Alois Baleni, a SWOP PhD Fellow, has recently been appointed as a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee International scholar. This prestigious award is to work on the project Decolonising/Indegenising Higher Education in Canada and South Africa. As part of the programme, Baleni will spend time at the University of Winnipeg, Canada, where he will be expected to design and carry out the research project.
According to Baleni: 'I am upbeat with this timely fellowship, I am very excited and equally privileged to be awarded with this prestigious opportunity which complements my PhD project in many ways. My PhD study focuses on FMF as a student led initiative that was calling for the decolonisation of higher education in South Africa. I see this fellowship as complementary to the PhD study through an evidence based comparative research process that gives me a different perspective from two different processes that is, the Indigenous Course Request at University of Winnipeg and FMF projects at Wits as student led initiatives that championed the bigger cause of decolonising higher education'.
