Engagement and Transformation

Programmes | Making a difference in our communities

The Engagement and Transformation Portfolio

Co-creating the transformative, responsive university.

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Engagement

Engaging and forming partnerships, interacting with stakeholders and reaching out and contributing towards the sustainable development of the communities we serve.

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Transformation

Promoting institutional transformation through programmatic interventions focusing on the Constitutional principles of human dignity, equality, fairness, non-racism, non-sexism, and redress.

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*iconography adapted with the permission of artist: Xolela Madlanga

Research and Engagement Entities | Learning from and giving back to to our communities

Centre for the Advancement of Non-racialism and Democracy

CANRAD provides an intellectual and social space for debate and research on the complexities of post-apartheid South Africa as we seek to establish a new non-racial and democratic social and economic order.

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Centre for Women and Gender Studies

Framed around the histories of African intellectual traditions in the region, the CWGS seeks to contribute to an inclusive gender programme through research, gender mainstreaming in teaching, advocacy and engagement.

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Centre for Integrated Post-School Education and Training

CIPSET is a centre of learning, engagement and research excellence through socially engaged public scholarship in the areas of community, vocational and worker education.

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HIV & AIDS Research Unit

Striving to promote and sustain a collaborative response to the HIV & AIDS pandemic through governance, teaching and learning, research, community engagement and service provision.

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*iconography adapted with the permission of artist: Pola Maneli

Research Chairs and Institutes | Expanding our research and innovation capacity

Chair – Critical Studies in Higher Education Transformation

CriSHET's praxis and programmatic work is rooted in the study of higher education through the lenses of critique and critical action, within the orbit of Critical University Studies (CUS) and other radical approaches to the study of the sector.

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Chair – Youth Unemployment, Employability and Empowerment

Advances cutting edge scholarship on the ways in which skills and Vocational Education and Training (VET) intervene in poverty and unemployment.

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Transdisciplinary Institute for Mandela Studies

TIMS is a joint project between the University, the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Human Sciences Research Council to implement the scholarly formulation of the Mandela legacy.

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*iconography adapted with the permission of artist: Pola Maneli

Strategic Projects and Working Groups | Enabling praxis and transversal linkages

Hubs of Convergence

The HoC offers physical and intellectual spaces to explore, experiment and reimagine the process of engagement between the University and its communities.

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COVID-19 Coordinating Committee

The CCC coordinates the University's external response to the COVID-19 pandemic in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders, including local and provincial government, civil society, the private sector, and other communities.

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Food Systems Working Group

The Food Systems Working Group aims to understand, clarify, and map the various existing food system projects and programmes active in the University space, and to explore the potential of connecting - or the convergence of - these projects and programmes to be responsive to the challenges of food and food systems, both locally and globally.

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*iconography adapted with the permission of artist: Pola Maneli