NMMU: HELTASA Conference 2024
Event location: Nelson Mandela University
Event date and time: 20/11/2024 08:00:00
The Higher Education Learning and Teaching Association of Southern Africa (HELTASA) is a professional association for educators and other significant role-players in the tertiary sector. Its annual conference will take place in Port Elizabeth in November 2024.
Both globally and nationally, there are many waves of change that Higher Education (HE) institutions need to navigate at the moment. Some of these are – fee free higher education; financial sustainability in the face of shrinking government funding; producing graduates that function effectively in a globalised, connected world but who are also locally relevant; including the student voice; and decolonisation and transformation of curricula, academia and academic spaces. In the light of this, the theme that was chosen for the 2024-2024 Ministerial Statement on the Implementation of the University Capacity Development Programme through Effective Management and Utilisation of the University Capacity Development Grant is very fitting; namely:
“Transforming teaching, learning, researching and leading
towards enhanced quality, success and equity in universities”
Through scholarly presentations and conversations around how learning and teaching are being transformed at our universities, this conference aims to stimulate and disrupt thinking and paradigms, and gain insight into promising innovations in response to some of the HE waves of change.
Complexity science literature suggests that it is no longer fruitful to manage and drive change in the conventional, linear, mechanistic ways – by generating a strategic priority, determining a course of action and implementing it to achieve predetermined outcomes. Instead, new paradigms and novel approaches are needed to effect transformative change in a living system such as a university. In complex, uncertain times that demand new ways of being and doing, a non-linear theory of change and paradigms related to complexity and a living systems approach provide new perspectives for organisational transformation. Working in these new paradigms and approaches unlocks shared envisioning and then requires acting collectively and creatively in fluid and sometimes “messy” ways by “dancing with systems” (Meadows, n.d.) to bring about transformation. So, by focusing on change and transformation with new lenses/paradigms, conference presentations and conversations can provide insight into how academics, academic development professionals and academic leaders are dancing on the waves of change in innovative and creative ways to systemically and organically transform learning and teaching.
For more info go to: http://heltasa2024.mandela.ac.za/