The dominant theoretical frameworks for understanding institutional change, especially in the context of higher education, have often revolved around the idea of path dependency. While path dependency provides important insights into institutional continuity, this chapter argues that it does not fully capture the discontinuities, ruptures, and contingent dynamics that characterise institutional change in complex fields such as higher education. In light of this, the chapter proposes a complementary conceptual lens: the paths of departure, which allows for the recognition of agency, contestation, and innovation in moments of institutional reimagining. By tracing the historical processes of higher education institutionalisation in South Africa, this chapter illustrates how moments of disruption or experimentation, whether policy-driven, grassroots, or symbolic, have acted as paths of departure rather than merely being absorbed into path-dependent continuity. While building on existing scholarship that challenges linear models of change, this chapter extends the theoretical utility of the notion of paths of departure by locating it in a Global South context and emphasising its applicability to the fluid, contested, and multi-scalar processes shaping higher education transformation in post-apartheid South Africa. In this way, the chapter offers an original contribution to institutional change literature by providing a more dynamic and contextually grounded account of transformation in higher education.