Page 17 - DUT Annual Report 2020

processes and align them with this post-modern world of digitalisation and artificial intelligence; a university whose obligation is to do everything in a sustainable manner, environmental and otherwise; and a university whose commitment is to impact the lives and livelihoods of our people, both internal and external.
In addition to the Living Values Conversations referred to earlier, induction and orientation sessions for new staff members and students were organised. We also officially launched the new strategy at our annual State of the University Address held at the end of February 2020. This was followed by the Vice-Chancellor and Principal producing a number of videos that unpacked and deconstructed the key elements of the strategy.
Recruitment of the Right people who will occupy the Right seats and play their roles Right is what will help to transform our Institutional Culture. The year 2020 saw us continuing with the complex yet important institutional review exercise, that should translate ENVISION2030 into relevant functions and structures while correcting historical pathologies.
While we reviewed a number of portfolios, we effected the following executive and senior management appointments: Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning, Executive Dean for Management Sciences, Chief Financial Officer, Director: Midlands Campus, Director: Procurement, Director: Protection Services, Director: Information Technology Support Services, Director: Technology Transfer and Innovation and Director: Research and Postgraduate Support, among others. All these appointments were made in line with our transformation plan and equity targets, with five of these positions being occupied by African females.
Ironically, COVID-19 accelerated our digital environment, which is one of our SOs. With the introduction of online work, the University filled many other lower- level positions with much improved pace and efficiency.
Stewardship, and in particular Institutional Culture as an SO under it is also about the quality of relations amongst different role-players at the University. Relations between Management/Council on the one hand and unions on the other remain strained. This is not without many attempts to normalise them. This unsatisfactory situation partly results from a change process that seeks to correct many historical pathologies that muddied processes and systems at the University. Relations with the student leadership continue to be complex and precarious, given intermittent campaigns to shut down the University which, fortunately, were not successful during 2020.
Creativity
We have begun to build the foundations of DUT’s unique philosophy of education embedded in creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Divergent and Design Thinking will be fostered through the Universal Design Learning (UDL) framework which undergirds teaching- learning approaches like Project-Based Learning (PBL), and Problem Based Learning and Design. By the end of 2020 we had already offered training in PBL to 150 staff members, on the train-the-trainer basis. Thirty-one of them completed the course requirements. More of these innovative approaches will be introduced.
During the height of COVID-19, the spirit of innovation shone through when our people – academics, researchers and students – used our facilities, laboratories and equipment to produce personal protective equipment (PPE), including masks and sanitisers, for ourselves and the provincial health sector. As long as COVID-19 persists, they will continue to produce as much as they can, taking into consideration our primary function in teaching- learning and research-innovation. In the administrative sector, we have used the DUT App Factory to digitalise some of our systems in HR, Finance, Procurement and many other areas.
Together with our quad-helix partners in the private sector, government departments and agencies, we have funded a number of innovation and entrepreneurship projects and produced relevant policies, procedures and structures for this purpose. The Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is but one of the structures approved in 2020 that will house all our projects and activities in this regard, including our entrepreneurship desks in Durban and in the Midlands.
SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES
Systems and Processes help to ensure individual and institutional responsibility and accountability. They help us to manage our scant resources, develop and nurture our people, improve the rigour of what works, and detect and respond to risks. On the basis of what they churn out, we are able to implement corrective action aimed at safeguarding the achievement of our SOs. It is through Systems and Processes that the entire University is able to function, with different parts intrinsically dependent on one another for institutional durability, success and greatness. In this context, it is important that we understand the concept of Systems and Processes broadly in terms of the University’s entire functionality. They complete the organisational make-up or architecture. To once again underscore the importance of people, Systems and Processes are
DURBAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY ANNUAL REPORT 2020
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