​ The Ubuntu Learning Community (ULC) is a partnership between Stellenbosch University (SU) and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS). It provides higher-education opportunities for SU and Unisa students in Brandvlei Prison in Worcester to study together under the guidance of SU academics and learn with and from one another through dialogue and the sharing of experiences.

The inspiration for the ULC comes from Nelson Mandela, who said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. It is the first time that a residential South African university has partnered with a prison in a way that conceives of collaborative education as the ‘practice of freedom’  (Paolo Freire) – a tool for transformation and empowerment. 

The ULC has various components: an educational partnership between SU and the DCS, social support and reintegration for students after incarceration, and educating and sensitising SU students (and the wider community) about the incarceration system, a component that is student-led. These components are important for participant empowerment through collaboration and interaction, which enable the transformative power of education as a tool for social justice.

Transformative learning takes place when students are exposed to new experiences and perspectives, such as interaction with diverse peers – students develop personal and social responsibility, which helps to integrate knowledge and skills with values, sense of self, identity and purpose.

Participants learn that they think alike, have shared visions, that perceptions can be pleasantly wrong and that people want to engage more.

This initiative is a form of critical citizenship, which is aimed at encouraging critical reflection on the past and the imagining of a possible future shaped by social justice in preparation of living together in harmony in diverse societies. 

The initiative also entails collaborative international research with partners from the University of Cambridge, UK; UC Berkeley, USA (the Fulbright Scholar Program); and the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, USA. SU’s involvement in this initiative has the potential to generate considerable – and original – research output in the teaching and learning and criminal justice-related fields.

The reintegration component has the objective to support students transitioning from prison to the community to continue their education, obtain employment and lead stable, productive and fulfilling lives on the ‘outside’. It also seeks to challenge social disadvantage as a barrier to higher-education learning by offering re-entry facilitation and support for incarcerated students to complete their studies or to study further at SU after their release.

The student-led/campus education component aims to break down the barriers between universities and prisons and sensitise and educate the community about the project, our incarceration system and its realities and the role communities need to play.

“We need to change the way we think about offenders and change the way we think about the incarceration system in order to break down barriers between prisons and universities”, said Caitlin Kleynhans (fourth-year LLB student).

According to the DCS, those who participate in education are less likely to return to prison. This benefits individuals, their families and communities. It also lays the foundation for lifelong learning and impacts the whole prison population positively.

As remarked by a Brandvlei prisoner: “When working with SU students, prisoners feel renewed hope and belief in the goodness of people. We feel humanised. You treated us just like any other student.”

This partnership can have a tremendous impact to help prisoners become productive members of society and may lead to fewer people entering prison. It improves incarcerated students’ prospects for successful re-entry after their release and decreases levels of recidivism.