Message from the Vice-Chancellor

MESSAGE FROM THE VICE-CHANCELLOR Celebrating Excellence

Warm greetings and good wishes to all our alumni, partners, friends and the DUT community at large.

DUT Connect is a special platform we use to communicate directly with this important stakeholder in our University: our alumni. It is my hope that our messages are well received and that we will encourage others to read the editions so that alumni remain informed about the latest developments at their alma mater. We hope, via Convex and representation on Council, that ideas and innovations will flow.

Let me hasten to congratulate our alumni for staging a successful online elective conference for the first time in the history of DUT. Your conference sat soon after we hosted the first online SRC elections, which saw voter participation jumping from the historically low numbers of under 20% to about 39% of our student population.

These two events prove that digitalisation is the future of business operations at DUT, in line with one of ENVISION 2030’s Strategic Objectives, namely the Digital Environment. Inevitably, digital platforms will always be accompanied by glitches but with the right people occupying their rightful seats and being committed to efficiency and excellence, we will continuously overcome these challenges.

I wish to thank everyone who decided to participate in

Convocation’s Annual General Meeting (AGM). On behalf of management, I congratulate the collective elected leadership. We look forward to your help in steering the DUT rocket into a coveted place of greatness.

Ultimately, it’s not so much individual stakeholders whose interests have to be advanced but the interests of DUT as a whole. Welcome on board the DUT rocket!

Some of you may have been students during the period in which DUT was arguably perceived as the protest capital of South African universities. With your individual and collective contributions, let it be said that when the name DUT is mentioned in future, it will be about its greatness and not its retrogressive aspects. Evidence abounds that DUT is cementing its

place in the galaxy of star universities across the world that lead others to make an impact in their broader societies. This will not only bring more currency to the qualifications our alumni hold, but will embed DUT firmly as an anchor university in the society it serves.

I had the opportunity to interact with the immediate past leadership of our alumni in which our Planning Office presented our new Strategy, ENVISION 2030. Further, I presented this Strategy at the AGM, which I then used as the basis to provide some highlights of major strategic achievements and challenges. In line with our values and principles, for instance, transparency and fairness, let me suggest the urgent issues that the new leadership need to tackle:

Ignite a discussion on the notion of alumni/ convocation to ensure that there is a more coherent and progressive theoretical understanding. Our alumni’s relations with the University will, inevitably, flow from this understanding

Remind everyone that alumni membership and involvement are voluntary. I take it that the members don’t legally owe anything to the University and neither does the University legally owe any of our alumni

Look at ENVISION 2030’s perspectives (e.g. Sustainability) and suggest practical ways in which they can help the University to advance some or all of its strategic objectives, for example: Innovative Curricula and Research; Financial Sustainability; State-of-the-art Infrastructure; Adaptive Graduates, which rely on your industry experience and networks established in that space. DUT’s ‘state-of-the-art’ infrastructure projects, in particular, must not be seen as a cash-cow for the benefit of alumni; they are for generations to come

Create a conducive environment for older, more resourceful and better networked alumni to participate meaningfully. Universities like Wits and UCT derive great benefits in monetary terms and in kind from such alumni. Convocation is not exclusively for the most recent graduates and former SRC members to continue where they left off, but to make such substantial contributions to the University

Ultimately, the Higher Education Act accords an important governance, not extractive, role to alumni/Convocation. We are looking forward to innovative ideas from the new leadership on how DUT could, as part of The DUT Way, become a governance lodestar for the sector.

Indeed, there are many other areas that we can collectively identify for cooperation, inspired by our joint commitment to preserving the future of this great university, thus we are looking forward to professional engagements.

In the previous edition of DUT Connect, we had just come to terms with the reality of confronting the scourge of COVID-19. The phenomenon has challenged and compelled us to dig deep and find creative and innovative ways to ensure that we continue the business of DUT. We had to think on our feet as management to find solutions to a range of problems presented by the pandemic and the attendant restrictions to ensure that we did not lose the academic year.

A number of less optimistic public figures in the education space concluded that as a sector, we should accept the loss of the academic year and simply start planning for 2021. But, of course, we were not deterred and I believe as a country, we demonstrated great courage, humanity and resilience and hence the infection rates began to decrease over time. We began to implement online teaching and learning via Moodle and Microsoft Teams as our primary platforms. Incrementally, as protocols permitted, we began allowing certain groups of students to return to campus, especially those requiring a physical presence in the laboratories, practical sessions and work integrated learning (WIL) in order to make academic progress.

The non-academic sector within the University was also able to return to almost full capacity in terms of productivity as remote working provisions were made through the use of technology. I wish to commend our colleagues for demonstrating creativity and fortitude in ensuring that we continued to function and for making the necessary adaptations to respond to this unforeseen and disruptive force.

The pandemic struck shortly after we launched our ENVISION 2030 Strategy in which we strive to ultimately contribute to Improving the Lives and the Livelihoods of our people, both internally and externally. We have various

Evidence abounds that DUT is cementing its place in the galaxy of star universities across the world that lead others to make an impact in their broader societies. This will not only bring more currency to the qualifications our alumni hold, but will embed DUT firmly as an anchor university in the society it serves.

documents online and video clips that expatiate on all the perspectives, strategic objectives and the like. There is also a visual representation of ENVISION 2030 in the middle of the magazine. We believe that with this Strategy, we will indeed take DUT to greater heights as we consistently strive for the embedding of our values and principles, such as excellence.

In keeping with this edition’s theme of celebrating excellence, it brings me great joy, and I am sure the entire DUT community, to inform you that DUT has been ranked by the Times Higher Education World Rankings as a top 5 university in South Africa and in Africa as a whole, and among the top 500 universities globally. This is no mean feat, especially for a relatively young University of Technology that was never designed to be researchintensive nor meant to advance knowledge but only to apply it.

I also wish to congratulate all those graduates who participated in our ‘delayed Spring’ graduation season, which was held virtually on 30 November 2020. This was the second virtual graduation for DUT after a successful graduation ceremony was held on 10 June 2020.

These are still unusual times. I fully understand that the joy of walking across the stage to receive your qualification with your family cheering you on is what you have been looking forward to. However, the implications are such that we cannot congregate physically for such celebrations as we must still exercise caution and ensure that we do our best to avoid more infections.

We are grateful, though, that technology afforded us the opportunity to still hold the ceremony, albeit virtually. I am confident that armed with the education you have received from DUT, you will go on to not only improve your individual lives, but those of your communities too as part of ENVISION 2030.

In our first edition of 2020, we also appealed to you to support the DUT COVID-19 Solidarity Fund that was established to support those in our DUT community who had been adversely affected by the pandemic. We would, therefore, like to express our appreciation and gratitude to all those who contributed. To date, we have managed to raise a total of over R740 000 to assist mainly students with devices, data and meal vouchers. Somewhat concerning, though, is that this amount was raised mainly from our Management Team and only a few alumni.

We would also like to express our appreciation to all our donors who consistently continue to support our various initiatives and projects that seek to enhance our offering and overall educational experience for our students.

As we ease into 2021, let us hope that this year will be a brighter and a more prosperous one for all.

Stay safe. Best wishes.

WAYS TO GIVE

You can partner with us in building a more relevant, responsive and resilient DUT through various means, including sponsorships, annual gifts, bequests and debit orders.

ONLINE

Make a donation http://dut.devman.co.za/devman/web/giving/ Fill out an online pledge form: http://www.dutalumni.com/copy-of-bursary-fund-1

ZAPPER

Download the ZAPPER app and scan this code.

IN-KIND DONATION

Donations in kind include new equipment, assets such as property or vehicles, shares in a listed company or stock from your own business. Things you trade or manufacture also qualify for a SARS tax deduction in value of the donations in kind. You can also claim a tax deduction for the value of donations in kind that you make to DUT as the Institution is a Section 18A approved organisation.

DEBIT ORDER

Download the pledge forms here: https://www.dutalumni.com/copy-of-bursary-fund-1

ELECTRONIC FUND TRANSFER/ BANK DEPOSIT

Account holder: Durban University of Technology Account number: 05 023 9007 Institute/Name of bank: Standard Bank Branch code: 04 0026 (Kingsmead) SWIFT code: SBZAZA JJ Zip code and city: Durban 4001 Country: South Africa Deposit reference: Insert name of DUT initiative or department you wish to support or reference ‘unrestricted’ for DUT discretion. NB: Please email proof of donation to ziphoc@dut.ac.za or prettyz@dut.ac.za, or for enquiries, call 031 373 2479.

BEQUESTS AND ESTATE PLAN GIFTS

A bequest is a gift from your estate, a transfer of cash, securities or other property made through your estate plans. You can make a bequest to DUT by leaving a portion of your estate to the University in your will or living trust, or by designating DUT as a beneficiary of your retirement account or life insurance policy.

BENEFITS OF GIVING

Enjoy tax benefits – gifts and grants are tax deductible in South Africa Receive a South African Revenue Services (SARS) Section 18A Tax Certificate Earn B-BBEE Scorecard points Expand market awareness among DUT students, alumni and academics Enhance your corporate social citizenship Synchronise your research and development with our current research programmes Meet business and corporate social investment (CSI) objectives Recruit talented professionals Improve your HR initiatives such as employee assistance and volunteer programmes Invest in the social engagement of the University