Page 41 - Transformation Indaba Report

emPloyment equity; ProfessoriAte/AssoCiAte ArofessoriAte

Profile; Promotions; CAPACity develoPment ProgrAmmes

dAy 1, breAkAwAy room 4 │ Facilitated by ED:HR Nandipha Sishuba

An important lesson that we can learn: What I found inter- ry - senior academics who are white or here because we’ve
esting was, when Dr Levendal presented her summary of the been in the system long enough. When we’re talking about
Transformation Report she used the term “black”, in terms making new appointments what I found was that there was a
of academic and PASS staff, as an inclusive term (as used in very rigid thing - where it was said that in terms of the demo-
the Black Consciousness sense, to include “Coloureds” and graphic breakdown, we are meant to have 6% of Coloured
Indians) and for me the big lesson as an HoD of an academic males in this faculty, and we have 11% of Coloured males in
department, and having to make appointments was… the faculty, so therefore we cannot employ Coloured males.
I find that completely unacceptable. We’ll have to learn
“…is it the policy of the university or is it the interpretation from that. We have to look at how we are interpreting this
of the Employment Equity Act, that’s resulted in a very rigid Employment Equity Act in terms of targets. I don’t think we
application of statistics in terms of racial groups, called can do it rigidly per department per faculty per race and sex
demographic groups / designated groups and it’s resulted groups, etc. I just don’t think it’s right. I can give very strong a
in a discrimination against “Coloureds”?” rguments as to why it’s not right in terms of the two
“Coloured” men who were in my view the top contenders
I’m a white woman and I’ve gone through the system, and for the lectureship, who were products of our own insti-
I’m part of that group who were promoted in the last five tution, who were getting their Doctorates and yet they
years to Professor and so forth, and that’s a product of histo- were excluded. (Janet)

What I have observed when it comes to promotions, is a opportunities to publish as much as is expected. The issue
strict adherence to what people bring to the table, in terms of transformation then takes a backseat. They are not then
of merit or competencies. They are assessed based on how considered in terms of their race. Perhaps there is much
many publications they have / how much they contribute more emphasis on merit and what they bring to the table,
towards management. That doesn’t really work out well. rather than on them being “black”?
Some staff do not even have access to managerial expe-
riences they’re expected to have (as a Professor/Associate And what support systems did they access over the years to
Professor) and some of them don’t even have adequate be able to then qualify as Professors? (Magnolia)

Research pipeline: When we set the research pipeline of our size and shape what then is the norm? So that we
system we start with PG students, M and H, PhD (early- can see if we are lagging, based on the expectation in
career academics, if we consider staff doing their studies). terms of our university’s shape and size. What do other uni-
Then we move to mid-career researchers (senior lecturers), versities have in the way of % Professors? It would be use-
then we move to the higher end of the pipeline (Associate ful to have a comparative measure to know what’s good or
Professors / Professors). These different types of people bad. And if it should be growing, what is our target (25% /
all need different things. The slides showed the proportions 40%)? We know that not everyone at a university can be a
at each academic rank in terms of % and how we fare in professor, but I think it’s useful to have some benchmarking,
terms of race. Therefore, the first thing to ask as we present so we know what targets we’re chasing and if we’re
data is, if we’re saying we’ve been hovering around 17% of making progress.(Kwezi)
the academic workforce being Professors, for a university

NelsoN MaNdela UNiversity • traNsforMatioN iNdaba • 2022 35