Our vice-chancellor's review

Introduction: Looking at 2022

The world of work has been changing rapidly, more so recently given the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. Universities must respond by revisiting the way we conduct our core business and prepare graduates for the world of work.

As part of the strategic drivers and priorities, the NWU strives to adopt appropriate and innovative approaches to teaching, learning and assessment, based on an optimal mix of teaching, learning and assessment methods and activities, and applying appropriate technologies where relevant.

In the previous year, 2021, the dominant teaching and learning mode was emergency remote teaching and learning, introduced during the state of disaster. Using this experience to plan and reimagine the classroom of the future, we embarked on several key teaching and learning projects during 2022.

A huge investment was made in upgrading technology in the classrooms and creating hybrid-flexible (HyFlex) venues. In alignment with the NWU’s commitment to engaged scholarship, we also conducted an institutional thematic review to understand the perceptions and attitudes of staff and students towards assessment practices since the inception of the pandemic.

The Council on Higher Education (CHE) Institutional audit took place in August 2022, after the NWU had submitted a Self-Evaluation Report (SER) to the CHE in May 2022.

The NWU followed an inclusive process to develop the SER. An institutional audit steering committee overview the process under the leadership of the deputy vice-chancellor responsible for integrated planning and quality.

Working teams across all faculties and support departments were established, resulting in a total of 19 SERs as input into the overall SER.

Quality review and improvement are the ultimate objectives of this management process.

We welcomed this institutional audit as an opportunity to evaluate the capacity and maturity of our integrated quality management systems and processes, and look forward to receiving the CHE’s Audit Report in 2023.

Our managerial and administrative activities

The state of disaster was lifted in March 2022, allowing for the full return of students to campus and residences, and for the resumption of contact sport and social events.

Covid-19 had blurred the distinction between contact and distance modalities. We have therefore started to reposition our academic offering to include blended learning for distance and contact learning in the faculties of Education and Theology; and online learning for our distance offering in three faculties: Engineering, Humanities and Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

As a strategic response to the increased use of technology, the NWU has adopted the Senate decision of setting a 30% CHE threshold for online offerings within modules. This is being supported by an investment in technology infrastructure.

In 2022, Senate also commenced with the development of a framework for micro-credentials to certify learning outcomes in short courses and similar programmes.

Adequacy of staffing levels, particularly in critical areas

We use integrated talent management mechanisms to attract and retain innovative and highly skilled staff. These mechanisms include strategic workforce planning, talent attraction and management, targeted recruitment, optimal remuneration management, training and development and performance management, as well as succession planning.

As our scarce and critical skills programme was already in place in both the academic and support environments, we focused on the staff optimisation project in 2022 to ensure optimal staffing levels and productivity. The outcomes of the first phase will be implemented in 2023, followed by the scoping process for the second phase.

In 2022, the total staff headcount stood at 10 762, up from 9 399 in 2021.

Owing to the economic impact of Covid-19, budget cuts are likely for the higher education sector, which is sure to affect future staffing levels. We have developed a cost-mitigation plan to incur savings to mitigate the impact of the sectoral budget cuts and ensure the university remains academically and financially viable.

Only mission-critical positions were filled in 2022.

Total staff headcount – 2021 vs 2022
Classification	Permanent		Temporary			Total
	2021	2022	2021	2022	2021	2022
Academic	1 648	1 678	1 414	783	3 062	2 461
Support	2 492	2 550	3 845	5 751	6 337	8 301
Grand total	4 140	4 228	5 259	6 534	9 339	10 762

The overall attrition rate is 8,38%, well within our target to contain this rate at under 10%.

Realising equity targets in the workplace

Two committees of Council monitored our progress against equity targets, namely the People and Culture and Employment Equity Committee and the Transformation Oversight Committee.

Our current employment equity plan runs from January 2021 to December 2023. The targets and outcomes for 2022 are shown in the following table.

Race	2022 Target		% Total	31 December 2022 Actuals		31 December 2022 % Total	Difference	Target Achieved Y/N
	Male	Female		Male	Female
African	21,16%	19,88%	41%	20,1%	20,1%	40,2%	0,83%	N
Coloured	3,18%	4,01%	7,2%	3,1%	4,1%	7,2%	0,00%	N
Indian	0,85%	1,10%	2,00%	0,8%	0,8%	1,6%	0,37%	N
White	18,48%	30,23%	49%	18,4%	30,4%	48,8%	0,23%	N
Foreign nationals	0,89%	0,23%	1,12%	1,7%	0,5%	2,3%	-1,14%	N
	44,56%	55,44%	100,00%	44,1%	55,9%	100,00%	0,00%

The moratorium on staff vacancies to contain costs continued for the third year, negatively affecting our ability to reach the employment equity targets.

The current employment equity plan has proportional targets for blacks, women and people living with disabilities and has four main strategies:

• removing barriers in attracting people from the designated groups and people living with disabilities
• succession planning for key positions
• retention strategies
• establishing an enabling organisational culture

The quality of information available to management

Data analytics and synthesis have become mainstream in in higher education, and the NWU has been leading in this regard.

Focusing on collaboration, automation and skills development, we have made great strides in the business intelligence and information dissemination spheres.

A possible risk is the time pressure for building the new data warehouse, which needs to be completed and tested by the time the new student system is operational in 2024. The data warehouse must also comply with HEMIS rules on subsidy allocations.

Meanwhile, PowerBI, Microsoft’s interactive data visualisation and analytics tool for business intelligence is being rolled out across the NWU to enhance our ability to use learning analytics and conduct scenario planning.

Student services and co-curricular activities

Most face-to-face support services and co-curricular arts, sports and social engagement programmes resumed in 2022. There was overwhelming student interest and participation in these, confirming the importance of a vibrant student experience.

Some key international sport events were held at the NWU during 2022, such as the International Hockey Federation Women’s Junior World Cup. For student services and co-curricular engagement, we retained certain hybrid modalities adopted during the pandemic and integrated these into face-to-face modalities. This approach is flexible and allows for increased student engagement and better service availability.

Counselling support services and psycho-social crisis interventions for students were resumed, using face-to-face modalities.

Campus Health Care Centres (CHCCs) continued to render primary healthcare services to students. Social welfare programmes such as the Meal-a-Day programme remained under pressure as socio-economic circumstances worsened amid national economic challenges.

In further strengthening the reach of psycho-social services within the student community, the networks of peer helpers (volunteer student lay counsellors) resumed their activities and educational campaigns were held on anxiety, depression, adapting to change, mental health, among others. The network of peer helpers remains a core driver of psycho-social referrals to professional counselling.

We addressed the sustainability of co-curricular programme funding within the Residence Life domain to ensure long-term financial security and responsible expenditure, and adopted the NWU Student Life Operational Framework to ensure quality co-curricular student services, programmes and platforms across all three campuses.

During the 2021/22 student leadership term, more than 1 100 student leaders were active within the university, including 15 Student Representative Council members and 45 Students’ Campus Council. Students were represented on the Council, Senate and faculty and support services committees and forums.

The Student Leadership Benefits Programme served as a mechanism to reward, support, develop and monitor the performance and development of student leaders.

The NWU Student Leadership Academy is being developed to deliver a structured programme of short course-based leadership interventions.

For the 2022 orientation programme for first-year students, we introduced the First-year Navigator platform to assist students to navigate the academic support services available to them amid the uncertainties of the pandemic.

Changing patterns in the provision of academic courses

In total, 54 176 students were enrolled at our three campuses in 2022. Female enrolments increased from 33 665 to 34 051, while male enrolments, at 20 124, increased from 19 804 in 2021.

The decline in students enrolled in the distance programmes continued (down from 9 830 in 2021 to 8 888 in 2022). In response to this continuing trend, we held two strategic workshops to consider the future of distance education at the NWU.

One of the key recommendations from this workshop was to continue providing distance education offerings, subject to reconsideration of the operational model. A task team was set up to investigate options during 2023.

– New programmes rolled out in 2022

We are making steady progress in executing our strategy of enrolling more students in science, engineering, technology and commerce.

Approximately 20 new undergraduate and postgraduate programmes were rolled out in 2022.

Digital technology, data presentation and robotics featured prominently in a number of these, such as the BEd (senior and further education and training phase) and the Postgraduate Certificate in Education.

e-Science has also been incorporated into two new master’s degrees, an MA in development and management and an MSc in computer science, both offered jointly with the University of the Witwatersrand.

Several new environmental sciences qualifications were introduced, such as the BScHons, with One Health and the Master of Environment Management with two new options, conservation leadership or air quality and climate change.

A milestone in the field of accounting was the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) approving the Master of Accounting as an embedded master’s programme, the first of its kind in South Africa.

Engineering continued to expand its range of postgraduate offerings by introducing three new master’s programmes, while in the health and nursing sciences, two new master’ programmes were introduced.

A full list of new programmes rolled out in 2022 is available here.

– New qualifications developed and internally approved

The MSc in agriculture was fully accredited in January 2022. Two other new programmes were internally approved, namely the Advanced Certificate in further education and training and the BA in criminal justice and police science.

In addition, 11 new qualifications were developed and internally approved in 2022, and are in the process of being externally approved. These include a diploma, BEd degree and postgraduate diploma in childhood care and education.

A full list of new qualifications developed and internally approved and still in the process of being externally approved, can be viewed here.

The University Management Committee has recommended that the NWU should not introduce new higher certificate programmes unless these will broaden access in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Work on the Programme and Qualifications (PQM) Review Project continued in 2022, the aim being to critically re-examine the relevance and viability of the NWU’s programme offering.

The data analysis for the PQM Review has been completed. In 2023, consensus must be reached on the basic structure of a B degree at the NWU, and the resulting faculty action plans must be approved.

Self-assessment of our achievements

In hindsight, Covid-19 forced us to rely on technology to foster self-directed learning. We now need to capitalise on the lessons learned to create an improved student value proposition.

Achievements for 2022 include:

• a very successful first-year registration, in which we reached our contact enrolment target, eclipsing the lower First Time Entrant (FTEN) enrolment of 2021.
• submitting the revised enrolment plan, which is aligned with the 2030 goals set out in the National Skills Development Plan, as well as the White Paper for Post-School Education and Training. Progress has been hampered by the dwindling funding for postgraduate students.

The academic staff capacity at the NWU is strained and more and more students are struggling to access funding. The NWU has therefore decided to maintain the current levels of enrolment, with growth only in specific areas prioritised by the faculties.

To stabilise our FTEN enrolment in the contact provision mode, growth will be limited to programmes that are strategic priorities and financially viable. In the distance provision mode, we will continue to grow in the BEd and Grade R Diploma programmes.

Postgraduate growth is a strategic priority. We plan to grow postgraduate enrolments (honours and postgraduate diplomas) by 8% a year to 3 562 in 2025. The growth areas will be the postgraduate diplomas in engineering, education management and leadership, curriculum studies and management.

We are also planning to increase master’s enrolments, targeting growth of 5,6% a year between 2022 and 2025, resulting in an enrolment total of 2 644 by 2025.

For doctoral enrolments, we are preparing for growth of 8,9% a year between 2022 and 2025. The projected enrolment would be 1 399 by 2025.

The revised plan takes a more realistic and strategic view of the university sector and the operating environment. We believe it will maintain a healthy student enrolment while safeguarding the finances of the NWU.

We are also paying attention to building a values-based culture. In March 2022, we relaunched the values that guide staff, students and other stakeholders.

The relaunched values are Care and inclusivity; Embracing diversity; Transparency; Excellence in all endeavours; Ethics in all endeavours; Responsibility and accountability, and Academic freedom and freedom of research.

Looking to the future

Teaching and learning have shifted to digital education platforms. Although the shift has been gradual, it has taken place more quickly than anticipated.

Despite challenges with loadshedding and connectivity, there is an increased need for technology integration to ensure greater efficiencies in the use of scarce and limited resources. Support services processes need to be reengineered towards more automated self-help capabilities.

Digital business enablement must be enhanced through the aligned and coordinated execution of digital business strategy initiatives and the facilitation of change. This is further supported by the establishment of the Innovation Hub and Accelerator Fund.

DR BISMARK TYOBEKA

CHAIRPERSON OF SENATE