Page 15 - Transformation Report 2021

The official approval and accreditation of the Bachelor of cohesion. In May, the first conversation was hosted by
Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) programme the School of Visual and Performing Arts, with the theme
were followed by a successful student recruitment Learning from our Context: Revitalising and Decolonising
campaign at the end of 2020 into 2021. More than 5 000 the Visual and Performing Arts at Nelson Mandela
applications were processed for the 50 places available for University.
the first cohort of medical students. The first class of our
six-year MBChB qualification started in March 2021 with a The nature of a decolonised curriculum received special
small, internal Oath Taking ceremony on our Missionvale attention as part of the Humanities curriculum review,
Campus. Since 2019, nine academics and five support along with how to translate a responsive curriculum into
employees were permanently appointed in the Medical innovative, inclusive and relevant classroom practices.
School, with additional employees appointed on contract The School of Language, Media and Communication and
to assist with further curriculum development work for the the School for Governmental and Social Sciences hosted
senior years. Most of the posts envisaged as part of the Curriculum Conversations titled Language, Knowledge
third cycle of appointments required for the Medical School and Power and Rethinking the Canon: Text and the
have been filled, amounting to a total of 21 employees. Of Archive, respectively.
these employees, 72 percent are from designated groups,
and we will continue with targeted recruitment initiatives The Council-funded Professors Project will support the
that contribute to enhancing representation to reflect our attraction of professors in transdisciplinary research priority
national demographic. areas such as African archives and heritage studies, digital
humanities and linguistic diversity, entrepreneurship and
Students associated with the Nelson Mandela Fidel Castro innovation in the arts and humanities, philosophy in Africa,
Medical Collaboration programme have successfully and governance and public leadership. Alongside the
completed their first semester with Nelson Mandela ongoing focus on decoloniality, indigenous knowledges,
University and are in their sixth year of study. They have and interrogating Western hegemonies, there are other
completed a 12-week academic and clinical rotation exciting new areas of study and research emerging in
programme and wrote their end of semester examinations the Faculty of Humanities, such as digital humanities
in February 2021. The final-year Cuban-trained medical and animation. Digitalisation is central to the Faculty of
students assigned to our University started their clinical Humanities’ strategic goals aiming to leverage the value of
rotations as Student Interns on the clinical platform in digital tools in facilitating research, learning and teaching.
March 2021 to provide them with “hands-on” clinical
training. In partnership with Walter Sisulu University, we The Faculty appointed Professor Nokuzola Mndende as an
are co-creating a unified final year medical programme to Adjunct Professor in the School of Governmental and Social
rotate on the Nelson Mandela Metro clinical platform. Sciences. Her expertise is in Africa-Centred Knowledge
Systems, specifically in African Culture, Feminist/Womanist
The Faculty of Health Sciences has also made significant Theology, African Spirituality, and Indigenous Knowledge
inroads with the development of seven MMed Programmes, Systems. The Faculty has also identified scholars with
which will significantly enhance the financial sustainability of similar profiles to be attached to each School in the Faculty
the Medical School when they come onstream. The Faculty to ramp up intellectual leadership at more senior levels in
expects internal and external accreditation processes to key disciplines.
be concluded in 2023 for intakes in 2024. In addition to
the expansion of academic programmes, the new Chair In June 2021, the NRF South African Research Chairs
in Nanomedicine, Dr Steven Mufamadi, was appointed. Initiative (SARChI) Chair in African Feminist Imaginations,
Dr Mufamadi brings a wealth of expertise in this field and headed by Professor Pumla Dineo Gqola, was officially
receives Department of Science and Innovation funding. launched. The purpose of this Chair is to shift how we
This Chair enhances the growth potential of research and think about gender power and women’s contributions to
collaboration within and across faculties and disciplines as the world, including generating research on the archive
well as with other external institutions. of African women’s intellectual and political work as key
thinkers, theorists and figures in the liberation struggle
3.3 Revitalising the Humanities against decoloniality and transformation. The new
Since February, and under the leadership of the new Department of Science and Innovation-NRF SARChI Chair
Executive Dean, Professor Pamela Maseko, the Faculty has hit the ground running with book publications, public
of Humanities started a process of critical engagement engagements and the establishment of wide-ranging
unpacking what it means to revitalise the humanities. national and international networks.
The Faculty Management Committee resolved that each
School would host a Public Curriculum Conversation The Faculty appointed an interim Director of the Raymond
webinar for critical engagement on key issues, including Mhlaba Centre for Leadership and Governance to offer
decolonisation and Africanisation of the curriculum, (un)- multidisciplinary research which foregrounds the values
representativeness, inaccessibility and privileging in the embodied by this stalwart and comrade of Nelson Mandela.
curriculum. These Curriculum Revitalisation Conversations As part of its function, the Centre aims to provide capacity
are aimed at enhancing analytical rigour, vibrancy and development opportunities within the public sector and

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