Inaugural lecture by Professor Cleary and other updates

Dear colleagues and students

The University of Cape Town (UCT) will host the second lecture of 2024 in the UCT Inaugural Lecture Series, to be presented by the head and director of UCT’s School of Public Health Professor Susan Cleary on Thursday, 14 March 2024. Read about this and other developments on campus.

1. UCT Inaugural Lecture: Professor Susan Cleary

Professor Cleary will present a lecture titled “Bending the arc towards health equity”. It will take place at the Wolfson Lecture Theatre, IDM Building, at 17:00 SAST. Professor Cleary is an esteemed figure in the field of health economics research and education, having significantly impacted the discipline both locally and internationally. Her career has been characterised by a steadfast commitment to addressing issues of health equity, evident in her extensive research and policy endeavours. She has garnered expertise in economic evaluation methodologies, decision analytic modelling, and understanding the economic implications of disease burden. Her academic journey includes the attainment of a master’s degree in Economics in 2001, followed by a PhD in public health in 2007, focusing on assessing the intersection of equity and efficiency in HIV treatment within the South African context.

In her lecture, Professor Cleary will reflect on the academic and policy contributions that she has made in this terrain. She will also talk about the key successes in the early days of HIV treatment and ongoing challenges in the areas of universal health coverage and National Health Insurance.

• Read the full VC Desk: Inaugural Lecture: Professor Susan Cleary.

2. Alumni in Action: Supporting UCT student survivors of GBV

March 2024 marks the third anniversary of Alumni in Action (A-i-A@UCT), a flagship anti gender-based violence (GBV) programme at UCT. Established by alumna Zellah Fuphe, the programme is designed to strengthen support for student survivors of gender-based violence at UCT.

Over time, UCT has invested resources to ensure that it can provide quality counselling services for students through the Office for Inclusivity and Change (OIC) as well as Student Wellness Service. However, there is a growing need for an expanded student counselling service. As a parallel support service, the alumni-led Alumni in Action programme extends the university’s ability to counter the psychological impact of GBV which, for some survivors, negatively affects their academic performance and the quality of their social interactions. Thanks to Alumni in Action, UCT students were able to access 128 counselling sessions in 2023 alone.

In 2024, UCT is calling on the university community (staff, alumni and friends) to renew their commitment to helping enhance and amplify mental health support for GBV survivors on campus.

UCT alumni and friends can get involved by:

• providing counselling sessions: registered clinical social workers or clinical psychologists can sign-up to provide eight counselling sessions which are funded by A-i-A@UCT, and
• pledging financial support: if you don’t have the skills required, you can contribute financially to sponsor counselling sessions for student survivors.

Who can support the project?

• Any registered clinical social worker or clinical psychologist.
• Alumni who are based in South Africa and have the necessary qualifications, skills and time to conduct face to face and/or online sessions with student survivors.

If you meet the above criteria, please sign up on the OIC website.

In supporting Alumni in Action, you are helping the university scale vital mental health support services for students at UCT. To find out more, please visit the OIC website.

3. ICTS scheduled maintenance on Sunday, 17 March

Please note that Sunday, 17 March 2024 will be an ICTS scheduled maintenance slot from 09:00 to 17:00. Unless advised to the contrary, do not expect any on-premise ICT services to be available for the duration of the maintenance slot. Cloud-based services (including Amathuba, email, Microsoft 365 services, and ServiceNow) are not impacted and can still be accessed.

Please remember to consult the scheduled ICTS maintenance slots page before planning any teaching, conferences, meetings, etc that require ICT services.

For more information, see the article on why ICTS schedules regular monthly maintenance slots.

4. P&S workplace service portal maintenance

The Properties & Services (P&S) Workplace Services Portal will undergo routine maintenance and will not be available between 12:00 on Friday, 15 March 2024 and 22:00 on Sunday, 17 March 2024. 

Staff will not have access to the portal during this time.

For any maintenance emergencies during this period, please contact the maintenance and operations helpdesk on 021 650 4322/4321.

The P&S department thanks staff for their patience while this important maintenance update is being undertaken.

For any queries, please email the P&S technical support team.

5. Public comment on draft EE regulations

Staff members are advised that after the proposed employment equity sectoral targets were published on 12 May 2023, the Minister of Employment and Labour republished the draft regulations on 1 February 2024 for the identified national economic sectors, allowing interested parties 90 days from publication to comment.

As part of the consultation process on the draft regulations, the Office for Inclusivity and Change will send details of proposed amendments to the relevant UCT stakeholders.

Members of the university community may provide written comments by Monday, 1 April 2024, via the specified stakeholders, should they wish to do so. The comments received from stakeholders will be collated and submitted to the Department of Employment and Labour.

• Read the full DVC Desk: Public comment on draft EE regulations.

6. Reminder: Second call for nominations: DVC research and internationalisation

The Human Resources department has issued a second call for the nomination of staff members to serve in the selection committee for the appointment of a new deputy vice-chancellor: research and internationalisation.

Nominations are requested for the following staff categories: two academic staff (who are not members of Senate), chosen from a panel of four, elected by the academic staff; one PASS staff member in payclasses 5 to 13 (excluding executive directors and the registrar), chosen from a panel of four, elected by that group of staff; one PASS staff member in payclasses 1 to 4, chosen from a panel of two, elected by that group of staff.

The deadline for nominations is Thursday, 14 March 2024 at 16:00. Nominations received in the first call will be retained.

• Read more about the nomination process, and how to send through nominations.

Communication and Marketing Department

Read previous communications:

• From the UCT Executive
• Campus Announcements