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Mangosuthu University of Technology Annual Report

43

Quality Enhancement Project

Since early 2014 around 100 staff members and students

of MUT have been involved in task teams engaged in

the Quality Enhancement Project. This national project

aims to enhance the quality of teaching and learning at

Higher Education Institutions, and specifically to enhance

(1) academics as teachers, (2) student support and

development, (3) the learning environment, and (4) course

and programme enrolment. Even though the baseline

report was submitted in September 2014 to the CHE, the

task teams continued to meet. An overview of challenges

and plans as identified by the task teams has been drafted

and was tabled for the APC meeting in the third cycle of

statutory meetings. In February 2016 MUT is expected to

submit the institutional report to the Council on Higher

Education.

Both the Institutional Improvement Plan and the QEP are

excellent ways to involve the MUT community and so gain

broad buy-in and input into the further development of

MUT.

Alignment of Programmes with the Higher Education

Qualifications Sub-Framework (HEQSF)

The Programme Qualification Mix (PQM) as approved by

the Minister has been aligned with the Higher Education

Qualification Sub-Framework (HEQSF). It was submitted

to the Department of Higher Education and Training

(DHET) in mid-January 2015. We are awaiting approval.

Once the HEQSF-aligned PQM is approved, the current

National Diploma Programmes will migrate to Diploma

Programmes, as per the HEQSF. In the meantime

preparation is continuing to develop programmes that will

replace the current six BTech programmes, since these do

not form part of the HEQSF.

Monitoring of Marks Changes

In response to one of the recommendations of the

2012 Audit report which expressed concern that the

unauthorised changing of marks posed a serious risk

to MUT, in 2013 a system to monitor the changing of

marks was introduced to all academic staff and faculty

officers. This system emphasised the individual lecturers’

accountability. After every semester QMD staff scrutinises

thousands of pages on the ITS to manually spot the

changes. The resulting monitoring reports are sent

to the relevant HoDs with a copy to the Dean for their

consideration and action. These are clearly quality issues,

and, hence, the reports are discussed in the Faculty Quality

Assurance Committees and Faculty Board meetings.

OMBUDSMAN

Since 2015 the Students Ombudsman has been part of

the QMD. In this time the Students Ombudsman has

investigated and successfully resolved a number of cases

brought before him and recommendations have been

made to the VC and the DVC: Teaching and Learning.

This is an important function in the MUT community

because it provides students and management with an

instrument to resolve serious student grievances. The

Terms of Reference have been drafted and benchmarking

with other UoTs has been done. The function has been

formalised as an acting function.

5.11. Significant Developments and

Achievements in the Teaching And

Learning Development Centre

In 2015 TLDC hosted a number of workshops/seminars

which were attended by MUT’s academic and support staff

members. The purpose of these workshops were to create

a platform for the MUT community to engage on issues

concerning the teaching and learning enterprise. These

workshops and seminars included among others the

Graduate Attributes Seminar and Teaching and Learning

Strategy workshop. The TLDC hosted the Graduate

Attributes Seminar on the 26 January 2015, which was

held at Garden Court in Durban, was facilitated by Dr

Lori Breslow, the Director of the Teaching and Learning

Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

Prof Chris Winberg from Cape Peninsula of University of

Technology (CPUT) located the seminar as part of the

national collaboration of the South African Technology

Network (SATN) on graduate attributes. In line with the

graduate attributes, the DVC: Teaching and Learning

organized a two-day workshop to provide space for

academic leaders to create a blueprint to be adopted by

the institution. This engagement took place on the 09-10

March 2015 at Zimbali Lodge on the KZN North Coast.

During the workshop the Faculty Deans presented the

draft proposals pertaining to the teaching and learning

strategy. This paved the way for the recently adopted

MUT Teaching and Learning Strategy 2015-2019.

As part of creating the platform for the teaching and

learning conversations, the TLDC hosted the 2015 Annual

Teaching and Learning Colloquium, which was followed

by the Vice Chancellor’s Teaching Excellence Awards. In

pursuit of excellence, the TLDC developed the Teaching

and Learning Colloquium webpage which was to be used

by colloquium participants for registration purposes.

The webpage was completed in November 2015. It was

developed as a marketing tool for the subsequent Annual

Teaching and Learning colloquia.

Professional Development Initiatives

The TLDC as a custodian of the Teaching Development

Grant (TDG), has been instrumental in facilitating the

professional development of staff on a number of fronts.

The Teaching and Professional Development Unit (TPDU)