Pursuing academic excellence
The academic project is at the core of the University. The shift for Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ 2033 is not in what we do, but in how we do it by placing our people at the centre, enabling a space for collaboration across disciplines, and encouraging innovative ways of approaching our curriculum and knowledge production.
The Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ 2033 Strategic Framework is informed by the University’s Teaching and Learning Plan 2020 – 2024 which identifies seven focus areas: increasing flexible and lifelong learning opportunities; enhancing academics as university teachers; strengthening institutional capacity for curriculum development and renewal; diversifying assessment methods; expanding postgraduate education; expanding innovative forms.
We commit to:
Student success
- Using evidence-based data, science, and research to identify barriers to student success
- Investing in initiatives that help students complete degrees in the minimum expected time
- Providing continuous professional development for academic and support staff
- Strengthening and integrating research into the student success framework
Graduates of the future
- Nurturing critical thought, robust reasoning, and debate based on factual foundations
- Instilling a sense of social responsibility in graduates
- Providing multidisciplinary, flexible academic environments
- Expanding academic offerings for lifelong learning opportunities
- Equipping graduates to think independently and critically
Advancing the pursuit of fundamental knowledge
- Creating environments for knowledge that will profoundly impact the world
- Pursuing potential Nobel Prize-winning research
- Translating fundamental knowledge into technological innovation
- Spawning companies that will change the world
Knowledge generation for societal advancement
- Leveraging research to address 21st-century challenges from a global South perspective
- Developing multidisciplinary research teams for global challenges
- Pursuing collaborative research (national, continental, international)
- Focus areas: social justice, climate sustainability, inclusive public health, technologies for advancement, future of economy and work
Building a pipeline
- Developing research and innovation culture in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes
- Becoming the leading postdoctoral hub on the continent
- Motivating and investing in people to be research active and innovative
- Expanding research leadership opportunities for all staff
Innovation and academic entrepreneurship
- Encouraging innovative ways to create and fund impactful research
- Translating our knowledge economy into novel, purposeful solutions
- Creating opportunities to transform research into commercial opportunities