Welcome to the University of Cape Town News
Wamkelekile, Welkom
Wamkelekile, Welkom
Next Generation Professoriate initiative at UCT
30 September 2015UCT, like other South African universities, is under pressure to escalate the percentage of Black academic staff and have launched the Next Generation Professoriate initiative as part of its efforts to address the paucity of senior black academics.
John Webb, in for Kieno Kammies, spoke to Professor Francis Petersen, Deputy Vice Chancellor at UCT.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Please view the republishing articles page for more information.
Next Generation Professoriate (NGP)
The Next Generation Professoriate (NGP) is a mid-career academic staff development and support programme. Funded by the vice-chancellor’s Strategic Funds, the NGP addresses demographic inequalities in the academic hierarchy. The goal is to help members become associate and full professors.
The NGP was officially launched in September 2015. By the end of 2018, four of its members had been promoted to full professor and a further 14 had reached the rank of associate professor.
The programme is led by Dr Robert Morrell, who has over 35 years of academic experience in South African universities. He has a B1-rating from the the National Research Foundation (NRF) and is an elected member of the Academy of Sciences in South Africa.
Newsletters
November 2021
10:00, 5 November 2021
April 2021
10:00, 13 April 2021
March 2020
10:47, 31 March 2020
August 2019
12:31, 17 September 2019
January 2019
09:20, 21 January 2019
October 2018
09:20, 10 October 2018
August 2018
16:00, 3 August 2018
April 2018
14:15, 20 April 2018
February 2018
18:00, 10 February 2018
October 2017
12:00, 10 October 2017
May 2017
09:30, 9 May 2017
March 2017
12:00, 5 March 2017
January 2017
12:00, 30 January 2017
In the news
Amir Patel – moving like a cheetah
Amir Patel has been following in the footsteps of the cheetah.
04 Nov 2021
Sharief Hendricks: rugby player, researcher and new member of the Future Professors Programme
President-elect of the South African Sports Medicine Association, NGP member Sharief Hendricks was recently selected to be a member of the Future Professors Programme.
29 Apr 2021
Next Generation Professoriate: maturation and lockdown
With a current cohort of 45 members, the Next Generation Professoriate has weathered the lockdown and continues to support staff on their paths to professorship.
13 Apr 2021
Rethabile Possa-Mogoera: new member of the NGP
Dr Rethabile Possa-Mogoera was recently nominated by the Faculty of Humanities as a new member of the Next Generation Professoriate.
13 Apr 2021
Sharief Hendricks: rugby player, researcher and new member of the Future Professors Programme
President-elect of the South African Sports Medicine Association, NGP member Sharief Hendricks was recently selected to be a member of the Future Professors Programme.
13 Apr 2021
Ameeta Jaga: thinking about work–family balance
Associate Professor Ameeta Jaga has taken a multidisciplinary approach to answer research questions about South Africa’s low breastfeeding rates, especially among employed mothers.
13 Apr 2021
Zarina Patel leads project for sustainable urban transformation
Zarina Patel continues to lead research and build collaborations in the area of sustainable urban transformation.
13 Apr 2021
Afton Titus: seeking a new tax system for Africa
Afton Titus has an interest in national and multinational tax systems, with a research focus on ensuring fairer distribution of tax revenue.
13 Apr 2021
Amir Patel and Mohohlo Tsoeu each win Google Research Scholar Awards
Associate Professor Amir Patel and Dr Mohohlo Tsoeu have each been awarded a 2021 Google Research Scholar Award for early-career researchers.
13 Apr 2021
Next Generation Professoriate back at Zevenwacht
The Next Generation Professoriate cohort recently gathered at Zevenwacht for a writing retreat a year after its previous visit.
13 Apr 2021
Lebogang Ramma: reflections on becoming and being a head of department
Associate Professor Lebogang Ramma, head of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, reflects on what it has been like to lead an academic department.
13 Apr 2021
Afton Titus: ad hom promotion four months after PhD
Just four months after graduating with her PhD, Associate Professor Afton Titus is one of several UCT academics to achieve a 2020 ad hominem promotion.
01 Dec 2020
Men, gender equality and the search for gender harmony
As South Africa started its 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence campaign, UCT gender scholar Dr Rob Morrell talks about masculinities and gender relations.
26 Nov 2020
UCT’s Prof Ed February bows out gracefully
Associate Professor Edmund February’s 20-year journey with UCT will come to a close at the end of the year.
10 Nov 2020
Rhodes’ Distinguished Alumni Award for Robert Morrell
UCT social scientist and gender and masculinities scholar Dr Robert Morrell has been awarded a Rhodes University 2020 Distinguished Alumni Award.
16 Oct 2020
Elaine Govender-Opitz – member, Future Professors Programme
Elaine Govender-Opitz was recently selected to be a member of the Future Professors Programme, a national academic staff development initiative.
31 Mar 2020
Shari Daya on decolonising Geography
Shari Daya reflects on the state of geography and the need for South Africa’s higher education system to decolonise the discipline.
31 Mar 2020
Bongi Bangeni promoted to associate professor
Dr Bongi Bangeni was promoted to associate professor in January 2020.
31 Mar 2020
NGP researchers breaking barriers in biomechanics technology
Dr Amir Patel’s fascination with robotic design has broken barriers in the measurement of human movement and biomechanics.
31 Mar 2020
Aneesa Vanker promoted to associate professor
Aneesa Vanker from the Division of Paediatric Pulmonology at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s hospital was recently promoted to associate professor.
31 Mar 2020
Sylvia Bruinders – Music and Art in Lesotho
In January Sylvia Bruinders, head of African Music and Ethnomusicology, visited Lesotho to conduct fieldwork for a project on indigenous music and art.
31 Mar 2020
Next Generation Professoriate updates
In January 2020 eight Next Generation Professoriate members were promoted to associate professors.
31 Mar 2020
Lydia Cairncross promoted to associate professor
Lydia Cairncross was recently promoted to associate professor in the Department of Surgery at the UCT Faculty of Health Sciences.
31 Mar 2020
Jabulani Ncayiyana – member, Future Professors Programme
Jabulani Ncayiyana was recently selected to be a member of the Future Professors Programme.
31 Mar 2020
What the scientist learned from the cheetah’s tail
From a cheetah’s tail to professional athletes: UCT researchers are using robotics to study how bodies move.
26 Apr 2019
Balancing the global economy of knowledge
The authority of northern-centred knowledge formation continues to grow, but the global south is showing significant evidence of change and contestation.
26 Mar 2019
Republished
Meet Baleka, Africa’s first two-legged robot
Baleka – a jumping, two-legged robot developed at UCT – is helping researchers figure out new ways for robots to move and inspire young scientists.
25 Mar 2019
Out-of-the-box thinker wins a Premier’s Award
UCT alumnus and Next Generation Professoriate member Dr Mosedi Namane was named the bronze winner in her category at the 2018 Western Cape Premier’s Service Excellence Awards.
14 Mar 2019
‘I want to reach the places my father did not’
Tafadzwa Mushonga will be the first PhD graduate from the Centre for Environmental Humanities South, forging ahead from where her father left off.
10 Dec 2018
Never too late to overcome the odds
PhD candidate Witness Kozanayi relied on his determination, the support and sacrifice of others, and a fascination for his homeland to fuel his academic success.
07 Dec 2018
UCT boosts transformation in accounting
An innovative partnership between UCT and two other universities, in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, has secured top-quality accounting degrees for students in those provinces.
31 Oct 2018
Transformation crucial ‘at all levels’ at UCT
UCT must follow the transformation of the demographics of its student population with similar changes in the professoriate, says Associate Professor Manya Mooya.
23 Oct 2018
Honours for UCT’s sports stars
A year of noteworthy achievements, grit and determination was marked as UCT celebrated its sportspeople at the Sports Awards Dinner on 19 October.
22 Oct 2018
New giant dinosaur: an evolutionary experiment
The largest dinosaur to be discovered in South Africa may have been an evolutionary ‘experiment’ in walking on four legs.
04 Oct 2018
New commerce research unveiled, TED-style
The commerce faculty’s Cape Town Alumni Chapter recently hosted the second in the UCT Talks series, a TED-styled showcase of new faculty research.
04 Oct 2018
Ed February wins Hamilton Naki Award
Associate Professor Edmund February has been honoured for “achieving world-class research performance despite considerable challenges”.
29 Sep 2018
Put yourself out there, urges Mbatani
With a goal of professional and self-development, senior lecturer Dr Nomonde Mbatani has joined UCT’s Next Generation Professoriate (NGP) programme.
04 Jul 2018
First fruits of Fogarty HIV-TB training programme
It’s onward and upward for the Fogarty HIV-associated TB Training Program, which has provided vital training to postgraduates in its first year of operation.
12 Jun 2018
Take the gap: A professor in training
A TV interview with Tim Noakes introduced Livingstone high-schooler Yumna Albertus to a career in sport and science. Now she’s training for a bigger target.
05 Jun 2018
Negotiating learning and identity
The lived experiences of working-class and rural black students are the subject of a new book edited by Dr Bongi Bangeni and Associate Professor Rochelle Kapp.
19 Dec 2017
Dust storm Mars rover mission
How do you drive the Mars rover? In a first-for-Africa mission, UCT student Samuel Anih piloted the rover using something slightly surprising.
15 Aug 2017
Failure to recognise religious marriages in South Africa may point to a lack of political will
South Africa’s constitution allows for laws to be passed that recognise religious and traditional marriages as well as personal and family law systems. These are systems that regulate marriage, divorce, matters affecting children - including guardianship, custody, access, maintenance and inheritance.
15 May 2017
The power and politics of prefixes
Using the correct prefixes when referring to local languages in English is a matter of both linguistic and political necessity, says UCT linguist Dr Mantoa Motinyane-Masoko.
13 Mar 2017
Success for Next Generation Professoriate
Four candidates from the Next Generation Professoriate (NGP) have been promoted to professor or associate professor level in the most recent round of ad hominem promotions.
03 Mar 2017
Tackling diseases with numbers
Dr Freedom Gumedze (UCT Department of Statistical Sciences) and Professor Jane Hutton (University of Warwick) recently hosted a workshop on multivariate longitudinal and survival data analysis in medical research.
16 Feb 2017
Back by popular demand
In a meeting held in Benin last year, Dr Heather Marco, a member of UCT's Next Generation Professoriate, was elected for the third consecutive time to serve on the executive committee of AGNES (the African–German Network of Excellence in Science).
18 Jan 2017
Iconic conifers under threat
A team of UCT ecologists has used repeat photography to study the decline of the critically endangered Clanwilliam cedar. Their findings, published last month, suggest that climate change and more frequent fires are threatening the survival of this iconic conifer.
21 Dec 2016
The battle to recovery
It was while compiling research on sexual violence for her doctoral dissertation that Associate Professor Sinegugu Duma realised that she needed to write a book.
30 Nov 2016
Samuel Ginsberg: The power of collaboration
UCT electrical engineer and senior lecturer Samuel Ginsberg has had a hand in inventing such diverse devices as a heat detector for informal settlements.
28 Oct 2016
Let researchers try new paths
Dr Tolu Oni (School of Public Health and Family Medicine), together with 3 of her colleagues, has contributed to an article published in Nature journal, arguing that scientists should be allowed to shift their focus in pursuit of important research.
26 Oct 2016
Prestigious fellowship for Gumedze
Dr Freedom Gumedze of the Department of Statistical Sciences has been awarded a Newton Advanced Fellowship from the Royal Society, in partnership with the Academy of Medical Sciences, for the period 2016–2019.
25 Oct 2016
Mont Fleur writing retreat
From 17–19 August 2016 members of the Next Generation Professoriate (NGP) cohort gathered again at the beautiful site of Mont Fleur situated in the Blaauwklippen Valley outside Stellenbosch.
24 Aug 2016
Balancing culture and career
Dr Ameeta Jaga always regarded herself as a liberated Indian woman. But once she delved into the literature of culture and the work–family interface, she became aware of the many ways in which that was less true.
18 Aug 2016
Duma is a nursing Hall-of-Famer
Associate Professor Sinegugu Duma of the Division of Nursing and Midwifery at UCT, and founding director of the university's Sexual Assault Response Team, was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Research Excellence in Nursing by the Forum of University Nursing Deans in South Africa (FUNDISA) on 22 July 2016.
04 Aug 2016
Professors are made by hard work
Robert Morrell, Director of the Next Generation Professoriate, writes in the Mail & Guardian that professors are made rather than born.
14 Jul 2016
Next Generation Professoriate member receives PhD
Dr Lee-Ann Tong, senior lecturer in commercial law at UCT and a member of the Next Generation Professoriate, graduated with a doctoral degree in June 2016.
30 Jun 2016
Authentic leadership for changing times
For members of the Next Generation Professoriate, who will be future leaders at UCT, Vanessa Lowndes recently facilitated three conversations that focused on leading teams and building organisational culture in changing times.
24 Jun 2016
Next Generation Professoriate – autumn update
This update on the progress and activities of the first cohort of the Next Generation Professoriate (NGP) features two major events – Manya Mooya's book launch and the Zevenwacht writing retreat.
24 May 2016
Cheetah's tail a blueprint for manoeuvrability in robots
Robotics designer Dr Amir Patel is one of six UCT scholars who received a Claude Leon Merit Award for 2016.
12 May 2016
Tolullah Oni: promoting science and research to develop Africa
Tolullah (Tolu) Oni's passion for public health stem from a desire to study medicine from an early age.
11 May 2016
Margaret Orr and the Academic Game
How does one get ahead in a university where the rules of the game are often not clear? Margaret Orr gave a seminar to the Next Generation Professoriate on 10 March 2016.
18 Mar 2016
Lively debate on transformation in law
The legal fraternity and interested public enjoyed a lively debate about the intersections between race, law and transformation on 23 January in the Golden Arrow studio at the Baxter Theatre Centre. Near the end, a passionate exchange between a judge, his fellow panellists and members of the audience threw into sharp relief some of the issues that had been discussed up to that point.
04 Mar 2016
Building a pipeline for UCT's professors of the future
The Next Generation Professoriate is a UCT programme aimed at advancing the development of black and female academics.
05 Feb 2016
The cohort at Mont Fleur
For two days in early December, members of the Next Generation Professoriate were on a writing retreat at Mont Fleur, Stellenbosch. This is a glorious spot at the foot of the Helderberg mountains.
17 Dec 2015
A next generation lunch
In November 2015, the Next Generation Professoriate cohort had its first lunch at the UCT Club.
17 Nov 2015
Meet the cohort members
With the Next Generation Professoriate initiative UCT hopes to advance the development of black academics by furnishing cohort members with greater clarity in their career paths and providing targeted support to them. The names of the 34 cohort members were recently made known. Learn more about them through their bios.
05 Oct 2015
'Next generation' professors unveiled
The Next Generation Professoriate initiative will ensure that the pipeline to transform the professoriate is expanded and accelerated.
01 Oct 2015
Next Generation Professoriate initiative at UCT
UCT has launched the Next Generation Professoriate initiative as part of its efforts to address the paucity of senior black academics.
30 Sep 2015
Recruit, develop, retain
An institutional culture based on trust, respect and appreciation is what DVC Professor Francis Petersen hopes will come from a new programme aimed at academic staff.
28 Sep 2015