Vice-Chancellor and Principal at UKZN
The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is recognised as one of the top research-led universities in South Africa, and is one of the largest universities in sub-Saharan Africa. The university is located in two cities, Durban and Pietermaritzburg, on five campuses, namely Edgewood, Howard College, Pietermaritzburg, Westville and the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine.
The university, which has enjoyed over a century of academic advancements, was formed in 2004 as a result of the merger between the University of Durban-Westville and the University of Natal. UKZN brings together the rich histories of both the former universities.
UKZN’s vision to be the premier university of African scholarship is linked with its mission to be a truly South African university that is academically excellent, innovative in research and critically engaged with society, as well as being demographically representative and redressing the disadvantages, in-equities and imbalances of the past.
The university prioritises social cohesion and has developed a transformation charter that emphasises the importance of race and gender representation within all university structures. The vice-chancellor and principal at UKZN, Dr Albert van Jaarsveld, has consistently reaffirmed his commitment to sports, academia and research at the university. Van Jaarsveld believes that fostering a strong sporting culture at UKZN will contribute to its transformation agenda.
As one of South Africa’s pre-eminent research institutions, UKZN provides a dynamic environment for all facets of research and innovation. Research activities span the natural and biomedical sciences, social sciences and the humanities.
The university has recently been recognised by the department of higher education and training (DHET) for having the most published output units in South Africa in 2014 (1708.61) — this is the third consecutive year the university has been in the top spot. UKZN was followed by the University of Pretoria, the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University and the University of the Witwatersrand.
Apart from this, UKZN contributed the highest proportion of the total output units awarded by volume (unweighted number of publication units), with 11.2%, followed closely by the University of Pretoria’s 11%.
UKZN’s deputy vice-chancellor: research, Professor Jonathan Blackledge, commended UKZN academics who have “consistently strived for excellence in research”.
The 2014 research statistics, issued by DHET, seek to “encourage research productivity by rewarding quality research output at public higher education institutions”.
It’s been an excellent year for the research activities of the university, which has witnessed further growth in its number of publications, postgraduate throughput (MSc and PhD completions) and funding awarded from the National Research Foundation (NRF), industry and philanthropic sources.
An analysis of the profile of publishing staff shows continued involvement by women and black researchers, with the proportion of these researchers showing sustained growth. UKZN’s engagement with the NRF with regard to women in the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) was particularly fruitful. This can be seen through the university having been awarded all five of the applications made in 2015, with the five SARChI chairs being strictly women researchers. The university has significantly increased its normalised citation index and has maintained its international standing, and participation in research is being undertaken by staff and (postgraduate) students across the entire range of the university’s academic portfolio. Blackledge emphasised that the institution looks forward to significantly increasing the number of active and high-quality black and women researchers over all disciplines in the future.
UKZN has the second-highest number of postdoctoral students on its books of all universities in South Africa. The university places great emphasis on giving total support to postdocs and goes out of its way to encourage them to become academics.
Funding from the NRF increased by 140% compared with 2014, with UKZN receiving in the order of R190-million from the NRF in 2015 (compared with around R80-million in 2014), and nearly R340-million for nongovernmental research grants and contracts (compared with just over R288-million in 2014).
Coupled with developments in teaching and learning, this growth has not gone unnoticed: the university has been ranked in the top 2.1% of the world’s leading academic institutions by the Centre for World University Rankings.
Furthermore, the Academic Ranking of World Universities places UKZN in the top three universities in Africa, and the university is now ranked 46th among a total of 800 universities according to the ranking of universities in Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) and emerging economies by the Times Higher Education rankings.
The university has been ranked at 478 in the US News and World Report Best Global Universities and, for a third year running, UKZN has been ranked as the top university in South Africa for research productivity.
UKZN’s executive director of corporate relations, Lesiba Seshoka, believes that in addition to the pillars of academia — research and teaching and learning — the university is committed to research and knowledge production that expresses itself in practical interventions for the upliftment of society in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, but also in South Africa, Africa and globally.
Responsible community engagement, which is the second goal of UKZN’s strategic plan for 2007-2016, aims to contribute to the prosperity and sustainability of KwaZulu-Natal and to nation-building by connecting and committing the entire university family to the communities it serves, in a manner that adds value and earns the people’s respect. Such community engagement should be embedded into teaching and learning and research, and take place in such a way that there is low risk for the community, with the projects being undertaken being sustainable within the community after the university’s engagement has ended.
The university is quietly confident that it is achieving responsible community engagement — one of the three core functions of a university — through the activities of its staff and students, and coupled with its research activities, is contributing to the upliftment of the surrounding communities, the province and the country.