|
Teaching and learning main focus for Unisa over next three years
The driver for Unisa over the next three years will be its focus on teaching and learning, with the aim being to equip and enable all academic staff to be engaged and engrossed in the quality of teaching they offer. These were the words of Prof Barney Pityana, Unisa's Principal and Vice-Chancellor, in his address to academic staff in the ZK Matthews Hall on the Muckleneuk Campus on 8 March to discuss major issues affecting academic life at the institution.
He said that Unisa is committed to training, developing, supporting, equipping and enabling academic staff to be quality teachers and educators within the context of open distance learning (ODL). In this context, academic staff should also become quality researchers, as research and teaching and learning are in an "inextricably intertwined relationship which any academic should be able to see and appreciate."
Within the next three years, Unisa will become an exciting place of teaching and learning: students excited by their successes and academic staff excited about their craft. Prof Pityana said that during the course of 2010, there will be a lot of activity in this regard, including training, the development of course material, technology, new assessment methods and a major review of curriculums.
Unisa will be focusing on equipping all academic staff with the tools they need to be effective tutors, guides and lecturers so that all students can be assured of quality learning. This will enable learners to become effective learners in the ODL context and teach them how best to maximise their capacity to learn and participate in learning effectively.
This is a very important though complex arrangement, as not everybody appointed is necessarily competent to teach in the ODL way. They have to interact differently with their colleagues, design materials and use technology in new ways, and have the capacity to teach students at a distance. They have to be able to imagine the cognitive challenges students face and support students in the course of their learning processes.
Prof Pityana also briefly discussed the final HEQC publication and the commendations and recommendations contained therein. One serious concern is the impression that the university does not have an all-embracing and abiding theory of pedagogy in ODL, including issues such as learner support and the quality of learning in the context of ODL. The portfolio managers and colleges were further tasked to address issues of concern raised in the HEQC report and to develop improvement plans.
With regard to the funding framework for HE, there is a major shift for Unisa; Unisa now enters a highly competitive terrain with the shift away from block grant funding to an environment where funds are earmarked according to actual success.
Prof Pityana expressed concern that research output at Unisa is less than 0,5% per academic, which indicates that the great majority of academic staff are not research active. The bulk of research outputs are produced by a few. There has also been a drop in the number of master's and doctoral students, both in enrolments and graduation rates. The School for Graduate Studies will be a major player in addressing this issue, to not only facilitate academic staff to provide quality supervision, but also to enable students to succeed within reasonable timeframes.
Other issues raised were the need to focus on niche marketing to attract more students in CSET and CAES, and that the revised strategic plan, Unisa 2015: An agenda for transformation, be approved by Council at its meeting in March.
The meeting was concluded with a lively question-and-answer session. | 
