As a member of the Student Communications Team, I was given the task of interviewing Piyushi Kotecha. She is the Southern African Regional Universities Association  (SARUA) Chief Executive Officer. The interview was supposed to be a face-to-face but, unfortunately enough, she had a lot of commitments and she quickly suggested that I write down the questions for her to respond through writing. Let me hasten to express my sincere gratitude to her for her time and effort.

Here are the questions and the responses:

1. One word to describe you?

Passionate

2. What is most meaningful to you?

Values-based, ethics driven, power and dialogue, collective action.

3. What does the future of the global civic engagement in higher education look like to you and why?

A future Higher Education system wherein civic engagement is on an equal basis with regard to the research and teaching functions of universities.

4. If you could change one thing in the world today, what could it be and why?

Greed and self-interest.

Looking at the responses, I reached the conclusion that the future of civic engagement in higher education is getting brighter and brighter than ever before. We have leaders whose integrity and commitment to civic engagement is unquestionable. Thus, the onus is upon us-as students-to  learn from various esteemed academics and other professionals we have the privilege to cross paths with and harness our exuberant energy towards making the world a better lace for us to live. Civic engagement in higher education is the future-and the present of course.