Teaching and learning at UCT18

CONTACT USCENTRE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION DEVELOPMENTLevel 5 Hoerikwaggo Building North LaneUpper Campus

+27 (0)21 650 2645

ched@uct.ac.za

www.ched.uct.ac.za

Teaching and Learning are the core functions of any university.UCT is constantly striving to improve the experience of teaching and learning for staff and students while working to renew the curriculum, improve access and support the online provision of teaching and learning.

Did you know? 1 UCT boasts a portfolio of 18 massive open online

courses (MOOCs) that attract participants from more than 180 countries and over 1 000 new students enter every week.

2 Three MOOCs (Past and Present, What is a Mind? and Understanding Clinical Research) made Class Central’s top 50 courses for 2018. The courses offer flexibility and are accessible at a nominal fee for some, or free of charge for others.

3 The 2018 Teaching and Learning Conference was host to more than 322 individuals, including 254 UCT staff, 61 UCT students, and 7 colleagues from associated institutions.

Teaching and Learning Charter Central to UCT’s commitment to student learning is the Teaching and Learning Charter. We are committed to creating a constructive and supportive environment where both students and staff participate fully in academic activities. We affirm our commitment to developing the capacity to support student learning with enthusiasm, creativity and rigour, and in a manner that reflects and interprets the research-led identity of the institution.

Teaching awards

The Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) is committed to a higher education environment that fosters transformative and reflexive practices in learning and teaching. We strive to create a socially responsive and contextually relevant environment that embraces openness. Our key focus areas include staff development, curriculum and course design, and educational technologies. CILT responds to teaching and learning challenges at UCT and the broader higher education environment through:

promoting learner-centred teaching practices advocating critical engagements with staff and students undertaking curriculum initiatives underpinned by values and skills ranging from graduate attributes and digital literacies to community engagement and social justice.

building capacity to produce online programmes, courses and materials

Key activities and programmes hosted by CILT include: lecture recording across the university VULA – the institutional learning management system staff development activities and grants curriculum transformation support online course and materials development

The Curriculum Change Working Group, commissioned by former UCT Vice-Chancellor Dr Max Price, concluded its university-wide engagements in 2018 to facilitate critical discussions on the decolonisation of the curriculum. The outcome of this process, the CCWG Framework Document was released in July 2018 and was informed by student needs at three on-campus sites during the university shutdown in 2016. The framework proposes, suggests and recommends a range of theorised strategies to decolonise teaching, learning, assessment and related practice, using a decolonial approach and lens. The framework is an invitation to faculties and departments to embark on a process of change relative to their staff and students’ needs and curriculum imperatives.

The First-Year Experience (FYE) is a collective, campus-wide initiative to help first-year students make a successful transition into university life and develop a strong sense of belonging at UCT. FYE prioritises an integrated approach to student development, linking initiatives that respond to students’ academic, affective, social, and material needs.

Teaching snapshot

Student snapshot

1,4% increase per

annuum in the number of permanent, full-time academic staff between 2017 and 2018.

1 173

1 169new academic staff and 4 senior staff were appointed in 2018 alone.

IN 2018 750 ACADEMIC STAFF HELD DOCTORAL DEGREES AND 325 HELD MASTER’S DEGREES.

28 693 students studied at UCT in 2018:

17 493 undergraduates

11 200 postgraduates

7 223 students completed

a degree or diploma in 2017, including:

1 139 master’s graduates

277 doctoral graduates

academic staff called UCT home in 2018.

The 2017 undergraduate course success rate was

85,8%

In 2018 5 064 international students studied at UCT

Of the total student population, 2 319 were from SADC countries

Gregor Leigh: Department of PhysicsRelaxed, irreverent, interactive and engaging, that’s how physics lecturer Gregor Leigh describes his teaching style. “Teaching is what you do when your student says for the 3rd time: ‘But I still don’t understand!’” Gregor teaches physics to first-year engineering students.

Professor Robert Dunn: Orthopaedic SurgeryNot only does Professor Robert Dunn practise as a celebrated spinal surgeon, he heads up UCT’s Division of Orthopaedic Surgery, where he has pioneered innovative teaching practices at undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral levels. “My efforts to teach and train came from a desire to improve orthopaedic and, more specifically, spinal surgical care in the region,” he says.

Professor Pradeep Navsaria: General SurgeryProfessor Pradeep Navsaria believes that the hallmark of good teaching is an active, collaborative and curiosity-driven learning environment in which all participants are both teachers and learners. “For me, teaching is about inspiring others to discover their purpose and potential. Medicine is about compassion, service, altruism and trustworthiness,” he says.

Associate Professor Jacqueline Yeats: Commercial LawAssociate Professor Jacqueline Yeats was practising as an attorney in the corporate commercial department of a large law firm when UCT contacted the company looking for a guest lecturer. Almost 13 years later, she’s still at the university. “If you want law that creates ground-breaking arguments and changes the status quo, you have to be creative,” she says.

The Distinguished Teacher Award is the highest accolade awarded to teaching staff. Through the award, UCT acknowledges the primary place of teaching and learning in the university’s work and recognises excellent teaching by individual lecturers. These are the 2017/18 winners:Support