Sub Theme 3: New Growth: The Relational University: Care, Power, Co-Creation and Community

After every storm, the Highveld is washed clean, and something new grows. This subtheme centres the human dimensions of the emerging university. We explore student agency, staff wellbeing, and the practitioner under institutional pressure. It asks the critical question: co-creation with whom, on what terms, and with what power dynamics made visible? It also brings AI into the discourse as a relational actor – a presence that could fundamentally shift the terms of human interaction in learning spaces. We must consider how care, power, and community are negotiated in this new relational landscape.

Provocations:

• Who gets to conceptualise success at the individual and institutional level, and how does power shape that conception?
• How can we design institutions that are genuinely “human-responsive” for students, staff, and our communities?
• As AI becomes a presence in our learning and teaching spaces, how do we protect and co-create meaningful human connections?