Virtual Academic Development Symposium

Unisa Western Cape Region - Cape Town

“Deliberations on the educational landscape in 2021:  

Is this a ‘respice prospice’ moment for higher education?”

Date: 08 & 09 September 2021

Time: 09h00 to 12h00

Venue: MS Teams Online

Enquiries:  Email only - ctntut@unisa.ac.za 

Keynote Speakers

08 September 2021

09 September 2021

Programme Director: 

Dr Keith Jacobs

Preamble

The use of the slogan ‘Respice Prospice!’ draws its inspiration from the motto of the University of the Western Cape. This slogan is described on their university’s website as ‘look back, to look forward - to take what is worthy from the past and build the future’. This slogan is also broadly translated into ‘Let the rich experiences of our past, inform our actions in the future’ or ‘Look to the past to have a vision for the future.’ 

With the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, much focus was given to the revisitation of teaching and learning models in the ambit of higher education in South Africa.  However, these changes also brought along didactic and opinionated institutional views on accessibility, equity, student and staff emotional well-being, student and staff resilience, student retention and digification as an agent of transposition in higher education.  There has been general consensus that significant, inevitable, long-lasting changes in higher education will resonate for generations to come. As propounded by the International Association of Universities – Covid-19 Global Impact Survey, 2020, 

At the same time, many universities and other higher education institutions already foresee the impacts of the move online or the impacts of economic crisis on national and international students and their families, including closure of universities for short, medium or long term.

The 7th annual Unisa Western Cape Academic Development Symposium will focus on eliciting conversations based on lessons learnt from the past and the present – to inform, navigate and conjoin the impact of the pandemic with intellectual forecasting to help shape the future of higher education institutions in South Africa.