The Possibilities for University-Based Public-Good Professional Education: A Case-Study from South Africa Based on the "Capability Approach"

Overview & Synopsis

The education of professionals oriented to poverty reduction and the public good is the focus of the article. Sen's "capability approach" is used to conceptualise university-based professional education as a process of developing public-good professional capabilities. The main output of a research project on professional education in South Africa is an innovative "Public-Good Professional Education Index" generated by using three knowledge sources: theory; empirical data from five university-based professional education departments in three universities in South Africa; and deliberations with stakeholders. Here the case of a Department of Engineering is selected to exemplify how the Index assists an evaluation of the development of public-good professional capabilities in universities, which allows some optimism in the spaces between realism and idealism. Attention is drawn to the relevance of the approach and arguments to contemporary university-based professional education worldwide. (Contains 4 tables.)