Page 179 - UniZulu Annual Report 2020

GOAL
INTERVENTIONS
PROGRESS
6. Leadership, Relationships with External Stakeholders and Community Engagement
6.1 The University management structures, on all levels, will advance transformational external relations and community engagement practices
Community-based research initiatives
The Biochemistry Department is doing a project on iNkonjane stream water quality monitoring at the rural kwaMkhwanazi area in KwaDlangezwa. The permit to conduct the research was obtained from the tribal authority in May 2016. Some studies on the water quality have been done with Honours students in Microbiology dating back from 2017. Research findings on the studies on stream water quality monitoring have so far been presented by the students at the 30th and 31st annual SASM-KZN symposia in 2017 and 2018. Two research articles on the water quality monitoring project are being finalised for publication on the research work done so far
Three lecturers, together with their postgraduate students at the Botany Department, are conducting research that directly involves local communities. These fields include traditional medicinal
plant use, traditional food plant identification and cultivation, and sustainable natural resource use and conservation
Participatory research is being done with Honours students in the Hluhluwe community on cowpea production and agro-processing
The Department of Nursing is working on product development with postgraduate students, developing foods for people with swallowing disabilities and other lifestyle illnesses
The Department of Consumer Services is working on ‘Factors influencing student food security conducted by postgraduates’. Several mini-research projects are being conducted on profiling socio-economic, lifestyle, nutrition knowledge, social/religion/culture and available food/choices
Community-based internships
Authentic learning where five postgraduate students who are doing Family Studies and Household Resource Management were given a task to plan and deliver a workshop to community-based agency/ farmers associations/government officials to empower them on societal issues and transformation. Topics for the seminars were: Femicide and patriarchy; transforming the smallholder farming systems for the future (Farmer we Want in 2030), and first-year transitions at university
Service-learning done by 11 postgraduate students studying Community Nutrition went to Esikhawini and Bukanani once a week over three months doing household profiling of households with people living with disabilities
Twenty-five students doing Extension and Rural D were placed in different communities in KZN (Umkhanyakude and Uthungulu districts) through WIL
Twenty-seven students studying Hospitality were placed in various hotels for six weeks in places such as Durban, Empangeni, Richards Bay, Manguzi, Newcastle, Nongoma and Eshowe
177 UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND ANNUAL REPORT 2020