Issue 1-2015/10/13

THE HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXT

Issue2 2016-03-08

Continue on next page....

The South African higher education context is tur-bulent. While many universities have experienced protests during the beginning of the year, at VUT we have continued to work hard towards improv-ing our environment. As a consequence we have many positives to share.

One of the significant developments in the higher education sys-tem has centered on the Higher Education Amendment Bill.

The purpose of the Bill was to ensure its alignment with developments in higher education since the promulgation of the Higher Education Act in 1997. Parliamentary debates within the past month were focused on whether institutional autonomy would be encroached upon through extended ministerial powers. Other aspects of the bill we

must remain aware of is possible downgrading of universities if they are unable to live up to the mandate of Teaching and Learning, Research and Community Engagement. It is our responsibility to continue to work tirelessly in ensuring that we

deliver on the promise of higher education. Much effort is being put into the development of a strong foundation such as the infrastruc-ture and maintenance development. We must

keep moving towards a strong, safe, innovative and stimulating academic environment. Develop-ments in the faculties are central to building the University’s mandates of Teaching and Learning, Research and Community Engagement. It is these successes, achievements and highlights I will share with you.

WE MUST WORK TIRELESSLYTO LIVE UP TO THE PROMISE

OF HIGHER EDUCATION

CONGRATULATION MR JAN JOOSTEVUTs own Director: Innovation Mr Jan Jooste is one of 30 winners selected out of 1000 competitors in the Business idea com-petition called: GET IN THE RING, one of the biggest Olympic Business Start Ups in-ternationally. He will be leaving for Colum-bia within the next week. His company is called New Tech Rail. Jan you have made us proud!!! We are rooting for you. Thank you for living innovation and showing us the way. If you want to know more go to: Get in the Ring Jan Jooste.

ECSA VISITFACULTY OF ENGINEERING

I wish all lecturers and staff well with the up-coming ECSA Visit. The continued renewal of ECSA accreditation is a good opportunity for the University to reflect on its offerings and to make sure that quality and relevance remain paramount in our Engineering Pro-grammes. A great deal of work has been put into preparing for the ECSA Visit over the past year. I wish you well in demonstrating the significance and value of our contribu-tions.

POSITIVE STRIDES IN FACULTIES

Faculties Drive Completion of DoctoralQualifications of Academic Staff

Across all the faculties academic staff have been promoted to senior lecturer. Many staff members have completed their Doctoral qualifications. In for example Management Sciences while only a handful of staff had doctoral qualifications now a third of the staff have completed their doctoral studies. This is a clear indication that with ade-quate support and dedication and commitment, success will be a reality.

The Life-Long Learning of the Academic

This is critical in ensuring the enhanced quality and recognition of our academic offerings. Please remember with your PhD you now have obtained membership to the academic community but your journey has not ended. It remains critical for you to continuously seek mentors and opportunities to strengthen your capacity. I encourage you to con-tinue to develop your competency in Blackboard and other Teaching and Learning methodologies and techniques to enhance the quality of your delivery to our students. We must make sure that we are able to draw our students into class as they recognize the significant value add of the lecture as a learning environment. Remember your abili-ty to contribute towards new knowledge will also enhance your capacity to attract students’ interest and excitement to learn.

To be a University we must do Research

Academic staff continue to publish. The Centers, Institutes and Focus Areas continue to contribute to the development of research in key strategic areas such as Water and Renewal Energy, Alter-native Energy sources such as Fuel Cell and Solar Energy, Food Security and Sustainable Livelihoods, Bio tissue Engineering, Traditional Medicine and Biomedical Technology.

Without developing your intellectual ability through your individual and collective contribu-tions to new knowledge, we will never be able to claim our University status. I encourage you to continuously challenge yourself by developing strong research areas into which postgraduate students are active, academic debates and semi-nars are hosted at departmental and faculty lev-els and your mark on knowledge advancement is made.

The University will continue to support you through availing the necessary funds to enhance your research capacity, inviting Visiting Professors and Scholars, hosting international and national lectures and celebrating your teaching and learn-ing and research achievements. Many events have

been planned for this year and I encourage you to find out more and participate in developing a stimulating and enriching university life for your-self and others.

Success Rates and Graduation Rates

The University is challenged to continuously im-prove its success rates and graduation rates. We must strive to consistently put in place new effec-tive initiatives to advance student completion. The most recent is the initiative by the Department of Electronic Engineering. Lectures have been recorded and made available to more than 250 students for revision especially of complex con-cepts. I am also aware that the Unit for Preparatory Programmes as well as the Centre for Academic Development is constantly considering ways in which students who are at risk of not succeeding are enabled towards their success. Please keep reviewing and enhancing support interventions.

Issue 1-2015/10/13

Prof IN MoutlanaVice Chancellor and Principalof the Vaal University of Technology

We must remain relevant through introducing new ProgrammesThe University must continue to refresh itself as it is through introducing new programs. An outstanding new development is the accred-itation of the Masters in Engineering specializing in Energy Efficiency under the Department of Elec-tronic Engineering. This is a significant milestone in the history of the university and emanates from the International Partnerships the Mr Wiseman Jack has been able to development at VUT. Professor Christo Pienaar has played the academic leadership role in partnership with other universities internationally to make this Masters Programme a reality in the next academic year. Some other highlights in the Faculty of Manage-ment Sciences include: the new Advanced Diplo-mas in Management and Human Resource Manage-ment, the Advanced and Postgraduate Diplomas in Marketing, Retail and Sports Management. In the Faculty of Human Sciences: The Advanced Diploma in Mediation and numerous Education qualifica-tions in the pipeline such as: the Advanced Diploma in Technical and Vocational Teaching and the Ad-vanced Diploma in Mathematics Education.

Exciting new Engagements with StudentsThe Faculty of Human Sciences has introduced a number of new exciting initiatives that enhance student engagement and learning. I congratulate the Department of Hospitality, Tourism and PR Man-agement for hosting a Public Relations event by its First Year students on alcohol and substance abuse. In this way we are showing that we can engage our own students in our immediate context in the rele-vance of our fields of specialization and knowledge we are imparting to our students. The department showed that this approach is relevant to all levels by supporting the BTech students in hosting seminar on “Evolution of public relations and the influence of social media”, a topic which is interesting, stim-ulating and relevant. While there are many other events such as the Top Chef culinary competition which the Department hosts annually, I encour-age all Departments to look at ways in which the content knowledge of what is shared in the formal academic programmes can be developed and en-gaged with in interesting and stimulating publically visible ways. By doing so we will create confident and publically impactful scholars. Please continue to support your students, identify talent and create opportunities to stimulate students’ enthusiasm for their chosen field and profession. In this way we will not only become more and more excited and invig-orated about our chosen profession but will change the lives and create future thought leaders.I also want to thank the Department of Legal Studies for their newsletter: Legal Beagle in which they ad-dress pertinent issues such as Child Abuse and Debt Collection. Through this newsletter the department is able to share its knowledge and information that is of public interest with the academic community

at VUT. I encourage other academic departments to think more about how they would like to share the relevance of their fields of expertise with the public and the university community. In these ways we are able to hold ourselves accountable in relation to the value we add to society.

Our Relations with Industry, government and civil societyIt is impressive to see the scale of industry partner-ships we have across the university. I am extremely proud of the achievement of Prof Moloi who was appointed by President Zuma to serve on the National Planning Commission for the next five years. Departments have a range of partnerships with major role players for example Anglo Gold, Transnet, ArcelorMittal, Sasol, and BHP Billiton, a range of SETAs, Local Governments and Municipalities. Some partnerships have delivered significant funds for the University such as the partnership under the leadership of Professor Pinkoane on Tradition-al Medicine with the Industrial Development Cor-poration and the Emfuleni Traditional Healers; the Partnership on Additive Manufacturing of Titanium alloys under the leadership of Professor Mendonid-is; and the partnership with the Local Government SETA and the Water Research Commission under the leadership of Professor Aoyi Ochieng. Thank you for your contributions in building a strong, relevant and publically accountable VUT. I would also like to thank Dr Trudy Sutherland for ensuring that VUT now is an MERSETA Accredited Training Site. We are the first University in South Africa accorded this status. It will allow us to offer training in trades. This means that VUT will be able to strengthen the extension of its offering across the post-schooling education and training sector. This development is a spin off from our highly suc-cessful Access to Education Partnership with the French Ministry and Schneider Electric under the F’SASEC. Professor Sebastiani has remained stead-fast in growing the partnership and expanding possibilities for VUT. I thank you for supporting us in growing our global presence. We look forward to working on our partnership into the future. Opportunity needs to be created across the Uni-versity to reflect on the nature and quality of our existing partnerships and how we will strategically harness these powerful partnerships across the uni-versity.

Work Integrated LearningMany students are able to be placed annually. Faculties are continuously working on strengthen-ing WIL in partnership with Cooperative Education under the leadership of Ms Annie Moletsane. In for example the Department of Civil Engineering new teams have been established known as the WIL Visiting Team and the WIL Marking Team. These

teams are efforts by the Department and the Fac-ulty to strengthen WIL through ensuring lecturer participation. Placements are a critical element of the UoT offer-ing and as the University we have the responsibility to secure a highly enabling placement opportuni-ties that enable Learning within the context of the workplace to ensure work readiness.

Advisory Board MeetingsI am encouraged that we continue to hold adviso-ry committee meetings. In this way we continue to build our relations with industries to ensure the rel-evance of our academic offerings. I would like to encourage all Faculties to host at least 2 Advisory Board Meetings per year and to ensure that these board meetings have members who are able to add value to the quality and nature of our academic and innovation offerings. Advisory Board Meetings must be stimulating, exciting and able to generating new, relevant and futuristic possibilities as our ever changing context demands.

Community EngagementFaculties have a range of Community Engagement Initiatives and includes Faculty Flagship Projects. The prominent Community Engagement Project in Management Sciences is with ENACTUS program and other partnerships with surrounding schools. An example of Community Engagement in Human Sciences is Community Training in sewing skills. From here participants are able to develop prod-ucts in order to generate an income. In the Faculty of Applied Sciences a range of exciting initiatives are evident. These include the “Math Assist Project” to support learners to improve their mathematics results, the “Green Project” in the Biotechnology Department which involves planting trees in the community, and Community Engagement in sup-porting health and nutritional development in com-munities. It is encouraging to note the scale of Com-munity Engagement Initiatives in the University. We must keep in mind that it is not only how we extend what we know and do to the community but also how our experience of our engagement changes what we know and how we come to know. We must constantly reflect on how we are strategically devel-oping the Community Engagement function of the University and how this function is supporting us in becoming a Technology focused University.

ConclusionOur success and achievements ground our vision and confirms for us that we can only do better. It is therefore apt for us to say that we are well on the road to fully owning our strapline:

Your world to a better future.

POSITIVE STRIDES IN FACULTIES..... continues