Tuesday, 23 June

12:30

The University of Cape Town (UCT) this week announced the development of a toolkit for supporting marginalised students.

The university’s Office for Inclusivity and Change has developed the toolkit, which aims to spark conversation around the needs of students who live in an environment that is not conducive to remote learning.

Based on data from various sources such as the UCT Student Access Survey, the toolkit explores how race, gender, class and disability impact access to important resources for teaching and learning. This toolkit helps to deepen thinking about South Africa’s deep socio-economic disparities.

Infographics in the toolkit offer visual representations of the experiences and reflections of diverse and marginalised students.

This toolkit is useful for the university community to reflect on the challenges faced in the current moment and to share ideas for how we can work together to deal with them. The infographics are a springboard for conversations on how we can come together to make sure no one is left behind.

Download the toolkit.

Read the DVC Desk.

11:15

The University of Cape Town (UCT) writes to inform the campus community about UCT’s new series of virtual conversations on creating a new global university.

On 29 June UCT will host the first of five virtual conversations: Unleashing the New Global University. The COVID-19 global crisis is an opportunity to rethink the way we do things, here and globally.

International students have returned home, conferences have been cancelled or postponed, research that required travel has seen at least a pause, if not a complete rethink. But this model of internationalisation was already failing because it reinforced inequality.

The current model also has an impact on the planet. While most universities claim to value sustainability, few have translated that into action when it comes to travel.

These issues of inequality and sustainability are core to UCT’s values and proposed Vision 2030. But we can’t solve the problems alone. We need our partners to also see the challenges, think through solutions and have the political will to change with us.

Please join these conversations and forward the invitation to your local and international collaborators and contacts.

Read the VC Desk.

10:55

The University of Cape Town (UCT) is committed to building a more transformed, diverse and inclusive institution, and it’s against this backdrop that Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Transformation, Professor Loretta Feris, introduces the UCT Transformation Report 2019.

The report places the spotlight on people, spaces and actions which have contributed towards transformation in 2019. Further, it demonstrates the work of hundreds of staff who convened both individually and collectively and took action to combat inequality and fast-track transformation, diversity and inclusion on campus.

This report is especially significant, because for the first time, UCT employed transformation benchmarks, which allows the institution to systematically track its progress. Additionally, through the report’s design, it can also be used as an advocacy tool for transformation, and the executive hopes that it will support the university’s transformation project in 2020 and beyond.

The institution has committed to enforcing its efforts to continue addressing inequality within the university and beyond. 

UCT, in partnership with some of the report’s contributors, will host a public panel discussion on 3 July 2020 to mark the report’s release.

Read the DVC Desk.