Prominent international academics will participate in the 25th Southern African Association for the Institutional Research (SAAIR) Conference, which is scheduled for Monday, 12 to Thursday 15 November 2018 at Durban University of Technology’s (DUT’s), Hotel School, Conference Centre and Elangeni Hotel in Durban.
This conference will be held under the theme, “Re-imagining our universities: the role and impact of institutional research in times of disruption”, and it will be hosted by DUT.
According to the conference organising committee, the 2018 conference theme centres around the uptake of higher education research, either through higher education scholarly research output and/or through the work of institutional researchers that largely evidences as grey literature in the form of policy documents and reports. This theme follows on from both the 2016 and 2017 conference themes (Considering the #feesmustfall campaigns – New opportunities for Southern African Higher Education Institutional Research and Rethinking University engagement in Africa).
The conference will be preceded by Pre-Conference Workshops on Monday, 12 November 2018 at DUT’s Hotel School, Conference Centre. The workshops will focus on the following topics; using logic models for assessment in administrative student services, the role of institutional researchers and planners in decision making and institutional researchers as internal disrupters. Then the main conference will take place from Tuesday, 13 to Thursday, 15 November 2018 at the Elangeni Hotel.
Some of the speakers who are expected to address this conference include, DUT’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Engagement, Professor Sibusiso Moyo, Deputy Director General: University Education in the Department of Higher Education and Training, Dr Diane Parker, and Principal Advisor Planning and Research at RMIT University, Australia, Angel Calderon.
SAAIR aims to advance research and analysis leading to the production of improved management information for understanding, planning, management, and operation of higher educational institutions and agencies. It also seeks to encourage the development and application of appropriate methodologies and techniques from many disciplines to further such research, analysis, and planning.
Pictured: Professor Sibusiso Moyo, who is one of the speakers that will address the SAAIR Conference.
Nduduzo Ndlovu
