REDAKSIONEEL / EDITORIAL

Abstract

Classics in South Africa is facing many challenges to survive the present phase of transformation of higher education. Unfortunately, many university positions in Classics have already been lost, and we will not know what the final tally is going to be before the new funding formula for higher education is finalised and implemented (probably not before 2003), but one may assume that even more cutbacks will be made in the short term. This situation clearly has a detrimental effect on the future scope and academic standards of the discipline; it also has a direct bearing on the time and funds available for research, and therefore on the future of journals like Akroterion as well. On the positive side, the transformation encourages us to investigate new (interdisciplinary) avenues of teaching and research, and especially to consider new opportunities of cooperation between departments and even institutions. It may . indeed be possible to make a virtue out of necessity and to give new meaning and relevance to the disciplina par excellence