March 2016 UCT News Issue 09

Young people give me hope never saw herself becoming a professor. Today she's an internationally recognised researcher, an inspiration to many students and learners, and UCT's incoming deputy vice- chancellor for research and internationalisation.

Read about her journey...

Activities News Campus life

Register now: UCT's Teaching & “It’s always about the student.” “Seize the day!” First-year Learning Conference is happening, 30 Meet Penny Andrews, UCT’s new student (and top matric achiever)

March 2016 dean of law Namhla Juqu drops some wisdom

Take your pick of UCT concerts, Is free for the poor Registrar Royston Pillay on why we

seminars, talks and public lectures possible? UCT’s new finance director should question assumptions and "old

hopes to show how ways of doing things"

A turning point for UCT

"We cannot delay and be complacent about the real deep-seated changes that need to occur." Dr Russell Ally, executive director of the alumni and development department, talks transformation and recent protests at UCT.

Watch the video

UCT has been a site of protest, debate and discussion in 2015 and continuing into the new year. As events unfold, we share information with the UCT community on our website. Please visit the site for updates: uct.ac.za

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Young people give me hope, says incoming DVC

Having started school under a tree in Marapyane village in Mpumalanga in 1972, Mamokgethi Phakeng never envisaged herself as a professor; there was no role model to fire her imagination or kindle a desire

Consolidate and sustain: Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng joins UCT on 1 July as the incoming deputy vice-chancellor for research and internationalisation.

It's not that she didn't have fine role models growing up, says UCT's incoming deputy vice-chancellor (research and internationalisation), a respected mathematics education scholar who will join the university on 1 July ahead of incumbent DVC Professor Danie Visser's retirement in December.

Her mother, Wendy, went back to school (in uniform) to do grade 7 after she'd had three children. (Mamokgethi is the second.)

"I was encouraged by my late father, Frank Lentsoe Mmutlana, who was high-school educated and wanted my mother to continue her education. Education was a priority at home, mainly because of my dad. I was just so happy that she studied with us and helped me with my homework!"

Phakeng excelled academically, majoring in mathematics at the University of Bophuthatswana (now part of North- West University). It was a language she understood and loved.

As a student sitting at a coffee shop or waiting for her next lecture, Phakeng would scribble theorem proofs on her denim jeans and backpack.

"I was truly a boring chick – no parties and no boyfriends," she recalled. "I spent time in the library or playing sport. I was not date-able."

But it wasn't all work; in that time Phakeng represented her university as a ballroom and Latin American dancer. ("If there's a good partner in the room I can still get to the floor.") Her bachelor's degree led her to Wits for postgraduate study and a doctorate in 2002 when she became the first black African woman in South with a PhD in mathematics education, "which tells you what the state of maths education was back then", says the 49-year-old mother, stepmother and adoptive mother of five.

Research and transformation

In Sweden for a conference when the news of her UCT appointment was announced in January, Phakeng, currently Vice-Principal of Research and Innovation at UNISA, was upbeat about her new job.

"Given what UCT is, my view is that the university should be the go-to place when it comes to relevant, responsive research that contributes to the growth and wellbeing of the country and continent.

"I hope to consolidate and sustain that [UCT's] performance while transforming the cohort of researchers to ensure we don't only lead when it comes to research productivity and influence, but also when it comes to researching transformation and transforming research."

Phakeng will work alongside Visser for the first six months, to get to know the turf, "important because it will help me serve better".

The decision to move south and make her academic home at UCT was also made easier by timing.

"My term at UNISA was coming to an end and I needed a different experience, a new challenge."

Milestones

A National Research Foundation B2-rated researcher (with plenty of publications and citations in her area of research), Phakeng regards the rating as her best academic achievement to date.

"It came only 10 years after my PhD."

The achievement is set against a backdrop of several other important research and community work awards. The big one is the 2011 National Science and Technology Forum award for innovative research on teaching and learning mathematics in multilingual classrooms. In 2013 CEO magazine called her the most influential woman in education and training in and in 2014 she was named the Most Influential Woman in Academia in Africa.

Those who have met Phakeng talk of her enthusiasm, energy and personal style. It's a particularly charismatic combination for young people and it's the youth with their teeming ideas and get-up-and-go attitude that inspire her.

"Young people come first for me; some remind me of myself many years ago and others give me hope. They are our future."

She's very active on social media and welcomes any platform to engage with them - the more interactive the communication, the better.

Besides people and ideas, causes absorb her.

Phakeng started the Adopt-a-learner Foundation in 2004 to ensure that gifted young black people in townships and rural areas aren't lost to the country.

"I started the foundation because being the first to achieve anything is a responsibility to ensure that one is not the last," she added.

"Human capital development is at the centre of what I do – all of my initiatives are about developing people and inspiring them to be the best in whatever they choose to be."

Transformation and education

Reflecting on the sharp advent in 2015 and continuation of student activism around inclusive and free higher education, Phakeng said the #FeesMustFall campaign signaled opportunity and danger.

"It may be the beginning of the rise, or fall, of South African public higher education as we know it.

"Depending on how government responds we may see the emergence of a stronger private higher education sector and thus the beginning of a thriving parallel higher education system like what we have in basic education: one for the poor and the other for the rich. This is undesirable."

She added: "The #FeesMustFall campaign is about free education for all, which is essentially about ensuring that higher education is not commodified. The government's response, however, is about free education for the poor through NSFAS, which suggests that those who can afford it must pay.

"My concern is that while the government has increased NSFAS funding and given additional money to universities to deal with the 0% increase in fees for 2016, it is not responding to the real issue that the students are raising – ending the commodification of public higher education."

But more than that, it's also about basic education, says Phakeng.

"We need a plan or road map that indicates how we can achieve free education for all in South Africa. Such a plan should start by immediately ensuring free education for the poor at all levels. We also need a study that investigates the success and limitations of the no-fee schools since inception in 2007."

Spectre of poverty

But behind her ardent support of youth and their education - and behind her own achievements – is the spectre of poverty.

"The idea of 'lack' just scares me. I had enough of it as a young person and so I work hard to make sure that I never go back there - and in the process I try to protect as many young people as I can from poverty."

Off duty, Phakeng believes in healthy living (diet, gym and walking or running) but loves to cook up traditional favourites: cow heels, chicken feet, oxtail, brown pap and dumplings.

Music energises her. She has more than 5 000 tracks on her iTunes library (American hip hop artist Talib Kweli is a favourite, she sings along to Shaggy's Ghetto Child and bops to Brenda Fassie and Beyoncé) - and she can still salsa up a storm.

Is there anything she doesn't do? She doesn't drink alcohol, not even wine at the dinner table.

"I think I surprise people, because they expect me to be something that I am not," she says, amused.

Her tattoos, for example, are immediate conversation starters. The words "Believe" on her left arm and "Forgiven" on her right reflect the cornerstones of her Christian faith, centring and guiding her.

She's also a traveller.

"My husband Lucky and I visit at least one island a year. We have visited many places but India remains my favourite. I love its energy, the sense of urgency and how people just get on with life despite their limited resources."

A voracious consumer of literature, she takes any opportunity she can to tap into audible.com.

"I'm addicted," she says. "And there are books everywhere in my house."

Story by Helen Swingler. Photo by Michael Hammond New dean of law up for the challenge

Professor Penny Andrews, UCT’s new dean of law, believes that all her experience has prepared her for a moment such as this and that the problems faced by higher education though difficult are not insurmountable. In fact she views these challenges as “great opportunities”.

Prof Penelope (Penny) Andrews recently took over the reins as dean of UCT's Faculty of Law, which she describes as the preeminent law school in the country and on the continent.

Born in , Andrews started her academic career in after completing her LLM at Columbia University in New York. She had obtained her undergraduate degree from the then University of Natal.

She decided to further her education after her work at a legal aid in Durban exposed her to the difficulties that people experienced in their everyday life.

“When I was doing my BA I knew I wanted to help people pursue their rights and justice, and with a law degree I could,” says Andrews, an activist in the global anti-apartheid movement.

When asked why she moved back home after almost 30 years abroad, she mentions her “total dedication to South Africa and what happens here”.

“I also realised that I am really committed to mentoring the next generation of legal professionals, particularly black South African legal professionals,” she says.

Originally from Kensington in Cape Town, Andrews says: “If you were born in South Africa during apartheid your life’s work is set out for you. For me the personal and professional is completely interlinked.

“I feel that all the work I’ve done thus far has contributed towards this moment, which is a difficult moment, but the problems we face are not insurmountable. It just requires commitment and hard work, and I’m no stranger to either. I feel prepared.”

Student-centred

For her the academic project must revolve around the student. “It is always about the students. When I’m confronting an issue or process, my question is always how does this affect the student?

“Teachers are not there to spoon feed their students, but some people must crawl before they can walk, before they can run. We, as teachers, need to figure out a way to reach our students, so they feel as if we care about their professional development and their learning.”

Another crucial element is a constant engagement between law scholars and practitioners. It was while studying in New York that she began to fully appreciate “the capacity and power of (and law scholars) to change the world”.

“In South Africa we are probably among the most fortunate of citizenry because we have a Constitution, which is such an important template for the values we need to reinforce in this society. Lawyers are best equipped to ensure that the Constitution becomes real – that the transformative vision of the Constitution actualises and makes a difference in people’s lives.”

Andrews promotes such engagement through her involvement in the South African Reading Group, an interdisciplinary group whose members share an interest in ongoing developments in South Africa. She and Professor Stephen Ellman of New York Law School founded the group in 1994.

The group would host conferences and talks featuring prominent South African legal thinkers like Richard Goldstone, Albie Sachs, Yvonne Mokgoro and Emeritus Professor Thandabantu Nhlapo among others.

The power of humour

Andrews enjoys her work immensely. As a young professor she couldn’t believe her luck in being paid to do what she loves.

“Every year I had a new class of young, inquiring smart people with whom I engaged regularly. I could write about whatever I wanted to write and then there were the long holidays … Now as dean I’m involved in something larger than myself – in institutional culture change, mentoring and development.”

Her sense of humour helps her cope in difficult times. “In many communities, but particularly the Cape coloured community, humour is very important because it is a coping mechanism. We’re not laughing at, but laughing with people. We’ve got to able to laugh at ourselves,” she concludes.

Story by Abigail Calata. Photo by Michael Hammond.

Matric star urges fellow students to 'seize the day'

Thanks to her name, first-year chemical engineering student Namhla Juqu has a better sense than most of the sagacity of that old idiom “Seize the day”.

Inspirational story: First-year chemical engineering student Namhla Juqu with her mentor, lecturer Arthur Mabentsela. Juqu achieved the second-best matric results in the country in a quintile three school.

In Zulu her first name means “Today”.

“To me this means focusing on today for a better tomorrow,” said Juqu who stunned the public with her sterling 2015 matric results: a raft of A symbols and 100% for physical science.

She was the second-best performing student in a quintile three school. All South African public ordinary schools are categorised into five groups, called quintiles, largely for purposes of the allocation of financial resources. Quintile one is the 'poorest' quintile, while quintile five is the 'least poor'.

The student from the Centre of Science and Technology (COSAT) was supported by SHAWCO’s Academic Intervention Unit via the SHAWCO SHINE programme, and the Schools Improvement Initiative’s 100UP programme, which grooms promising students for university.

The last of five children, Juqu grew up in “an average township family”, one that instilled the importance of humility, commitment and selflessness.

“People focus on the past or the future and forget to live in the present. So my name forces me to think about what I do daily to shape my future.”

Juqu sees her matric results as part of that ongoing self-development.

“I always strive to make a difference where I am by committing myself to whatever I do.”

Her tenacity is underpinned by a strong spiritual background − it helped her overcome difficulties and got her to where she is now; about to embark on a life-changing journey.

Diverse interests

Her interest in engineering was sparked by a passion for science at school.

The field also combines her twin interests, maths and science, and instils the multi-faceted thinking skills she’s keen to develop.

“Initially I’d wanted to become a mathematician and then a chemist, but I think chemical engineering sums up my diverse interests.”

Ultimately, an MBA is where she’s set her sights − once she has completed a PhD (she’s planned that far ahead). The idea is to have her own engineering business one day. (Ditto.)

Yes, the future does looks bright, she says. “But it still all depends on me today.”

Shared journey

Chemical engineering is a notoriously tough course but Juqu will not journey alone. She’ll have Arthur Mabentsela as her mentor.

Mabentsela, also a former COSAT student and now a lecturer in the Department of Chemical Engineering, will be her guide through the undergraduate degree, identifying any glitches and hurdles.

“Inyanthi ibuzwa kwabaphambili, that is to say, if you want to get ahead you must ask those who are ahead of you for advice,” he said.

“University studies are challenging, chemical engineering in particular as it’s the second hardest course on campus (last I checked). It demands intelligence and good mental conditioning.

“Students joining the department will have already proved their intelligence by acquiring high marks at school, but it is their mental conditioning and soft skills that I find myself assisting with as a mentor.”

Balance in life

Balance in life is important to Juqu and that balance extends to understanding our symbiotic relationship with nature, she says.

Biomimicry excites her, “just to see what we as can learn from nature”. But she is also interested in politics, psychology and economics. “I make time to read novels so that I can be more open-minded about matters and get a sense of what is happening around the world – and to learn from other people’s stories.

She doesn’t have a role model but enjoys interacting with people of all ages, assimilating their wisdom.

“I use this knowledge to mould the engineer, leader and the South African citizen I strive to be.”

Swept along by the events of the past two months (which have included TV and other interviews), Juqu is clear that her success lies in being able to explore possibilities and write her own story. That narrative is already being shared among her peers.

“Learners I have met now have a ‘I can do it’ attitude because they have seen someone from a similar background achieve the unexpected.”

Story by Helen Swingler. Photo supplied.

'Free education for the poor on the cards'

UCT’s new executive director of finance contemplates a differential fee structure as one way to manage escalating fee tensions.

Not business as usual: Ashley Francis embraces innovation as he leads UCT through one of the most trying financial periods for South African universities.

When Ashley Francis was announced as UCT’s Executive Director: Finance Designate at the beginning of 2015, nobody could have foreseen the upheaval on the university and political landscape that would take place last year.

Already the university was facing massive cuts in state subsidies, and the unexpected zero percent increase in fees exacerbated the challenge. But having completed the handover from his predecessor, Professor Enrico Uliana, at the beginning of this year, he’s got a few plans for the university to safely navigate these choppy waters.

Francis takes the reins at a particularly bumpy stretch of road for all South African universities, who face an uncertain fiscal future. But he is unintimidated by the complexity of the challenge.

Francis is accustomed to conquering uncharted territory, having cut his teeth in the hurly burly of the corporate world, where he was a key behind-the-scenes driver at the V&A Waterfront Group when it was being prepared for sale.

When he joined the Waterfront, its finance systems and corporate structures were in less than shiny condition, he says. After some deliberation, he restructured the staff corps and made some other major improvements, which ultimately facilitated its record sale.

In 2005, after leaving the Waterfront, Francis founded an alternative energy company. Biotech Fuels was a little ahead of its time – maybe too far ahead, he admits – and corporate funding and government support were tricky to secure. The financial meltdown of 2008/2009 made it impossible to continue, and Francis was forced to sell in 2011.

“What Sasol is today is what Biotech Fuels could have been in fifteen years with adequate but strategic government support.”

His journey to the financial world was more complex than others, too. After matriculating from Zeekoevlei High School in Lotus River, he couldn’t accept offers from UCT and UWC because his parents couldn’t afford the fees.

Francis instead worked and studied through UNISA, eventually passing his board exams.

So he’s used to a little adversity.

“Can I do the job? Of course I can do the job. Is it going to be easy? No. It’s not going to be easy. What has happened in higher education in the last three months has never happened in South Africa, ever.

“So this is not going to be business as usual. But I’m up for the challenge.”

Where to for fees?

The zero percent increase was just the beginning; the push from students is now for no fees at all, and Francis recognises the need for fresh thinking around funding.

The university is considering a differential fee structure that considered what students could afford. Wealthier students and families would pay, while poor students would not pay.

“There needs to be a scaled tuition fee structure. That’s a project I’m going to be starting very soon,” explains Francis, adding that it could become a template for other universities.

“That would begin to assist us to not have free education, but definitely free education for the poor.”

The university currently spends in the region of R500 million to aid students who struggle to afford the fees; that number needs to double, says Francis, and this is where the university needs to work with alumni and corporates to explore ways to realise that figure.

The state is simply unable to fund higher education to the tune of zero fees for all students, he says. Traditionally, the ratio of government funding, student fees and third-stream funding has been 40:40:20. It’s conceivable that this may change to 20:40:40, says Francis. So the university must find new ways of bringing in revenue.

Thinking out of the box is thus required. Francis sees the proverbial carpet in the room – Jammie buses, buildings, the grounds and other iconic yet almost invisible landmarks – as potentially viable sources of income, via advertising.

Then there’s the Protea Hotel in Mowbray, which UCT owns. Francis made some changes to the model last year which now see the university take a much bigger cut of its income – money for jam, if you will. And more opportunities for UCT to sweat its assets are abundant if you know where to look, he says.

Francis reiterates that managing a university’s teetering finances is not for the faint-hearted, even though UCT is in a slightly safer position than most of its counterparts, with some cash reserves it was able to fall back on.

“The crisis is not for a run-of-the-mill accountant,” says Francis. "This is not an accounting job. This is a financial management job and one needs to be creative and innovative. You need to build a team, and build relationships and trust with the UCT community, the academic community; with the outside community."

“Cape Town, South Africa, and Africa is looking at UCT. The world is looking at UCT to pull through this crisis.”

Story by Yusuf Omar. Photo by Michael Hammond.

New registrar: 'more than just a channel for bureaucracy'

Royston Pillay, UCT's newly appointed registrar, wants to embed a culture of questioning assumptions and 'old ways of doing things' as the country's universities tread unpredictable waters.

Royston Pillay took over from long-serving registrar Hugh Amoore, who retired at the end of last year.

As if to demonstrate a ‘typical’ day in the new registrar’s office, Royston Pillay apologised numerous times when pausing this writer’s interview with him to urgently tend to constant knocks at his door and a bleeping cellphone.

“It’s the new normal,” says Pillay, after emerging from a text conversation.

UCT’s new registrar is an educationalist to the core. He taught at Grassy Park High, working his way up to the deputy principal’s seat. His first job at UCT was as the head of the student affairs secretariat, acting as a conduit between the student leadership and university management. This was after graduating from UCT with arts, social sciences and education qualifications.

“So there was the initial exposure to UCT as a student, during my undergrad and early postgrad, and then my first job at UCT was in the student services.”

That was followed by a stint in faculty administration when Pillay became the Faculty of Humanities’ first faculty manager responsible for academic administration in 1999.

“Academic administration is a really important component of the job of registrar, so in terms of cutting my teeth and gaining exposure to the kind of work that forms part of the wider domain of the responsibilities of the registrar, my time in the faculty gave me valuable experience.”

Two years later he became the director of student admissions. This required him to work closely with the registrar’s office. “So there’s an alignment between what I was doing at admissions and the wider portfolio of the office of the registrar.”

He held this position until 2004, when he moved to the Office of the Vice-Chancellor (OVC) to serve as its director. The view from the OVC, he says, gave him deep insights into the “belly of the beast” that is UCT and honed his understanding of the strategy considerations and “big picture issues” at the university. “That really helped me to understand this institution and its complexity in ways that would not have been possible had I not worked in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for a sustained period of time, and with two VCs (Professor Njabulo Ndebele and Dr ) and a number of different deputy vice-chancellors,” he says.

Steeped in education

So Pillay’s journey has been an interesting form of orientation for the position of registrar. Having immersed himself in the world of education from the get-go, his earlier life and work experiences have influenced his own education.

“I’m basically a person from the Cape Flats. I was born in District Six and lived in District Six for the first eight years of my life, before my family was moved to the Cape Flats, and still have some lingering memories of the evictions. So I grew up in District 6 and on the Cape Flats.

“That’s defined me. I think I understand some of the challenges that we face because of that experience. I think I have good insight into the reality of school life in disadvantaged communities, and I think this will help me in terms of formulating an ongoing plan for the registrar’s office but also for the and how we go about our business.”

Pillay speaks highly of his education at South Peninsula High School.

“I had teachers that understood the importance of taking students way beyond the narrowness of a textbook. I had teachers who basically prepared me for life. I was very influenced in my young life by New Unity Movement politics and by teachers who shared that inclination.”

The politicised face of the education ‘business’ that has been thrust into the public eye recently isn’t new to him.

The ‘new normal’

With #FeesMustFall a major new player on the educational landscape, we have left an era where we can be comfortable in knowing what tomorrow will hold, says Pillay.

“The certainty that makes us comfortable has been disturbed. There is unpredictability. I think there’s a much, much deeper level of complexity in terms of what we have to deal with, in terms of what we have to engage with as a society, as a sector, and as an individual tertiary institution.”

It’s the “new normal. It’s a moment for everybody in higher education to take a step back and reflect on different ways to solve problems and engage challenges,” he adds.

View from the registrar’s office

Having said all that, what does a registrar do?

“It’s a pretty big job,” he says. “The registrar’s office is a cradle on which so much else pivots in terms of academic administration across the university, in terms of legal and systems work, and in terms of governance support to statutory bodies like Senate, Council [and] Convocation.”

It’s a team effort. Pillay wants to coax the people around him to go beyond their limits, demonstrating that each staff member’s institutional memory is valuable and can be harnessed. He believes that everyone has something to offer.

“One should always encourage people to be creative, to take chances. Just because something was done in a particular way for years, it doesn’t necessarily mean that that continues to be the best way to do things.

“But sometimes the power and influence of how things had been done makes people reluctant to experiment, or even to ask the question.”

He is keen to foster a culture of asking these questions more and more.

Pillay would also like to see the professional staff (PASS staff) be increasingly “recognised for the really important professional contribution that they make to this university”.

“We have to celebrate that and encourage their contribution to the core business. And the core business is fundamentally in the interest of advancing our society, our country, continent and world.”

He lays down a challenge for staff, particularly those in the registrar’s department.

“See yourself as more than just a channel for bureaucracy. If we constrain ourselves in terms of how we see our roles, we limit our capacity to make an even bigger contribution.”

Story by Yusuf Omar. Photo by Michael Hammond.