meals is being supported by the Division of Student Services and Development (DSSD). Other departments, such as the Rhodes Business School, are assisting by providing vital training to entrepreneurs, including courses covering different aspects of running a business.

As these two small businesses take off, RUCE views them as a pilot project with exciting potential for the future. If The Golden Plate and Grey Seeds Hearty Meals perform well, the university plans to assess their turnover and potentially roll out additional student hubs across campus next year. Anelisa Toni with her food trailer located in front of the Africa Media Matrix. Image: Supplied

28/05/2026

Meaningful community engagement that focuses on mutuality, respect, relationships and sharing!
An outstanding example of community engaged learning!

28/05/2026

The joys of a meaningful partnership!

Its been 10 years since we launched the Nine Tenths Matric Mentoring Programme and huge gains have been made.
The 6 participating High School Principals and the Teacher Coordinators came together with RUCE and GADRA Education to reflect on the past 10 years and to recommit for the future.
It was a historic moment which marked a very productive partnership that has impacted over 2300 learners, seen the matric pass rate rise from 62% to 86%, Bachelor passes rise from 179 to 369 and the number of local disadvantaged learners registered for first year at RU rise from 12 to nearly 200 annually. 🍃

Additionally, we celebrated the appointment of Mr Radio Mcuba as the new Circuit Manager (dynamic ex Principal of Kutliso Daniels). 🏆

Trust, Respect and Solidarity 🙏

28/05/2026

For Professor Heila Lotz-Sisitka and environmental sciences PhD candidate Monde Duma, one of the biggest environmental challenges facing South Africa goes far beyond land degradation, water or ecosystems. It is the failure to create enough space for communities themselves to participate in understanding and solving those crises.

“We have strong questions with weak answers,” Lotz-Sisitka told delegates at the ICEC2026, drawing on sociologist Boaventura de Sousa Santos’ influential work on knowledge systems of the Global South.

🔗Read more below.

For Professor Heila Lotz-Sisitka and environmental sciences PhD candidate Monde Duma, one of the biggest environmental challenges facing South Africa goes far beyond land degradation, water or ecosystems. It is the failure to create enough space for communities themselves to participate in understan...

26/05/2026

Prof Flip Schutte has a provocation for every institution that thinks it is helping with gender-based violence: you are probably moving too fast. Not because the problem isn’t urgent, it is, but because rushing toward solutions before you understand a community is how well-meaning programmes fail. His alternative: sit down, form a circle and listen.

According to Schutte, the concept was born when Stadio's Schools of Policing and Law expressed an 'unease' over this area of service learning - and wanted to better understand how communities themselves make sense of GBV, and what prevents them from reporting to SAPS.

The model is deliberately simple. Circles are kept small, six to ten people, to preserve intimacy. There is no expert at the front of the room: students, academics and community members participate as equals. Professional psychologists and trauma counsellors are always present, not to research but to support. Facilitators guide dialogue without scripting, creating space for people to share what they choose, at the pace they choose. The sessions are recorded and followed by written reflections from the facilitation team about what they heard and about their own assumptions and biases.

🔗Read more below.

Prof Flip Schutte has a provocation for every institution that thinks it is helping with gender-based violence: you are probably moving too fast. Not because the problem isn’t urgent, it is, but because rushing toward solutions before you understand a community is how well-meaning programmes fail....

26/05/2026

Forty-three per cent of Makhanda’s Grade 4 learners can read for meaning, more than double the national figure of 19%. The pattern has held across nearly 4,500 children at every primary school in the city, who have been tested annually for four years running.

Inside those numbers sits a finding that goes to the heart of one of South Africa’s most contested education debates: in Makhanda’s no-fee schools, where almost no child speaks English at home, learners taught in English are reading at more than twice the rate of those taught in isiXhosa or Afrikaans.

🔗 Read more below.

Forty-three per cent of Makhanda’s Grade 4 learners can read for meaning, more than double the national figure of 19%. The pattern has held across nearly 4,500 children at every primary school in the city, who have been tested annually for four years running.