ENVISION 2030 will place DUT at the cutting edge of higher education The announcement in September 2020 by the World University Rankings that the Durban University of Technology (DUT) is now one of the top five universities in South Africa and ranks among the best on the continent is truly exciting for people of KwaZulu-Natal.
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his felicity is an important one in terms of the role that a university must play as a catalyst of skills revolution, economic development, research output and societal development in general, because institutions should remain the lodestars for our future. It would be shortsighted to attribute this improvement to Professor Thandwa Mthembu as a sitting ViceChancellor alone, because he came into an already stable environment from his predecessor, Professor Ahmed Bawa. However, it is important to note his particular leadership style, accompanied by a trajectory of far-reaching vision, since his arrival. He instituted turnaround interventions, tempered with long-established business processes and broke free from old and lacklustre work processes despite initial resistance in some quarters. He is a shrewd Vice-Chancellor in the mould of a Chief Executive Officer in a big corporate company, with a line of sight in all aspects of the business. It also helps that he is a typical self-effacing rector while getting the job done; sometimes modesty can be a necessary boon in a demanding environment. The major disruptions that Professor Mthembu has made since his arrival include ensuring quality in cutting-edge research by attracting various Chairs to enable researchers to continue punching above their weight. It is not surprising that DUT received so many citations. His biggest delivery is the ENVISION 2030, which was widely consulted. This vision re-imagines the University by 2030 and the milestones to be achieved in the immediate, medium and long term. Of course, it is not going to be a walk in the park to navigate that intractable minefield towards the end goal. All of these interventions account for a great deal in the seismic rise of the Institution. Universities across the world are now, all of a sudden, confronted by the new post-COVID-19 impositions to the system. The post-COVID-19 environment is going to serve as a catalyst to the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) impulses that were already invading the higher Khaye Nkwanyana is the former Spokesperson for the Ministry of Higher Education and Training. He works for the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Competition. He is a graduate of the former ML Sultan Technikon, now DUT, and served as a member of the Executive Committee of Convocation.
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