Page 11 - DUT Annual Report 2020

Review of the DUT Statute
The review of the DUT Statute, led by a Council- appointed Task Team in 2019, finalised a set of proposals in the latter part of 2020. The proposals were based on observations made over a period of time that commenced a few years after the current Statute was approved in 2012, that some aspects of the Statute needed refinement and review. Some of the areas that were identified were:
i. Review of definitions relating to senior positions, categories of staff, names of qualifications and various other terminologies in the current Statute.
ii. Review of the composition, functions, and meeting requirements of governance structures such as the Council, Senate, IF and Convocation.
iii. Alignment of the Statute with revised committee structures; for example, creation of the Risk Committee as a Committee of Council.
iv. To check whether there was alignment of the Statute with provisions of the Higher Education Act (Act 101 of 1997), as amended.
Feedback on the proposals for review were requested and obtained from other structures of the University, including the IF, Senate, Faculty Boards, Students’ Representative Council (SRC), staff unions and the Convocation. It is expected that the processes of approval and submission to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) will be concluded in the course of 2021.
Approval of Policies and Other Official Documents
As part of its oversight role, Council approves and in certain cases notes relevant policies and other governance documents, such as revised terms of reference of University structures. To this end, various policies and governance documents were dealt with by the Council in 2020, including:
Sabbatical Policy
IT Acceptable Use Policy
IT Change Control Policy
Plagiarism Policy
Revised Electoral Policy for Online Elections of
DUT SRC
Revised Composition and Terms of Reference of the
Students Services Board
Revised Terms of Reference of the EMC Revised Terms of Reference of the Finance
Committee
Supervision policy for postgraduate degrees
DHET Self-assessment Scorecard for Council
The self-assessment scorecard was discussed by the EXCO of Council and recommendations on the scores were presented to Council. The scorecard was submitted to the DHET.
Engagement with the SRC
Several structures of engagement that focus on student affairs, such as the Student Services Council, continue to operate smoothly. In addition, there are management structures that deal with day-to-day challenges which students face.
Of special note is that the year 2020 heralded the online system for election of SRC members, and the results have been promising. The system worked well, with a greater percentage poll as well as reduced costs for conducting elections compared to the traditional manner.
Engagement with Staff Unions
I regret to report that engagement with staff unions has proved to be problematic. As Chairperson of the Council, I have received a number of unsubstantiated allegations and complaints made by the staff unions in 2020. Upon investigation, this appears to be resistance by the unions to changes made by the Council and Management in respect of the demarcation of roles of Council, Management and other constituencies, in terms of the Higher Education Act and the norms of good governance generally. As a result of these changes, unions have lodged a number of disputes with the Office of the Minister, with the Public Protector and the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. Much of the grievances have to do with misunderstandings of the term “cooperative governance”, where the unions believe that they have a right to “co-govern” the University. This matter was reported by me to the Minister.
I have noted that, especially since November 2019, the Executive Management has made several attempts at facilitated talks with the staff unions to discuss the matter of cooperative governance in order to arrive at a clearer understanding of the roles of various governance structures. These discussions have not been successful, in that unions eventually withdrew from them in August 2020, after much work had been accomplished by joint Union-Management task teams that had been established. Council and Executive Management continue to seek ways to get them back to engage further.
DURBAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY ANNUAL REPORT 2020
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