Perdeby Tuks se amptelike studentekoerant / Official Tuks student newspaper / Kuranta ya baithuti ya semmušo ya Tuks
28October2013
Interviews with the executive SRC portfolios
P5
year75issue24
“This is more like being a band”
Technology to make you smarter
P6
The best of the 2013 cycling season
P11
P15
To be considered transformed, universities need to score a zero in the staff and graduates index. According to the study results, UP’s overall enrolment EI is 46.3 and the overall staff EI is 67.4. Overall, UP has the fifth worst student enrolment EI and the seventh worst staff EI. SU was found to be the least transformed university in the country while the Central University of Technology was found to be the most transformed in terms of students. The study found that it will take UP 55 years to transform student enrolment and 50 years to transform staff. According to UP media liaison officer Nicolize Mulder, diversity is one of the four pillars of the UP 2025 plan as well as UP’s Journey for Change, a framework developed to drive social change at the university, which will remain the university’s roadmap for transformation. UP has also started Re-a-bua dialogue sessions where staff and students can discuss things like stereotypes around diversity, race relations and transformation. “It is not just about numbers, but also about building our
institutional culture,” she said. According to the statement, the EI can be used to guide, monitor and drive the overall transformation in universities. Researchers believe that the EI should play a major role in the new Education White Paper framework, a six-year equity-weighted research-productivity funding framework that monitors graduate pass rates as well as staff and student profiles. Prof. Malegapuru Makgoba, vice-chancellor of UKZN and chair of the transformation oversight committee established by Higher Education and Training minister Blade Nzimande, said that, “While the EI is not a silver bullet for transformation it has the potential to shape the future for this sector profoundly, and indeed, many other sectors in the country. It is important to recognise that same distance away from the ideal does not imply identity or identical paths to travel to reach the ideal destination.” Visit perdeby.co.za to see the complete press release and presentation.
Study: UP needs to transform
Photo: Reinhard Nell and Brad Donald DANIELLE PETTERSON UP is the third least transformed institution among South Africa’s top five research universities. This is according to the Equity Index (EI) established by researchers from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). The EI uses the Euclidean distance formula to measure transformation in South Africa’s universities. The idea is that it measures the distance between the universities’ demographics and the national demographics. According to a statement by UKZN and the Transformation Oversight Committee for Public Universities, the pace of transformation at universities is “far from ideal”. Researchers estimate that it could take several decades for SA’s five top research universities (the University of Cape Town (UCT), Stellenbosch University (SU), the University of Witwatersrand (Wits), UKZN and UP) to become completely transformed. The study looked at the demographic
profile (race and gender) of the country’s 23 universities. The research was based on the demographic profiles of students and staff from audited 2011 data. No university fell within 5% of the national benchmarks, which is the required tolerance. “The statistics produced paint a dismal picture of the ‘painfully’ and unacceptable ‘slow rate of transformation’,” the statement said. After calculating the universities’ EIs, researchers found four groups: universities with good equity indices and poor research productivity, universities with poor equity indices and poor research productivity, universities with poor equity indices and good research productivity; and universities with good equity indices and good research productivity. Previously advantaged universities like SU and UCT have poor equity indices but score well as high-level knowledge producers. On the other hand, the universities of technology and some formerly disadvantaged institutions produce little research but have a good equity profile.
SAFE, AFFORDABLE STUDENT LIVING! Book your space today at www.respublica.co.za OR call 021 343 3158 OR visit the residence office at 706 Arcadia Street, Arcadia, Pretoria
LIVE N R LEA AY PL
calendars
• • • •
FREE
Designer templates available in English & Afrikaans
SPRING SALE
20% OFF ALL
Free internet 24HR security Free gym and DSTV On-site canteen
Urban Nest Respublica
JUST ADD YOUR PHOTOS & CREATE A CALENDAR OR DIARY IN MINUTES! download our FREE Picasso Software to order
www.qphoto.co.za
CALENDARS & DIARIES VALID UNTIL 30 NOVEMBER 2013
Q-Photo Hatfield 012 362 5958
www.qphoto.co.za
T’s & C’s Apply