Page 71 - Transformation Indaba Report

Colleagues will be encouraged to participate in that pro- transformation goals, to create more accountability.
gramme. Enhance monitoring through employment contracts.
• An important question: How will we deal with barriers and • Reminder: Apartheid system was employment equity for
gate-keeping around mentorship, access to resources, a certain grouping. Now we have a move towards a more
support, for example research funds? How are those equitable playing field.
enablers brought to the fore so that the profile of the • Acknowledge your institution’s progress made around
professoriate candidate can change over time? transformation, e.g. new Dean/HoD/DVC recruited.
• An important question: How often do promotions • Funding issue – if you don’t have ringfenced funding, it
happen? How can aspirant professors be given the inside may be difficult to recruit the right profile. Council must
track? Certain support mechanisms and enablers can be plan for funding.
established. • Reports to Dept vary from institution to institution.
• Redress and under-representation: identify and address Suggestion: it would be helpful to have a ‘critical reader’
barriers and set milestones or someone who critically assesses all the reporting and
• Racial breakdown of Day 1 stats was disappointing holds people accountable, before institution’s report is
because of where we are in our country’s democracy. submitted to Dept. Maybe have a template for reporting
• Capacity building is NB. New appointees need support: and include questions such as “what is your faculty doing
better induction, mentoring, coaching. Especially, orient about curriculum transformation”. A template of this kind
new appointee to the institution’s culture. Appointee will force us to become more self-reflective and critical as
shouldn’t view him/herself as an “equity” appointee (on an institution.
merit instead). • Keep the goal of attracting and retaining a diversified
• The beauty of the Transformation Barometer is that it workforce and good representation, through intentional
provides the basics that we all need to aspire to as programmes and milestones.
institutions - around institutional culture, and the academic • Fast track early career academics. Address issue of the
project. missing middle grouping of staff.
• We should continue to tighten the contracting of line • Improve representation at senior level.
managers around issues of transformation especially • Be intentional about recruitment and capacity develop-
gender transformation. Universities could predict vacan- ment of disabled staff.
cies to be available in coming years. Set annual objectives • Employment cycle: Professors eventually retire. How can
around redress and equity. Redress/equity/transformation we retain academically active academics? They could
objectives need to be translated as KPAs so that it provide mentoring, do co-publishing, write funding
receives attention and monitoring. Have an equity plan. proposals and so forth.
Performance appraisals can include due weighting of

NelsoN MaNdela UNiversity • traNsforMatioN iNdaba • 2022 65