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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)