Thought-leaders: Panellists (from left) Mahlubi (Chief) Mabizela, Judy Favish (hidden) and Timothy McBride helped frame the debate for students at the summit.

Engage vociferously with each other and government policies and move from being subjects to being active citizens.

These are among the pledges taken by student leaders from seven Western Cape tertiary institutions at the New Hope Summit 2012, an event that aimed to flesh out the role of students in transforming post-secondary education in South Africa.

The summit, hosted at UCT on 4 and 5 August, gathered students from four universities and three Further Education and Training Institutes to grapple with the issue in the context of the national Department for Higher Education and Training's (DHET) green paper for post-school education and training, published in early 2012.