UJ’s Marwala jets for innovation through decolonization in higher education

Charles Molele

Professor Tshilidzi Marwala is a man on a mission. He wants to make the University of Johannesburg as number one on the African continent.“We are currently number four or five. We are building UJ. We are building UJ to become  the number one university in Africa,” says the soft-spoken Marwala.

Not only does Marwala want to turn the University of Johannesburg as one of the best in Africa, but he wants to ensure that it becomes a leader in artificial intelligence and decolonisation of the curriculum.

In the not-so-distant future, most jobs will be shared among people and machines, Marwala said during an interview with Inside Education on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and how this will impact on academic institutions.  

“Some jobs are going to disappear while some new jobs are going to emerge such as a data scientist. As universities we need to prepare our graduates