UKZN gears up for the future
IT AIMS TO BRING ABOUT TRANSFORMATION AND EXCELLENCE AND INSPIRE GREATNESS IN ALL THOSE IT TOUCHES
THE UNIVERSITY of Kwazulunatal is gearing up to produce more entrepreneurs instead of job seekers and to play a bigger role in the development of Durban and Pietermaritzburg as “African cities of the future”.
This is part of the university’s strategic plan for the period 2017-2021, presented by its vicechancellor, Dr Albert van Jaarsveld, at a function in Durban this week. It aims to “inspire greatness” and bring about transformation and excellence.
“At the heart of our strategy is a commitment and a focus to grow a university that focuses on people, what we want to do, and the societal impact of what we do as a university,” said Van Jaarsveld.
He said they wanted to inspire greatness in all the people the university touched, and make it the university of choice and a partner to broader society instead of an ivory tower of research.
“But in that process we are going to be focusing on transformation and excellence – both of those, not one at the expense of the other – and at the same time entrench a deep service culture at the university.
“We’ll stand in the service of our student community, our partners, the environments in which we function and the broader South African society.”
The “culture” the university wanted to grow was based on a value system summarised as REACHT – responsibility, excellence, accountability, client-orientation, honesty, underpinned by trust.
The main strategic goals and “enablers” will be excellence in teaching and learning using technology; more employeraligned curricula; striving for highimpact research, innovation and entrepreneurship for more “societal and economic impact”; and creating a hub for African scholarship.
As part of the university’s “research flagships”, Van Jaarsveld said they would focus on some of society’s immediate needs: promoting social cohesion; “African health”, including work already being done through the institution’s Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in SA; using big data and informatics to find computing solutions for the broader society; and helping transform ethekwini and umsunduzi into “African cities of the future”.
As part of the strategy, the university had to deal with negative issues affecting its brand, including corruption allegations around the medical school’s student admission processes.
He said the university wanted to produce graduates ready for the challenges and demands of the future, which was a “huge challenge” as they had to prepare students for jobs that don’t exist today.
Responding to questions from the audience, which included alumni and members of the
Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Van Jaarsveld said the future demands were part of the reason the current education crisis was a serious concern.
“Work is going to be different two years from now, from the way we know it. Some 65% of the people who were born last year are going to be doing jobs that don’t exist yet.
“So to skill people as a university for jobs that don’t exist yet is a huge challenge.”
He said they were having to prepare for jobs and the economy “coming over the horizon”. This, he said, necessitated life-long learning as people in future would have to change jobs and careers frequently instead of doing one job they were trained in for the rest of their lives.
On graduate unemployment, he cautioned against making decisions based on rumours instead of evidence.
He said the real graduate unemployment was 5 to 8% – comparable to the rate in the US.
The group that took the longest to find employment was Bcom graduates, who took six to eight months to find jobs, he said.
Science graduates and engineers had jobs ready for them before graduating.
He called for industry and other stakeholders to work with the university to ensure the right mix