MANY South African universities are making the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Instead of profiling their intellectual breakthroughs and recent innovations, stories of intimidation, nepotism, financial maladministration, fractious governance, and even worse – assassination attempts and actual murders – dominate our media.   Not surprising then that a prevailing perception of universities ‘becoming a law unto themselves’ is taking hold in the public imagination.  And that often, the reason for universities not being held to the same standards of public scrutiny is that universities hide behind academic freedom and institutional autonomy. Not so, says Prof Francis Petersen, the Vice-Chancellor and…