RECTOR’S MANAGEMENT REPORT TO COUNCIL Monday 22 June 2020 Prof WJS de Villiers, Rector and Vice-Chancellor 1 Table of contents INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 4 THEME 1: A THRIVING STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY ............................................................................... 6 1.1 Institutional Committee for Business Continuity (ICBC) ..................................................... 6 1.2 Academic calendar and University Almanac revised ........................................................ 11 1.3 Institutional events ........................................................................................................... 12 1.4 Health and well-being during COVID-19 ........................................................................... 12 1.5 Contact and Client Services Centre ................................................................................... 13 1.6 Student recruitment ......................................................................................................... 13 1.7 Applications for 2021 ........................................................................................................ 13 1.8 Communication during the COVID-19 pandemic .............................................................. 14 1.9 SU in the news (10 March–22 May) .................................................................................. 16 1.10 Campus renewal................................................................................................................ 17 1.11 SU’s water optimisation project receives international recognition ................................ 19 1.12 SUNCOM ........................................................................................................................... 20 1.13 SU’s group of companies .................................................................................................. 20 1.14 Fundraising ........................................................................................................................ 20 1.15 Strategic Fund ................................................................................................................... 22 1.16 Stellenbosch University scorecard .................................................................................... 22 1.17 Systems renewal ............................................................................................................... 26 1.18 Website redevelopment ................................................................................................... 26 1.19 IT service desks ................................................................................................................. 27 1.20 Data and information classification framework ............................................................... 27 1.21 Brand positioning strategy and refreshed visual identity ................................................. 27 THEME 2: A TRANSFORMATIVE STUDENT EXPERIENCE ....................................................................... 28 2.1 Supporting our students during the COVID-19 pandemic ................................................ 28 2.2 Student sport and COVID-19 ............................................................................................. 31 2.3 SU SRC joins SAUS ............................................................................................................. 32 2.4 First-Year Achievement Awards ........................................................................................ 32 2.5 Anti-GBV joint working groups ......................................................................................... 32 2.6 Transformative writing, research and engagement ......................................................... 33 2.7 Social media guidance ....................................................................................................... 33 2.8 Postgraduate enrolments in 2020 .................................................................................... 34 THEME 3: PURPOSEFUL PARTNERSHIPS AND INCLUSIVE NETWORKS ................................................. 35 3.1 Internationalisation at SU goes online .............................................................................. 35 3.2 International agreements ................................................................................................. 36 3.3 Internationalisation of the curriculum .............................................................................. 36 3.4 Venice International University consortium ..................................................................... 36 3.5 Academic Consortium of 21 network (AC21) .................................................................... 37 3.6 Global citizenship programme .......................................................................................... 37 3.7 Alumni engagement .......................................................................................................... 37 3.8 Social impact during COVID-19 ......................................................................................... 38 3.9 SU Woordfees, WOW and SU Choir .................................................................................. 39 3.10 MGD a finalist for global prize .......................................................................................... 40 3.11 Telematic Schools Project ................................................................................................. 40 THEME 4: NETWORKED AND COLLABORATIVE TEACHING AND LEARNING ......................................... 40 4.1 Qualifications awarded in the 2019 academic year .......................................................... 41 4.2 Support for online teaching and learning in light of COVID-19 ........................................ 42 4.3 SU establishes African Data Science Academy ................................................................. 44 4.4 Electronic student feedback ............................................................................................. 44 4.5 Developing academics as teachers ................................................................................... 44 2 THEME 5: RESEARCH FOR IMPACT ........................................................................................................ 45 5.1 Research in a time of COVID-19 ........................................................................................ 45 5.2 Research ethics committees ............................................................................................. 46 5.3 Library an online pioneer .................................................................................................. 46 5.4 NRF ratings ........................................................................................................................ 46 5.5 Research outputs .............................................................................................................. 47 5.6 Research contract reports ................................................................................................. 47 5.7 National review of doctoral degrees by Council on Higher Education (CHE) ................... 48 5.8 Postgraduate research funding ......................................................................................... 48 5.9 Open4Research ................................................................................................................. 49 THEME 6: EMPLOYER OF CHOICE ......................................................................................................... 49 6.1 nGAP at SU ........................................................................................................................ 49 6.2 Human Resources review.................................................................................................. 50 6.3 Staff survey on well-being, culture and climate at work 2019/20 .................................... 50 6.4 Task team for recognising and incentivising staff ............................................................. 50 6.5 Appointments and achievements ..................................................................................... 50 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 51 ADDENDUM: OP-EDs AND COLUMNS .................................................................................................. 52 Opinion editorials (25 Feb to 14 May 2020) ................................................................................. 52 Columns (25 Feb to 14 May 2020) ................................................................................................ 57 CONTRIBUTORS ..................................................................................................................................... 59 3 INTRODUCTION Welcome to the second (online) Council meeting of 2020 – a very challenging year to date on all fronts, particularly also for us in higher education. By now, we are all acutely aware of the coronavirus pandemic, the subsequent state of disaster and the prolonged lockdown that was imposed on 27 March (relatively shortly before the last meeting of Council on 6 April). These developments necessitated urgent changes to this year’s academic programme (see 1.2).