Professor Paul Henry Gundani, Vice-Chancellor of the Zimbabwe Open University, is currently visiting Unisa to benchmark and identify best practices in the Open Distance and eLearning (ODeL) space. For Gundani, identifying an institution to benchmark with was easy. As a leader in the ODeL context, Gundani says: “I decided to come to Unisa because I tried to look for an institution that does similar work as the Zimbabwe Open University.” While Gundani is here as a visitor, he is no stranger to Unisa. Besides being an alumnus, some of his thirty-years-plus academic career were spent in service at the institution in various academic and leadership positions.

Excited about his return to his alma matter, he narrates vividly the first time he set foot at the Muckleneuk campus. “I joined Unisa in an interesting way,” he says. “I had taken sabbatical leave from the University of Zimbabwe in 2002 and I was supposed to spend my sabbatical in the United States of America at DePaul University in Chicago. I was also supposed to spend part of the leave at Northwestern University in Evanston. However, this was when the Zimbabwe dollar collapsed, and the university could not pay for the travel costs of me and my family because I also wanted them to be there.”

Prof Paul Henry Gundani, VC of the Zimbabwe Open University meets Prof Puleng LenkaBula, VC and Principal of Unisa

Realising that he could not sustain the cost of living in America, Gundani decided to finish the rest of his sabbatical leave in South Africa. At the time, he called Professor Lisa Jafta who was the Head of Department in Church History, his field of specialisation. From their conversation, it transpired that the department had vacant positions, which he then pursued and successfully occupied. The then Dean of the Faculty of Theology, Professor Tinyiko Maluleke, on Gundani’s last day at the university asked him if he would consider staying and working in South Africa beyond his sabbatical leave, a proposal which he said he would consider over time.

Shortly after Gundani returned to Zimbabwe, a vacant position opened at Unisa and he applied and got the post, returning to serve at the institution from 2003. In his tenure at the university, he occupied positions such as Chair of Department, Acting Deputy Dean and Research Manager, among others. Gundani occupied these positions until he was offered his current position as Vice-Chancellor at the Zimbabwe Open University in 2019.

Unisa afloat during the pandemic

In the 17 years that Gundani worked at Unisa, he attests to witnessing several changes that the university has gone through. Nothing, however, could have prepared him for the significant strides which Unisa has made to reshape itself and its operations during the Covid-19 pandemic. While he has only been here for a couple of days, Gundani cannot stop singing praises about the efforts that Unisa made during the pandemic, the most notable for him being online exams which the university introduced to ensure that the student journey continued with minimal disruption during the crisis. He explains: "I’m interested in learning how Unisa, with over 400 000 students, could pull out all stops to ensure that the exams were written and completed." He explains that given the lockdown restrictions and technological challenges, among others, for a mega-university to run successful online exams was a notable moment in the history of the institution and the higher learning context in Africa.

Another one of Unisa's innovations that impressed him was the Unisa Academic Development Open Virtual Hub (ADOVH) mini studio which was developed as a means to accelerate the shift towards becoming a leading ODeL and comprehensive university in teaching, learning, research and innovation. After his meeting with Professor Puleng LenkaBula, Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Unisa, Gundani is optimistic that the two institutions will begin looking into partnership and collaboration opportunities. “My visit and everything I have learnt so far has opened interesting avenues in terms of future relations and staff exchange, among other ideas,” he says.

Learning from Unisa

Gundani still has several days at Unisa which he intends to spend learning as much as he can as well as adopting some of Unisa’s best practices. Some, he said, he has already begun communicating with relevant people back at the Zimbabwe Open University to get the ball rolling. "The things I am getting exposed to are amazing, there's no doubt that Unisa is a leading ODeL institution in Africa," he says.

Since its outbreak two years ago, the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted education systems globally. Unisa is one of only a handful of South African higher education institutions to have pulled out all stops to ensure that students' journey continued with minimal disruption during the crisis by offering the option of writing online examinations, among other counter-crisis efforts. As universities and industries currently go through a notable transition hastened by the pandemic, institutions of higher education are faced with several challenges that call for a shift in the way they do business. The people in the employ of these institutions must begin reshaping and reskilling. Watch the video below for Gundani's advice on the way forward.

*By Tshimangadzo Mphaphuli, Senior Journalist, Department of Institutional Advancement