Unisa's core function remains intact

The Executive Management of Unisa, led by the Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Puleng LenkaBula

The Executive Management of Unisa, led by the Principal and Vice-Chancellor (VC), Professor Puleng LenkaBula, held a media briefing at the university's main campus on Wednesday, 20 September 2023. The purpose of the media briefing was to share an update on the general state of the university, including successes achieved and challenges faced. 

LenkaBula remarked: "There is a lot of good work, especially academic work, happening at Unisa despite some challenges we face." She added: "However, these challenges are not unique to Unisa, but are the same challenges faced by many, if not all, institutions of higher learning in South Africa."

On the state of the university's academic project, the VC emphasised: "We must assure you that the academic project – our core function – remains intact and solid." Unisa remains on course towards fulfilling its missional mandate of becoming a comprehensive, open distance and eLearning (CODeL) institution that produces excellent scholarship and research while providing quality tuition and fostering active community engagement. 

The core business of the university remains intact

Unisa contributes to the knowledge and information society, advances development, nurtures a critical citizenry and ensures global sustainability. The university enrols over 350,000 students annually, thereby accommodating over a third of students in the country's higher education system and 90 per cent of the distance learning component. Furthermore, Unisa produces 20 per cent of the sector's graduates annually.        

To ensure that its contribution to the knowledge and information society is of the highest standards, the university regularly subjects itself to a review process conducted by the Council on Higher Education (CHE), which requires institutions of higher learning to adhere to a set of criteria which, if met adequately, renders their teaching and learning and qualifications fit for purpose.

The last review conducted by the CHE on Unisa, whilst identifying specific areas where improvements need to be made, by and large, found that the university's plans and contributions have recorded a significant growth in its core functions and overall good practices as a CODeL institution. "The outcome of this audit confirmed that the university is functional in 10 out of 16 standards, with three commendations. Improvement plans have been put in place to address all areas identified by the audit," asserted LenkaBula.

Furthermore, Unisa participates actively in the regular audit exercises of the Commonwealth of Learning (CoL), an intergovernmental structure created to promote and develop distance education and open learning. In the last trial audit conducted in 2019, the CoL concluded that the integrity of Unisa's qualifications was solid. For the issues highlighted as areas that still need improvement, the university wasted no time in attending to them.  

A globally competitive university

On the quality of Unisa academics, the university employs qualified and accredited academic staff. Of the 1823 permanent academics, 1059 (60 %) are PhD holders. A total of 245 of these academics are NRF-rated researchers, consisting of three A-rated, 17 B-rated, 182 C-rated and 43 Y-rated researchers. Many of its academics are affiliated with the Academy of Science of South Africa and publish widely in journals. Furthermore, Unisa academics are recognised with national and international awards, particularly in research. Several organisations in the higher education sector also affirm the stature of Unisa academics by appointing them to leadership positions.

On benchmarking the university's performance, amongst other noticeable improvements, for the fifth consecutive year, Unisa retained eighth position in the sector comparison of contribution to 2021 overall publication outputs. In the 2021 ratio (0.90) of doctoral graduates to academics with doctoral degrees, the university moved from fifth to first position. 

Additionally, Unisa has made substantial progress in research and innovation. Several external and credible scientific ranking systems serve as evidence. The 2023 Webometrics and Shanghai Rankings are the latest ratings, placing the university in the country's top ten universities. Unisa is recognised as a competitive contributor to research globally, including, for example, winning the 2022 Zairi International Award for Excellence in Research Impact. In this case, Unisa emerged amongst 90 applications from 52 countries worldwide.

LenkaBula reiterates commitment to continue improving student service delivery and support

Financial sustainability

The financial health and sustainability of the university remain very strong, with the university attaining unqualified audits for five consecutive years (2017-2021). Under the current leadership, the institution's reserves have grown from R9 billion to approximately R17 billion since 2021. Furthermore, the governance architecture at Unisa is robust and functional, as attested by the CHE and CoL audits.  

LenkaBula said: "The Unisa Council, Senate, Institutional Forum, Student Representative Council and Convocation are properly constituted. The Council is compliant and functional and has been independently evaluated and verified by the Institute of Directors, South Africa." This position is also affirmed by the annual Top 500 publication, which recently named Unisa one of South Africa's best companies and one of the top 5 in the universities category in recognition of the institution's outstanding performance and commitment to excellence.

Student support and services

"The university reiterates its long-standing stance and commitment to continue improving student service delivery and support," said LenkaBula. She concluded: "We acknowledge that while there are challenges that we still need to attend to, a lot of work has been carried out to address these challenges, some of which are legacy and systemic."

In the second half of the extensive briefing, media representatives were given the opportunity to pose questions. Replies were provided in great detail, in each instance firstly by the Vice-Chancellor, followed by the relevant executive members and senior academics. Media representatives were also invited to conduct one-on-one interviews on topics of their choosing.

It is envisaged that the highly successful media briefing format will be the standard going forward, and media representatives were encouraged to avail themselves of Unisa's open-door policy to ensure accurate reporting on the institution's core activities, and its successes and challenges.

*By Tshimangadzo Mphaphuli, Editor: Internal Communications, with additional reporting by Philip van der Merwe, Editor: External Communications