Page 127 - UniZulu Annual Report 2020

as well as the Senate report, various programmes were accredited, approved and developed during the year under review from Nursing to the newly created and accredited Engineering programmes. The UNIZULU 101 module has been implemented in all faculties in 2020 and various studies were conducted to enable the University to profile its students and to obtain feedback on learning experiences, quality and support. The academic structure misalignment (which was a key strategic risk) has been addressed and HEQSF alignment of all programmes has been dealt with. With the academic structure clear of errors, UNIZULU is now able to auto-promote students and register students online, a CHE recommendation and academic risk that has been effectively dealt with by the Institution. The Senate Report provides a full report on the academic structure and registration. All academic support services, such as LIS, TLC and the WC, has greatly contributed to the enhancement of student academic life, and with the support service divisions such as housing, the clinic and protective services, students are housed in an environment that caters to their needs. TLC continued with curriculum reviews and mentoring, workshops, and training programmes. Several platforms were created for academics to share research on teaching and learning experiences and research papers on teaching and learning increased significantly. Students facing learning barriers have been identified and tutors assisted with tutor training. The Institution has adopted its exclusion rules and in line with the Academic Exclusion Policy is in the process of establishing Faculty Academic Exclusion Committees to deal with academic exclusions in 2021.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Institution had to amend its academic calendar and implement a newT&L plan to ensure the successful completion of the 2020 academic year. This led to multimodal teaching and learning strategies for all its students, with short-term and mid-term interventions as more fully set out in the Senate report. UNIZULU continued to manage its academic agenda to enable students to complete their academic year and the University also successfully hosted the 2020 graduation in December. It is worth restating the sterling work that was done by everyone – from executive management, deans, academics and support staff in ensuring that the disruption to the academic project is minimal. By the end of August, UNIZULU was among institutions that were found to pose low risk insofar as completion of the academic year was concerned.
ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGEMENT
UNIZULU remained focused on ensuring excellence in administrative departments in accordance with the principles
of good governance and in ensuring that structures of administrative departments support the strategic academic thrust of the University. Decisions of Council have been fully implemented and executive managerial responsibility on all matters entrusted to by Council have been discharged. All departmental budgets and expenditure were duly managed and monitored in line with the strategic goals of the department as derived from the SP. Enrolments and grant expenditure as fully set out in the Performance Report and Senate Report has been successfully managed in line with approved targets.
RESEARCH MANAGEMENT
As more fully set out in table 28 of the Senate report, UNIZULU has been able to continuously grow its research outputs over the last five years. UNIZULU attained a total of 212.6885 units as assessed by DHET in 2018 and these units represent an increase of 20.9185 units from the 191.77 units awarded for the 2017 publications. UNIZULU has claimed 267 3750 research outputs for 2019, which publication output outcome will only be known in January/February 2021. UNIZULU continuous to grow in national and international collaborative projects and there is increasing recognition of the impact of the UNIZULU brand in the science and innovation space, as well as on the policy discourse regionally, nationally and internationally. Various staff members of UNIZULU and researchers have been invited to present at, lead and review key strategic initiatives for the future of HE and the broader national policy framework. The invitation to review British Council-NRF projects, the roles played in SASUF, the EU Fair Project, as well as participation in the regional collaboration with eThekwini Municipality-MILE, are a few illustrations of the growing recognition of UNIZULU as a centre of academic leadership. The Institution is also engaged in various international collaborations, including but not limited to, Sweden, China, France and Jamaica. Practical research capacity development efforts, both internally sponsored and under the auspices of UCDP, as well as growth in externally- linked project awards by UNIZULU researchers, hold the promise of improving UNIZULU’s performance. UNIZULU continues to capacitate postgraduate students, researchers and supervisors through various training workshops, mentorships and seminars as more fully set out in the Senate report. UNIZULU has increased rated researchers to 20 with 24 postdoctoral fellows and one SARCHI Chair. During the year under review, UNIZULU also managed to implement RDMS to manage research data. Intellectual property was duly managed with various patent registrations. All research grants were effectively managed and UNIZULU claimed all funding awarded by NRF.
125
UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND ANNUAL REPORT 2020