PRECEDES IMPLEMENTATION

Since Council approved the new strategy for the NWU at their meeting on 20 November last year, no time has been wasted in preparing for the implementation. However, this is not an overnight project and needs to be done carefully while not impacting negatively on any of our activities.

 

One of the first steps has been to compile an Annual Performance Plan according to our new strategy. Another step was to allocate specific strategic projects to members of the institutional management, for instance revising the NWU’s Statute and other documents such as the academic rules, policies, guidelines and procedures.

 

Annual Performance Plan

 

Let’s look at the Annual Performance Plan (APP) first. Compiled according to the reporting guidelines of the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the APP replaces the old Institutional Plan (IP).

 

“We did not merely revise the IP – we started afresh when compiling the APP,” says Robert Kettles, chief strategy officer in the office of the vice-chancellor. “However, we have retained some of the goals from the IP that were still relevant and aligned with our new strategy.”

 

Based on the new strategy, the APP contains goals, objectives and measurable targets.  After being submitted to the DHET on 15 February this year, the APP was further streamlined and will be tabled at the Council workshop on 10 March.

 

Strategic projects

 

Here’s a quick summary of the strategic projects entrusted to members of the institutional management to advance the new strategic objectives.

 

  • Revising the NWU Statute

 

One of the major strategic projects is the revision of the NWU Statute.

 

“The Statute refers to certain positions, such as campus rectors, that are no longer included in our structure. This is one reason why it has to be revised,” says Robert.

 

Frans Kruger from Legal Services, which is part of the office of the Institutional Registrar, Prof Marlene Verhoef, is responsible for revising the Statute in cooperation with the office of the vice-chancellor and experts in this field.

 

After the institutional management, Senate and the Institutional Forum have approved a draft Statute, the aim is to have the final revised Statute approved by Council and submitted to the DHET in the second half of 2016.

 

  • Other documents to be reviewed

 

In addition to the Statute, we also have to revise the academic rules and some of our policies, rules, guidelines and procedures to reflect the new strategy and structure of the NWU. For instance, the previous academic rules made provision for 15 faculties, while the new structure will consist of only eight.

 

The amended academic rules and other documents that must be approved by Senate and Council have to be finalised by the end of September.

 

 

 

 

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