SU invests in transformation, greater diversity of staff corps
STELLENBOSCH University (SU) will be investing close to R70 million (R68.6m) in the diversification of its staff corps over the next three years. This amount has been allocated from the University’s Strategic Fund and will be in addition to the normal staff budget.
“We are focusing on transformation with a sense of urgency. We are intent on making our institution more inclusive and accessible. By setting funds aside specifically for a more diverse staff corps, we shall be able to attract and develop the required human resources,” SU Rector and Vice-Chancellor Professor Wim de Villiers said.
One of the university’s mission statements is to create an academic community characterised by social justice and equal opportunities. This stems from SU’s commitment to redress and development, as well as the view that a diversity of people and ideas promote academic excellence.
SU has made good progress towards greater diversity in the composition of its staff corps but, as with other universities, senior academic appointments remain a challenge. Due to the serious countrywide shortage of human resources from the designated groups, as well as the attractive remuneration packages offered by the private sector and the state, South African universities generally struggle with staff diversity.
In 2014, permanent black, coloured and Indian (BCI) employees at SU made up 43.2 percent of the university’s staff corps compared to 37.6 percent in 2008. So, the trend is upwards, but SU will have to accelerate its pace to reach its goal of 53 percent by 2020.
This urgency is also applicable to gender. SU’s number of permanent female employees improved from 51.9 percent in 2008 to 55.9 percent in 2014, but the goal is 60 percent by 2020. Equal representation of women on the executive management and senior academic levels has not been achieved yet.
The university’s top management has therefore decided to allocate a substantial amount to achieve greater staff diversity. The funds are available immediately and will be used in the following ways:
On the one hand, senior professionals from the designated groups – especially academics, but also professional support staff – will be recruited and appointed.
On the other hand, current SU staff members from the designated groups will be afforded development opportunities to become upwardly mobile, eg from lecturer to senior lecturer to professor.
As part of its succession planning, SU focuses on accelerated knowledge transfer to young academics with its mentorship projects. The university is also participating in the Department of Higher Education and Training’s Programme for a new Generation of Academics (nGAP). Some of the strategic funds will support these initiatives.
As an investment in the future, SU is making a significant contribution to the transformation of higher education by delivering a large number of graduates at senior post-graduate level each year.
In 2014, SU conferred a total of 234 doctoral and 1 297 Master’s degrees, of which 95 and 492 respectively went to BCI graduates.
This achievement contributes to SU being able to maintain the highest research output per full-time academic staff member in South Africa, and at the same time it increases the pool of black academics and professionals in the country and on the rest of the continent.
SU takes a broad view of transformation: that it affects all elements of university life, including learning and teaching, research and innovation, social impact and co-curricular activities, the renewal of the institutional culture, as well as the composition and transformation expertise of its staff and student corps.
The fact that transformation has pertinently been included in the portfolio of Professor Nico Koopman, Vice- Rector: Community Interaction and Personnel, illustrates that SU is taking transformation very seriously.
An Office for Transformation is being established to facilitate, co-ordinate and stimulate transformation processes at the university.
A Transformation Committee has also been instituted. And SU is strengthening the statutory role of its Institutional Forum in relation to transformation. The university also plans to establish a Research Chair in Reconciliation and Transformation.
“The objective of transformation at SU is to align ourselves with the values of the Bill of Rights in the South African constitution – especially human dignity, with the building blocks of reconciliation, justice, freedom from oppression and discrimination, and equal opportunities for all to flourish as members of society. Diversifying our staff corps is part of this objective,” Koopman said.