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Wamkelekile, Welkom
Wamkelekile, Welkom
The shortlisted DVC candidates on their attributes, qualities and sources of inspiration
26 May 2006
In this edition we have asked the five shortlisted candidates for the Deputy Vice-Chancellor positions at UCT to answer five general questions. Candidates have responded in their own unique way. Also included are comments from a random selection of staff on the qualities they would like to see in DVCs.
Dr Duma Malaza
Q1. What, in your mind, are the major criteria needed to be a successful DVC at UCT?
A. The important criterion is that one should be a scholar with well-established academic and research experience matched with experience in a leadership role within an academic environment evidenced by a thorough understanding of processes, mechanism and structures of an academic institution.
Q2. What attributes would you bring to a DVC position?
A. I would bring in integrity, honesty, discipline and commitment to the principles and values underpinning the mission of the university. To the executive leadership, I would bring in management and leadership skills and the ability to work as a member of a team, as well as abilities to think logically and strategically, and to lead and inspire other people.
Q3. What has been your biggest achievement to date?
A. Leading the University of Transkei as Acting Vice-Chancellor in the period 1998-2000, especially during a phase when there was a governance vacuum in the institution. I would characterise my activities at this time as the management of complexity and the restoration of hope, vision and direction in a complex environment. This experience has taught me how to manage and lead an institution in conflict through the collegial consensus model of leadership, in which the office of the Vice-Chancellor is the centre of influence and vision, by balancing widely differing stakeholder interests.
Q4. What was the last book you read?
A. Enlightenment by Roy Porter, with the subtitle of "Britain and the Creation of the Modern World", which outlines the thinking and temper of this movement in Britain during the 18th century. What has motivated me to read this book is a deep question I am constantly pondering: in what ways and circumstances can a truly African modernity come about, especially within South Africa? This is in my opinion a prerequisite for the African Renaissance and the success of projects like NEPAD. This book has not disappointed me as it has beautifully and coherently captured the birth of the "ideology" and how it was synthesised into the culture of Britain through clearing away of the "rubbish" (breaking away from custom) and forging a new future. The roadmap is as follows: the rationalisation of religion; the development of a culture of science; the anatomisation of human nature; the development of the science of politics; the secularisation of the state; and finally the modernisation.
Q5. What inspires you?
A. Works in the creative arts that include those of Vladimir Ashkenazy, classical pianist and Wynton Marsailis, modern jazz trumpet player. Achievements that I find admirable in the history of mankind include the works of Leonardo da Vinci for his artistic genius; Albert Einstein for his scientific genius; and, finally Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu for their humanity. My hero in the history of mankind is Ferdinand Magellan who almost single-handedly, lacking maps and adequate navigational instruments, undertook a hazardous voyage circumnavigating the globe; thus helping mankind to make a transition from the dark ages to the modern age. What inspires me at work includes the abilities of my peers, their deep interest and commitment towards making UCT a world-class African university.
Prof Martin Snaith
Q1.What, in your mind, are the major criteria needed to be a successful DVC at UCT?
A. Top flight academic record, management experience, the ability to relate well to other people within and outside the institution, problem solver, understands the power of humour. Q2 What attributes would you bring to a DVC position? Track record of strategic planning and management within academic, commercial and trans- governmental institutions, humour!
Q3. What has been your biggest achievement to date?
A. Changing the way people manage resources around the world in the roads sector, and, slightly more flippantly, "surviving" being a DVC in a large research-based University!
Q4. What was the last book you read?
A. Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth.
Q5. What inspires you?
A. A variety of things, ranging from my family to a dream or vision of the future, or even just watching the sun's dawn rays progressively illuminating the Himalayas. (To make our Monday Paper deadlines, Prof Snaith responded to our questions from the travellers' lounge at Hong Kong airport, en route from New Zealand, via South Africa, to the United Kingdom.)
Prof Martin Hall
Q1. What, in your mind, are the major criteria needed to be a successful DVC at UCT?
A. UCT is a complicated place to work, as are all universities. There are all sorts of different interests and loyalties, and multiple forms of creativity. It's important to know the university well, both the academic side and the way the administrative and support departments work. Both a national and international perspective are also essential. UCT's future lies in its local community and in its international links and partnerships, and we need to be constantly aware of new opportunities as well future demands. I think a DVC must always try and be a step ahead, anticipating problems before they become crises.
Q2. What attributes would you bring to a DVC position?
A. I've been responsible for setting up the Centre for Higher Education Development as an integral part of the work of all six faculties. I've thus been privileged to work closely with some very gifted and dedicated colleagues, and I've learned enormously from them. As Dean of Higher Education Development, I've worked closely with the other Deans, and have a detailed understanding of what needs to be done to achieve the co-ordination of our faculties with each other, and with the major support departments. Devolution is a complex process and at UCT it's an unfinished project. I have the experience and the ability to take this work forward. I've also served as Deputy Chair of the AIMS project and have extensive teaching experience at all undergraduate levels, as well as a wide range of Masters and doctoral students. I've also had a lot of research experience. As a result, I think I know what the "core business" of the university is all about. And as an archaeologist, I'm good at project management.
Q3. What has been your biggest challenge to date?
A. The project I'm working on at the moment, which is a study of governance in universities and technikons in South Africa. The report will go first to the Council on Higher Education and then to the Minister of Education. Higher education is in a state of great change at the moment – here and in other parts of the world – and the respective roles of councils, institutional forums and senates will determine the shape of education in the future. It's a great challenge to get to the essence of a complex and often confusing scenario, and then to frame recommendations that will make a difference.
Q4. What was the last book you read?
A. Two books have particularly grabbed my attention. The first is Lawrence Lessig's Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Lessig (Harvard Law School) shows how current proposals to regulate electronic communication will impinge on many aspects of our freedom. These issues have become sharply relevant since September 11, and there are serious implications for questions of civil liberty. The second book is the Phaidon Profile of Antony Gormley. Gormley is a sculptor – and winner of the Turner Prize – who works with life-sized casts to explore the relationship between the body and its world. His work challenges us to think about the relationship between the inner self and space in a way that is universal.
Q5. What inspires you?
A. Music inspires me. Verdi's choruses have helped get me through proof reading tasks, while Ismail Lô's Senegalese songs are good for the traffic jams on Lansdowne Road. Most inspiring, though, is local opera and the place that our Opera School students have claimed for themselves in international-standard productions, particularly last year's Carmen and this summer's Magic Flute at Spier.
Associate Prof Cheryl de la Rey
Q1. What, in your mind, are the major criteria necessary to being a successful DVC at UCT?
A. There are several criteria: strategic thinking, understanding of the higher education policy environment, a demonstrated commitment to transformation, competencies in business processes appropriate to universities, experience in teamwork, a good teaching and research record, commitment to co-operative governance and participatory management, an ability to handle conflict and stress. However, the main criteria would be: an understanding of the higher education environment and business processes; being a team player (DVCs work in a team) as well as being able to manage line responsibilities, a strong commitment to equity and excellence and a record of scholarship.
Q2. What attributes would you bring to a DVC position?
A. Attributes developed through direct personal experience of higher education from a varied number of positions – from my current position in research management, also being a member of a council as a governance structure, to being a student activist, an activist in staff unions and several years as a teacher and researcher. Through this experience and the research I have conducted on gender and higher education, I have learnt a great deal about universities as social organisations. I am passionate about learning and scholarship as an opportunity for empowerment and universities as places where we should be able to develop intellectually and socially. There are the attributes that I have listed as the criteria for success in a DVC position. I have a demonstrated track record in these areas.
Q3. What has been your biggest achievement to date?
A. There are many activities that I would call achievements for different reasons. Academically, working on my first book, together with my co-editors was an important achievement because we were trying to succeed as scholars in a way that was congruent with our political beliefs. It was an empowerment project for developing authorship among black and women academics, but at the same time we were determined to produce a quality product. I believe we succeeded. In my current position at the NRF, it is the new framework for research support, a team effort in which I played a significant It is a framework that opens access to funding in order to develop capacity, while ensuring a commitment to quality. I would also identify long distance running. At school I considered myself useless at sport. About 10 marathons and three Two Oceans later, I have a different opinion of my sporting abilities.
Q4. What was the last book you read?
A. Fiction: The Human Stain by Philip Roth, non-fiction: Sexism, Support and Survival in Academia: Academic Women and Hidden Discrimination in Finland by Liisa Husu.
Q5. What inspires you?
A. The possibilities of change. The changes we have experienced in the past ten years or more are inspirational. Much can be achieved through collective effort combined with good leadership.
Prof Kit Vaughan
Q1. What, in your mind, are the major criteria necessary to being a successful DVC at UCT?
A. I believe in leadership by example. I think it is vital for the future of UCT that its leaders be seen as academics first and administrators second. I would also say that the ten points highlighted by the Vice-Chancellor last year in his document entitled Vision 2001 are a good summary of the challenges that face our institution. The new Deputy Vice-Chancellors will have to understand and provide leadership in three important areas highlighted in the VC's document: (1) scholarship – consolidating our research identity and giving effect to our aspiration of claiming to be a world-class African university; (2) people – attracting and nurturing talented students plus recruiting, retaining and rewarding an outstanding and diverse staff; and (3) funding – securing our financial stability by identifying and attracting non-GOB sources of funds.
Q2. What attributes would you bring to a DVC position?
A. I would say that my positive attributes include: my passion for and commitment to academia in general and UCT in particular; my optimism and positive "can do" attitude; my willingness to work hard; my genuine interest in people, including both staff and students; my entrepreneurial spirit and understanding of financial matters; my knowledge of international funding agencies such as the NIH and the Wellcome Trust; my motivation and focus on the task at hand; and the self-confidence to speak my mind and take an unpopular position when necessary.
Q3. What has been your biggest achievement to date?
A. Some of my achievements were highlighted in last week's story in the Monday Paper. However, you will not read about my most significant achievements in my curriculum vitae. In the past two years, I have had the opportunity to: assist a senior colleague to compete for and win a Distinguished Teacher Award; to motivate successfully for the promotion of four senior lecturers to the rank of Associate Professor; to provide the guidance for a master's student to earn her degree with distinction; and to inspire a junior colleague to compile and submit a full-blown grant application to the National Institute of Health.
Q4. What was the last book you read?
A. While on holiday recently I read Country of My Skull by Antjie Krog. It is a harrowing account of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, using the testimonies of the oppressed and the oppressors. I am currently busy with The Dark Stream by Leon Rousseau, the story of Eugene Marais, a pioneer of the Afrikaans language and its literature. He was a complex but fascinating character who made a contribution to our country in a number of remarkable ways.
Q5. What inspires you?
A. I am inspired by people, such as Nelson Mandela, who triumph over adversity. In the UCT context, I am inspired by the example of Allan MacLeod Cormack, an alumnus and lecturer in our Physics Department, whose pioneering work here in Cape Town in the mid-1950s led to the award of the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his development of the computer tomographic (CT) scanner. I was inspired to set up a research group in medical imaging, which was recognised by the MRC with the award of a research unit in 2000. I will be visiting the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC next week where I will be photographing his original prototype CT scanner with a view to building a replica here in Cape Town. As we stand on the threshold of the 21st century, Allan Cormack inspires me with the idea that it is possible to perform world-class research here on the southern tip of Africa.
Dr Duma Malaza
Q1. What, in your mind, are the major criteria needed to be a successful DVC at UCT?
A. The important criterion is that one should be a scholar with well-established academic and research experience matched with experience in a leadership role within an academic environment evidenced by a thorough understanding of processes, mechanism and structures of an academic institution.
Q2. What attributes would you bring to a DVC position?
A. I would bring in integrity, honesty, discipline and commitment to the principles and values underpinning the mission of the university. To the executive leadership, I would bring in management and leadership skills and the ability to work as a member of a team, as well as abilities to think logically and strategically, and to lead and inspire other people.
Q3. What has been your biggest achievement to date?
A. Leading the University of Transkei as Acting Vice-Chancellor in the period 1998-2000, especially during a phase when there was a governance vacuum in the institution. I would characterise my activities at this time as the management of complexity and the restoration of hope, vision and direction in a complex environment. This experience has taught me how to manage and lead an institution in conflict through the collegial consensus model of leadership, in which the office of the Vice-Chancellor is the centre of influence and vision, by balancing widely differing stakeholder interests.
Q4. What was the last book you read?
A. Enlightenment by Roy Porter, with the subtitle of "Britain and the Creation of the Modern World", which outlines the thinking and temper of this movement in Britain during the 18th century. What has motivated me to read this book is a deep question I am constantly pondering: in what ways and circumstances can a truly African modernity come about, especially within South Africa? This is in my opinion a prerequisite for the African Renaissance and the success of projects like NEPAD. This book has not disappointed me as it has beautifully and coherently captured the birth of the "ideology" and how it was synthesised into the culture of Britain through clearing away of the "rubbish" (breaking away from custom) and forging a new future. The roadmap is as follows: the rationalisation of religion; the development of a culture of science; the anatomisation of human nature; the development of the science of politics; the secularisation of the state; and finally the modernisation.
Q5. What inspires you?
A. Works in the creative arts that include those of Vladimir Ashkenazy, classical pianist and Wynton Marsailis, modern jazz trumpet player. Achievements that I find admirable in the history of mankind include the works of Leonardo da Vinci for his artistic genius; Albert Einstein for his scientific genius; and, finally Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu for their humanity. My hero in the history of mankind is Ferdinand Magellan who almost single-handedly, lacking maps and adequate navigational instruments, undertook a hazardous voyage circumnavigating the globe; thus helping mankind to make a transition from the dark ages to the modern age. What inspires me at work includes the abilities of my peers, their deep interest and commitment towards making UCT a world-class African university.
Prof Martin Snaith
Q1.What, in your mind, are the major criteria needed to be a successful DVC at UCT?
A. Top flight academic record, management experience, the ability to relate well to other people within and outside the institution, problem solver, understands the power of humour. Q2 What attributes would you bring to a DVC position? Track record of strategic planning and management within academic, commercial and trans- governmental institutions, humour!
Q3. What has been your biggest achievement to date?
A. Changing the way people manage resources around the world in the roads sector, and, slightly more flippantly, "surviving" being a DVC in a large research-based University!
Q4. What was the last book you read?
A. Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth.
Q5. What inspires you?
A. A variety of things, ranging from my family to a dream or vision of the future, or even just watching the sun's dawn rays progressively illuminating the Himalayas. (To make our Monday Paper deadlines, Prof Snaith responded to our questions from the travellers' lounge at Hong Kong airport, en route from New Zealand, via South Africa, to the United Kingdom.)
Prof Martin Hall
Q1. What, in your mind, are the major criteria needed to be a successful DVC at UCT?
A. UCT is a complicated place to work, as are all universities. There are all sorts of different interests and loyalties, and multiple forms of creativity. It's important to know the university well, both the academic side and the way the administrative and support departments work. Both a national and international perspective are also essential. UCT's future lies in its local community and in its international links and partnerships, and we need to be constantly aware of new opportunities as well future demands. I think a DVC must always try and be a step ahead, anticipating problems before they become crises.
Q2. What attributes would you bring to a DVC position?
A. I've been responsible for setting up the Centre for Higher Education Development as an integral part of the work of all six faculties. I've thus been privileged to work closely with some very gifted and dedicated colleagues, and I've learned enormously from them. As Dean of Higher Education Development, I've worked closely with the other Deans, and have a detailed understanding of what needs to be done to achieve the co-ordination of our faculties with each other, and with the major support departments. Devolution is a complex process and at UCT it's an unfinished project. I have the experience and the ability to take this work forward. I've also served as Deputy Chair of the AIMS project and have extensive teaching experience at all undergraduate levels, as well as a wide range of Masters and doctoral students. I've also had a lot of research experience. As a result, I think I know what the "core business" of the university is all about. And as an archaeologist, I'm good at project management.
Q3. What has been your biggest challenge to date?
A. The project I'm working on at the moment, which is a study of governance in universities and technikons in South Africa. The report will go first to the Council on Higher Education and then to the Minister of Education. Higher education is in a state of great change at the moment – here and in other parts of the world – and the respective roles of councils, institutional forums and senates will determine the shape of education in the future. It's a great challenge to get to the essence of a complex and often confusing scenario, and then to frame recommendations that will make a difference.
Q4. What was the last book you read?
A. Two books have particularly grabbed my attention. The first is Lawrence Lessig's Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Lessig (Harvard Law School) shows how current proposals to regulate electronic communication will impinge on many aspects of our freedom. These issues have become sharply relevant since September 11, and there are serious implications for questions of civil liberty. The second book is the Phaidon Profile of Antony Gormley. Gormley is a sculptor – and winner of the Turner Prize – who works with life-sized casts to explore the relationship between the body and its world. His work challenges us to think about the relationship between the inner self and space in a way that is universal.
Q5. What inspires you?
A. Music inspires me. Verdi's choruses have helped get me through proof reading tasks, while Ismail Lô's Senegalese songs are good for the traffic jams on Lansdowne Road. Most inspiring, though, is local opera and the place that our Opera School students have claimed for themselves in international-standard productions, particularly last year's Carmen and this summer's Magic Flute at Spier.
Associate Prof Cheryl de la Rey
Q1. What, in your mind, are the major criteria necessary to being a successful DVC at UCT?
A. There are several criteria: strategic thinking, understanding of the higher education policy environment, a demonstrated commitment to transformation, competencies in business processes appropriate to universities, experience in teamwork, a good teaching and research record, commitment to co-operative governance and participatory management, an ability to handle conflict and stress. However, the main criteria would be: an understanding of the higher education environment and business processes; being a team player (DVCs work in a team) as well as being able to manage line responsibilities, a strong commitment to equity and excellence and a record of scholarship.
Q2. What attributes would you bring to a DVC position?
A. Attributes developed through direct personal experience of higher education from a varied number of positions – from my current position in research management, also being a member of a council as a governance structure, to being a student activist, an activist in staff unions and several years as a teacher and researcher. Through this experience and the research I have conducted on gender and higher education, I have learnt a great deal about universities as social organisations. I am passionate about learning and scholarship as an opportunity for empowerment and universities as places where we should be able to develop intellectually and socially. There are the attributes that I have listed as the criteria for success in a DVC position. I have a demonstrated track record in these areas.
Q3. What has been your biggest achievement to date?
A. There are many activities that I would call achievements for different reasons. Academically, working on my first book, together with my co-editors was an important achievement because we were trying to succeed as scholars in a way that was congruent with our political beliefs. It was an empowerment project for developing authorship among black and women academics, but at the same time we were determined to produce a quality product. I believe we succeeded. In my current position at the NRF, it is the new framework for research support, a team effort in which I played a significant It is a framework that opens access to funding in order to develop capacity, while ensuring a commitment to quality. I would also identify long distance running. At school I considered myself useless at sport. About 10 marathons and three Two Oceans later, I have a different opinion of my sporting abilities.
Q4. What was the last book you read?
A. Fiction: The Human Stain by Philip Roth, non-fiction: Sexism, Support and Survival in Academia: Academic Women and Hidden Discrimination in Finland by Liisa Husu.
Q5. What inspires you?
A. The possibilities of change. The changes we have experienced in the past ten years or more are inspirational. Much can be achieved through collective effort combined with good leadership.
Prof Kit Vaughan
Q1. What, in your mind, are the major criteria necessary to being a successful DVC at UCT?
A. I believe in leadership by example. I think it is vital for the future of UCT that its leaders be seen as academics first and administrators second. I would also say that the ten points highlighted by the Vice-Chancellor last year in his document entitled Vision 2001 are a good summary of the challenges that face our institution. The new Deputy Vice-Chancellors will have to understand and provide leadership in three important areas highlighted in the VC's document: (1) scholarship – consolidating our research identity and giving effect to our aspiration of claiming to be a world-class African university; (2) people – attracting and nurturing talented students plus recruiting, retaining and rewarding an outstanding and diverse staff; and (3) funding – securing our financial stability by identifying and attracting non-GOB sources of funds.
Q2. What attributes would you bring to a DVC position?
A. I would say that my positive attributes include: my passion for and commitment to academia in general and UCT in particular; my optimism and positive "can do" attitude; my willingness to work hard; my genuine interest in people, including both staff and students; my entrepreneurial spirit and understanding of financial matters; my knowledge of international funding agencies such as the NIH and the Wellcome Trust; my motivation and focus on the task at hand; and the self-confidence to speak my mind and take an unpopular position when necessary.
Q3. What has been your biggest achievement to date?
A. Some of my achievements were highlighted in last week's story in the Monday Paper. However, you will not read about my most significant achievements in my curriculum vitae. In the past two years, I have had the opportunity to: assist a senior colleague to compete for and win a Distinguished Teacher Award; to motivate successfully for the promotion of four senior lecturers to the rank of Associate Professor; to provide the guidance for a master's student to earn her degree with distinction; and to inspire a junior colleague to compile and submit a full-blown grant application to the National Institute of Health.
Q4. What was the last book you read?
A. While on holiday recently I read Country of My Skull by Antjie Krog. It is a harrowing account of the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, using the testimonies of the oppressed and the oppressors. I am currently busy with The Dark Stream by Leon Rousseau, the story of Eugene Marais, a pioneer of the Afrikaans language and its literature. He was a complex but fascinating character who made a contribution to our country in a number of remarkable ways.
Q5. What inspires you?
A. I am inspired by people, such as Nelson Mandela, who triumph over adversity. In the UCT context, I am inspired by the example of Allan MacLeod Cormack, an alumnus and lecturer in our Physics Department, whose pioneering work here in Cape Town in the mid-1950s led to the award of the Nobel Prize in Medicine for his development of the computer tomographic (CT) scanner. I was inspired to set up a research group in medical imaging, which was recognised by the MRC with the award of a research unit in 2000. I will be visiting the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC next week where I will be photographing his original prototype CT scanner with a view to building a replica here in Cape Town. As we stand on the threshold of the 21st century, Allan Cormack inspires me with the idea that it is possible to perform world-class research here on the southern tip of Africa.
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