Wits: A University in the Apartheid Era.(Review)

Wits: A University in the Apartheid Era, by Mervyn Shear. University Witwatersrand Press, 1996. xxvii-362pp. 12.95 paper [pounds sterling]. ISBN 1-86814-302-3

This is the story of an English speaking `open' university during the apartheid era. The book works quite well as a political history. It should be stated at the outset, however, that although it does attempt to provide a balanced picture of historical events, the book is not `neutral' in the sense that the author was himself a long serving member of the Wits administration and was asked by the current vice-chancellor of the university to write it. It can, indeed, be read almost as a defence of the university's position towards apartheid in higher education. It does though adequately describe student resistance to apartfieid policies and to their encroachment on a …