Professor Ahmed Bawa, Vice-Chancellor and Principal at DUT, laid out the University’s strategic plan this week which will act as the University’s roadmap to success up until the year 2018, after which a new one will be formulated.

Prof Bawa presented this plan at the University’s Durban and Midlands Centres during two mass meetings which were open to staff, students and members of the public. People attending the meetings also had the opportunity to ask questions, express any concerns and offer suggestions with regards to the plan.

Prof Bawa, who is serving the fourth year of his first term as Vice-Chancellor and Principal of DUT, however stressed that this is not a new strategic plan, but rather an update of a number of outdated elements within the plan.

“So much has changed at the University between then and now and we thought it would be a good idea for us to revisit that plan,” he said. “So, the way to think about what we are doing now is not to think about this as a completely new strategic plan, but rather as a process of getting from where we were to where we want to be. A new approach to things is some respects,” he said.

He said the University’s vision and mission statement remains the same, adding that changing these would require a long process of engagement as these two elements are the underpinnings of the University.

Student centeredness and engagement, which Prof Bawa described as the fabric of DUT, were presented as the major threads of the strategic plan.

“The question was ‘what is it that defines this University, what is it that makes this University special?’ The vision statement contains some of that because it talks about developing leadership in technology which is an interesting idea which kind of gives us a signature as a University. But when we thought about it slightly more, it became clear that we needed something else. So two of the things that I put to Council when I made my presentation in 2011 was that we should think of the University as being created out of some sort of fabric. Two major threads are student centeredness and this idea of engagement which are the threads upon which we can build the University,” he said.

Speaking about student centeredness, he said what struck him the most was the fact that the majority of students at the University come from poor backgrounds. Making an example of this, he said Rhodes University gets about R8 million a year in financial aid while DUT gets about R320 million. “It gives you a sense of who the students are. For me it was quiet clear that it’s important to get the University, all its aspects, to focus on the young people that are with us. So this idea of student centeredness is about how do we optimise the experience of students at the University,” he said.

Speaking about the second thread (engagement), he said most Universities in the world still think of themselves as ivory towers, adding that DUT is fortunate because it cannot think this way. “We are right in the middle of Warwick Junction (Durban Centre), or Mbali Township (Indumiso Campus). What I really want to show is that DUT is a University that is embedded in its local context and is engaging in that context. Of course this doesn’t mean we won’t produce research, or that we won’t produce the most amazing kinds of creative work and so forth. In fact, what this means is that engagement becomes a way in which we embark on research and teaching. Most Universities in the world will say that their purpose stands on three legs; these being teaching and learning, research and community engagement. DUT has two. Teaching and learning and research, and engagement weaves through the two of those,” he said.

Prof Bawa also revealed that a new Engineering Faculty was being introduced in the Midlands Centre. “There will be renovations at both Riverside and Ndumiso Campus. Ndumiso Campus will simply focus on Health and Education,” he said. He was also excited to mention the emergence of e-learning in DUT. “This is one of the most exciting projects that we are engaged in. We are in a process of adding hardware and software for this purpose,” he said.

He added that the University is doing well in most of its strategic focus areas and that it is heading in the right direction.

– Noxolo Memela