Transcript Document

Hungary Presentation
December 2009
INTRODUCTION
The University of South Africa (UNISA)’s Strategic Plan For 2015
geared to establishing itself as a world class higher education
institution through Open Distance Learning (ODL).
The Mission is aligned with national development imperatives and
Vision encompasses the African continent.
Registration
Absolute Formal Headcount Distribution by College, 2004 - 2008 to date
160,000
140,000
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
CAES
CEMS
CHS
CLAW
CSET
Occasional
2004
1,870
97,933
54,690
27,344
15,394
10,675
2005
2,221
105,474
55,722
27,472
16,025
11,242
2006
2,724
115,103
57,437
26,749
15,029
13,203
2007
3,712
132,376
61,980
28,931
17,692
18,240
2008 to date
4,554
140,998
75,974
27,628
19,265
18,392
2010 Targets
5,111
140,997
62,694
29,350
19,870
Vision 2015 An Agenda for transformation
Position Unisa as a leading provider of quality distance education
programmes through an academic product range that expands on its
comprehensive character
Unisa as a comprehensive open and distance education university:
university of first choice and not last resort, by instituting a tuition model
appropriate to the purposes of the programmes, and the context and
needs of students
An appropriate and relevant programme and qualifications mix (PQM)
aligned with the comprehensive nature of the institution, its vision to
become ‘the African University in the service of humanity,’ its need to
maximize economies of scale wherever possible, as well as legislative
and socio-economic imperatives.
Relevance of Unisa’s PQM and research by regularly conducting needs
analyses of our markets, our students and our stakeholders, both at an
institutional level and within Colleges and organisational units, while at
the same time benchmarking these with the highest international
standards.
Ensure that the curriculum for each module is up-to-date and wellresearched, with aims and learning outcomes appropriate for the level of
study; and with teaching, learning and assessment methods that are
consonant with those aims and outcomes.
Increase headcount enrolments in line with national parameters to a
plateau of 250 000 students by 2015.
Comprehensive
Open and Distant learning
First choice
Appropriate and relevant
Africanization
Needs Analysis Stakeholders
Up to date curricula
Assessment methods
Enrollment targets
UNISA is signatory to UNGC
3 principles directly relate to environment:
• Precautionary approach to environmental challenges
• Promotion of greater environmental responsibility
• Development and diffusion of environmentally friendly
technologies
Graduateness of environmental responsibility
• Generic module to support this concept ‘Environmental Awareness.
Core aspect of college.
Other principles relate to the Modus operandi of the University e.g
Ethical values (Unisa values)
Relevant & Africanization
Applied Sciences lend themselves to relevance and africanization
Indigenous plants and animals as examples
African examples
Contextualization of learning in africa
Textbooks where possible
• Supported by relevant material in study manuals
• Ethnobotany
• Ethnomedicine
• Biodiversity
•
Growth 22.7% average for 5 years
Comprehensive
2% Doctoral
5% Masters
10% PG
55% UG degree
30% UG certificate and diploma
NQF
General
Formative
Professional
5
5
6
6
6
6
7
Bachelor
Human
Ecology
Postgraduate
Diploma: Animal
Health
Vocational
Higher Certificate: Animal
Welfare
Higher Certificate: Food &
Nutrition Security
Diploma: Animal Welfare
Diploma: Animal Health
Diploma: Agricultural
Management
Diploma: Food & Nutrition
Security
Advanced Diploma:
Animal Health
7
Bachelor of
Agriculture
7
BSc: Agriculture
Honours B. Human
Ecology Honours
BSc Honours:
Agriculture
(4 Streams)
Masters of Human
Ecology
Masters of
Science:
Agriculture
PhD: Agriculture
8
8
9
9
10
Postgraduate
Diploma
Food & Nutr
Security
Advanced Diploma:
Agricultural
Management
COMMUNITY
NEEDS AND
RESOURCES
Focus
areas
NATURAL
RESOURCES
AGRICULTURAL
RESOURCES
Addressing the needs of South Africa
and Africa
Nature Conservation: a sustainable management approach
Agriculture : Integrated approach
Sustainable Livelihoods
Food and Water Security
Environmental Science
Climate change
Indigenous plants, beverages and medicines
Contextualized and Integrated geographical approach
HIV/AIDS mainstreaming
Nutrition (Honour’s courses)
Household food security
INSTITUTIONAL OBJECTIVES
1.Africanisation within the Unisa Context
•Definition
2. Indigenous Knowledge Systems :
•Knowledge infrastructure, transfer, Africanisation of courses,
build knowledge, African leadership & NEPAD
3. Open Distance Learning (ODL)
•Tutor; student centredness; retain academics; curriculum policy
4. Comprehensiveness
•Compliance; MIT; align enrollment plan; market
•WIL partnerships
•Articulation
5. Multi-Inter-and Transdisciplinarity (MIT)
•African partnerships; IKS; promote MIT
•HFS
6. Social Responsiveness
•Societal need, community need
•Relevance MIT comprehensiveness
•Sustainable development
7. Student Centredness
•Profile students; paradigm shift from teaching to learning
•Access (SFP ROAP; comprehensive)
8. Graduateness
•Research in UG; MCQ; 4 year degree
9. ICT and Innovation
•Increase usage (myunisa as pedagogic tool)
•Electronic books
10. Scholarship
Research in the College of Agriculture & Environm. Sciences
focusses mainly on the Environment, Health and Sustainable
Livelihoods’. There are several research subgroups or units
that fall under this focus area and they are:
•Applied Behavioural Ecological and Ecosystem Research
Unit (ABEERU). This unit carries out research on indigenous
wildlife and vegetation in the natural environment in order to
optimise responsible and sustainable utilization of resources.
International partners include universities in Canada, Belgium and
Switzerland.
Elephant Management Research form part of sub-disciplines of
applied behavioural ecology. Remote sensing and GIS are
technologies used to assist with elephant management plans.
•Rand Water Research Group
The group is involved in industry commissioned research on
indigenous and endemic plants to improve the environment and
sustainable utilisation of water resources. The research activities
are complementary to those of ABEERU and some funding is from
the same source, Rand Water.
•Applied Environmental Chemistry Group
This is part of the NRF Niche Focus Area of UNISA, the
Ecotoxicology and Bio-inorganic and Natural Product Research
group and shared with CSET.
•Contract Farming
This is a newly constituted research group to investigate the
agriculture industry in terms of contracting farmers to supply
goods and services.
•Antarctica and Marion Islands
In collaboration with the Department of Science and Technology
and other members, this group is involved in research on
geomorphological processes in the Antarctica and Marion
Islands. A CAES staff member is one of the lead members of
the group.
•Indigenous Knowledge Systems
Research is varied and multidisciplinary, where currently the
major crop plants being investigated under ethnobotanical and
environmentally based considerations, include the truffle
(Kalaharituber pfeilii), rooisbos tea (Aspalathus linearis) and
bush tea (Athrixia phlicoides). The studies include nutritional
and medicinal parameters of the plants. The mining of ‘Hot
Water Springs’ and use of this water for agriculture in Limpopo,
is an area that has received great attention by a unit under this
group. This links to geothermal energy research.
•Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectrometer
In collaboration with the CSIR, the CAES NMR Research group
has acquired an NMR 600 MHZ spectrometer for analysis of
mechanisms of protein binding so as to understand the
pathogen/toxin interactions in drug development. The NMR is a
versatile piece of equipment that could also be used generally for
structural analysis of biological material. The equipment is worth
close to 1M Euros and has been commissioned. Postgraduate
students have already started to train on utilising it for research
and development.
B. ODL Research
The Geography department is driving ODL research in the
college and indications are that this area of research is gaining
ground.
There is hope for our beautiful Africa
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