Strategic intent

DEPARTMENT OPERATIONS

The commencement of the Department’s 60-year celebrations brought about the need for reflection in terms of it management activities. It is essential for an academic department to function autonomously of any individual management staff members. As such, and as part of Prof Ronny Webber-Youngman’s succession plan, the Department has adopted a decentralised management strategy.

The Department’s Teaching and Learning (T&L) portfolio oversees matters related to the education and training initiative for both undergraduate and postgraduate (honours) students. The Research portfolio is responsible for the Department’s national and international research drive through the MRRC, with the aim of facilitating new knowledge development and publication, incorporating master’s and PhDrelated research.

DEAN

Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology: Prof Sunil Maharaj

HOD

Department of Mining Engineering: Prof Ronny Webber-Youngman

TEACHING AND LEARNING

Function Head

Mr Jannie Maritz

MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES RESEARCH

Function Head

Prof Francois Malan

Marketing | Finance | MASUP | External liaison | VR Centre | Enterprises UP | Facilities | Postgraduate students

STAFF PROFILE

7 2 12 5 3 5

Permanent staff: academic Permanent staff: administration Full-time postgraduate academic assistants Contract lecturers Contract administrative staff Honorary and extraordinary professors

FUNDING STRATEGY

The presentation of short courses in conjunction with Enterprises UP forms an important part of the Department’s funding strategy as it relates to its third-stream income activities. These courses would not have been possible without the support of industry. They furthermore enable the Department to supplement its Development Fund. Income derived from research chairs and short courses forms the bulk of the Department’s third-stream income, which enables its appointment of full-time postgraduate research students. The Department also graciously acknowledges the financial support of industry partners, in particular the support received from the Minerals Education Trust Fund (METF) and Africa Rainbow Minerals in support of four full-time postgraduate students.

Staff in the Department of Mining Engineering.

INTERNAL CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

The Department currently has seven full-time lecturers, including the Head of Department, Prof Ronny WebberYoungman. These staff members have about 150 years of combined industry experience. Most of them are actively advancing their academic careers, with two lecturers currently registered for their PhD studies (Sezer Uludag and Jennifer van der Walt). During the period under review, Prof Francois Malan was promoted to full professor. There are, furthermore, one associate professor, three senior lecturers (one with a PhD and two with master’s degree qualifications) and two lecturers (also in possession of master’s degrees).

The Department has succeeded in increasing its overall research output with the appointment of several contract researchers. It has 12 assistant lecturers who are engaged in postgraduate study (one registered for a PhD, nine for a master’s degree and two for their honours degrees in Mining Engineering). These postgraduate students form an important part of the Department’s succession planning.

In addition to its full-time academic capacity, the Department has four extraordinary professors to further enhance its academic and researchrelated activities. These are Prof Jan du Plessis, Prof William Spiteri, Prof Johan Napier and Prof Bharath Belle. It also has an honorary professor, Dr Con Fauconnier. They contribute to forming the building blocks to establish an academic team that can enhance the Department’s research output through their supervision of master’s and PhD students. The Department also makes use of industry experts, appointed on a parttime basis, to conduct cutting-edge research in the areas it has identified as its strategic strengths (mechanisation and automation, rock-breaking and explosive engineering, management and leadership, rock engineering and XR technology). This approach is paying dividends, and the Department intends to increase capacity in each of these research areas.

A continuing initiative of the Department is the focus on improving the impact factor (H-index score) of its full-time lecturers to enable them to apply for ratings from the NRF. Prof Malan already has a B2 NRF rating, which classifies him as an internationally acclaimed researcher. The criteria for this rating is that the over-riding majority of peer reviewers are firmly convinced that the researcher enjoys considerable international recognition for the high quality and impact of his recent research outputs.

Historically, the Department has not been known to deliver a high number of research outputs annually due to its small academic staff complement, in which only three have PhD qualifications. However, all the Department’s academics are registered with ECSA as professional engineers. Since 2014, there has been a steady increase in the Department’s research output in the form of journal articles and conference publications by its academic staff.

150

combined years of industry experience

2

B2

professors in key leadership positions

NRF rating for Prof Francois Malan

5

senior lecturers involved in teaching

POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH

In terms of the requirements for the graduation of BEng (Hons) Mining Engineering and BSc Applied Science Mining (Honours) students, all registered students must submit an article for publication with their respective academic supervisors as part of the assessment process. If the article is of an appropriate standard, the supervisor and student may agree to submit the article for publication. All master’s and PhD candidates furthermore need to provide evidence of experience in research methodology. As such, all potential master’s degree candidates are registered “master’s in progress” as a prerequisite for the successful completion of the Research Methodology module.